Dragon Goddess’s chosen

“... I know I don't come up with the best of ideas but… I have a bad feeling about this…” Eris grumbled, pacing a bit but quickly wincing and clutching at the arm she had in a makeshift sling.

“Eris… please just sit down.” Her boyfriend pleaded as he put a wing out in front of her. Like me, he had remained in this other ‘form’ for longer than expected. She huffed a bit about being impeded but she ultimately listened and sat down with the rest of us, minus Rei, who took off to find food before the sun set completely.

“Is that why you didn't let her treat you right away?” I asked, using my head to motion over to where the paladin was finishing up treating the two wounded crew members by the tents that were set up for them, thankfully out of earshot.

“I can actually wait for Nick to do it, they couldn't.” She sighed. She wasn't wrong, of the five crew injured, there were the only two still breathing, and just barely hanging on when they were lowered down for transport up to the village. “Look, you don't get it… you've not from here, growing up, I was told all kinds of scary stories about demons… Max, you probably were too, weren't you?”

“... Dad told me stories of the ones h-he and mom had fought…” He hesitantly admitted, leaning against me more and drawing scribbles in the dirt next to where he was sitting. “Big ones with four arms, crab claws…others with faces that open like flowers…t-they are scary…”

“There were none of those in the village, pup, you saw that yourself,” I sighed, curling around him and Kat more to nuzzle into his neck. Adorably, he tilted his head over for me right away. “I'm probably more scary than any of them.” I glanced back at Eris “You guys are fine with Saerei and me, I'm sure that you've heard stories about dragons too“

“To be fair, you still act like a human, even with all the extra shit going on in here,” Kat pointed out with a slight laugh as she hugged my neck and playfully tapped the top of my head with her knuckles. “Still… tiefling refugees… guess they can't catch a break in this world either…”

“What do you mean by that? You've said your world only had humans.” Eris asked, switching to a hushed tone.

“It did… it's just… a common thing in our fiction… our games…” I answered as I stretched back out. “It's… a bit shocking to see them as real people this time, not just characters…”

 “...look… It's hard to just forget everything I was told growing up…” she sighed with a guilty expression crossing her face as she leaned against Nicolas. “It's hard to trust them right away”

“We don't have to completely trust them…? Tonight we can take shifts watching like last time we camped out?” he suggested.

“Absolutely, just give them as much of a chance as any stranger,” I agreed as I spotted Zormir talking to one of the Oni militia, while staring at us, at the edge of the clearing they let us and the crew borrow for the night. “Looks like they're treating us the same…”

“...so we're going to be watching each other…” Max mumbled.

“Oh I'm sure Captain Faolàn will have men up too- shit he said he had more to talk about with me, probably about Saerei…”

“Already took care of that, babe,” Kat said cheerfully as she patted my neck. 

“Thanks… Really not in the mood for being chewed out for keeping her secret… I hope she's ready to be a ‘celebrity’ as this gets out…”

“Speaking of her…” my girlfriend laughed softly right before I heard flapping wings and a gust of wind brought the scent of the dragoness with a bit of blood.

Thud.

The noise and smell of blood made me quickly look over, momentarily worried for the dragoness. There she was, with a bloodied maw but unharmed, hovering above the body of very large, shaggy deer and pulling her tail out from under it. Weirdly, the sight and smell of the fresh kill actually made the feeling of hunger surface in me with a growl in my stomach. I had to tear my attention away from it in the next moment, though, to shield my partners from the debris she kicked up while landing nearby with my wing. Nicolas copied and clumsily did the same for Eris.

“Really? A Highland elk?” The fighter teased as she pushed her boyfriend's wing back down with her good hand.“You're just showing off.”

“You don't have to take your share of it.” Rei replied flatly.

“You weren't just getting food for yourself?” Max piped up again. 

“Shush… if she wants to share an Elk, I'm not going to question her,” Kat playfully chastised while nudging him.

“... I-I was… at first… then I saw this,” she shifted a bit on her feet and nudged her catch, making more blood leak out from the teeth wounds on its neck. She then looked at me. “You can take advantage of this form and try bones if you don't want the limestone lick I gave you for your egg…” 

“I-I haven't got a chance to try that yet or-” I started to say but got cut off by Eris.

“Wait, wait, wait, egg?” She giggled. “That's fucking great… How was being careful going for you?”

"We were careful, there's no baby in it.” I grumbled.

“It happens to all of us after mating season even if we weren't… successful…” Rei added.

“And look at you looking out for her~” the fighter continued and Rei visibly fluffed up in embarrassment and irritation.

“Eris. Leave her alone or I’ll eat your share,” I warned. She grinned a little and leaned back against Nicolas more.

“Ok, Ok…, sorry just trying to have a bit of fun. Please tell me you'll at least save that pelt. It looks even better than the one Father has in his trophy room.” 

“Almost forgot you were a rich girl that would have something like that back home,” Kat teased.

“It’s not mine! Though… it would be nice to have one of my own someday,” she shrugged.

“Figured you'd say that too,” My girlfriend laughed as she stood up. “Ok, lemme help cut this thing up, what kind of cuts does everyone want?”

“You actually know where the different cuts come from?” I asked in surprise.

“The ones I actually know the name for.  Inspect helps show me where to cut.” She smiled then looked at Rei. “Can you help me drag this back to the treeline? I don't want to mess with the guts anywhere near where we're going to sleep.” The dragoness nodded and wrapped her tail around the corpse. “Ok, the rest of you get a fire going and figure out what you want and get it to me before I get done gutting it.”

 

---

Increased Mana regeneration status ended.

Stamina Completely recovered 

“Definitely tastes different than a cow… better even…” Nicolas said softly as he cut into his steak. I dismissed the status message as I quietly listened in on the conversation.

“A lot better,” Max happily agreed, popping another bite into his mouth from his own.

“Might be the filet mignon you got, Maxie, if I had more to work with it would be even better,” Kat laughed. I smiled a little just as I felt a slight nudge from Rei next to me, bringing my attention back to her and the mostly hollowed-out carcass in front of us. Her snout was covered in even more blood than before from rooting around in the ribcage and she was holding a chunk of meat a little bigger than a softball in her mouth. She set it down in the spare pan of our group's camp supplies, revealing it to be the animal's heart. The sight of this made a bit of conflict in me, my human side was a bit put off by it, dragon, not so much and still very into her. It was because of this that we were just far enough away from the others that we could participate in the conversation if we wanted but also minimally affect their appetites.

“Try this… it is good,” she mumbled, ‘accidentally’ shifting positions just enough to press her side against mine.

“You said that about the liver too…” I pointed out.

“That part is just not for you… This one tastes like the parts they got those from.” she motioned to the other's food with her snout. “It's the best part of a kill.”

“... if you say so…” I let my fire fluid pool slightly in my mouth before spraying it as a cone that obscured the organ and entire cooking surface of the pan for a few seconds. Thankfully, this flash-cooking worked out better than a couple of my first attempts, there were a few chunks of char that we had to cut off from those tries. Rei was watching with interest and I swear I could see her mouth watering a little. “You know… I might not appreciate this as much as you, you can still take half.”

“Are you sure? This is one of the best parts.”

“Mhmm, go ahead," a little happy chirp escaped her before she used one of the talons on her front wings to roughly slice through the meat and eagerly snap up her half. I hesitantly followed her lead and grabbed my half with my mouth. ‘Ugh… it's good but the texture is weird… not as tough as I thought it would be…’

“So…?” she looked at me expectantly as I downed it.

“It's… something to get used to… tastes good though…” I admitted before I moved back to working on my first successfully cooked part of the elk before she had interrupted me with the liver: the upper front leg and shoulder. ‘Actually eating like an animal… hope Kat and Max don't think of me too differently for doing this…’

“H-hey, R-Saerei…” Max started, capturing her attention. “If… you've been having Alex do most of your cooking here… do… do you not normally cook yours?”

“O-of course I cook my food!” She scoffed. 

“She just rather have Alex do it cuz she likes her~” Eris teased under her breath and Rei bristled a bit.

“W-what? I-It is just faster for her to d-do it. I can start fires, I c-can't breathe it like she can.” 

‘Eris is catching on… maybe we can be a bit more open,’ I mused, watching on as I tore a bite off of the carcass. ‘Agh… a bit rare still, does that mean the heart was too?... Dammit, why am I ok with it like that…?’

“Do you know magic too? To do that?” Nicolas asked, lightly elbowing his girlfriend chastisingly.

“No, I still use my breath.” She opened her mouth slightly and demonstrated it by making a spark a couple inches from her teeth that was followed by a pop.

“You did that against the monsters on the ship.” Max observed, a bit of excitement in his voice. “How do you do it? Maybe I could do something like it with the right spell…?”

“Oh… I focus it all on one point… I am not sure if you would be able to copy it with magic.”

“He has my breath as a spell.” I pointed out “And he's a sorcerer, a good one, if metamagic exists in this world, he might be able to manipulate spells enough to mimic you.”

“... metamagic?” my boyfriend questioned immediately.

“Something in a game we played that only sorcerers could do.” I shrugged then I spotted Vellia approaching us with a bowl in her hands and Urbi at her side and I lowered my voice. “Try checking it with Inspect.”

“I see your hunt was successful.” The paladin observed. Both Eris and Max visibly tensed up as she sat near the group. “I am sorry we can't offer any of the stew, we make only just enough as is. And your sudden arrival…”

“We understand,” Kat replied happily. “We have plenty anyways.” She grinned a bit playfully at me as I pulled another bite off of the shoulder. “If the dragons leave anything, I'm sure you can take it.”

“I'm sure there'll be some leftovers… we'll try to focus on parts to leave others untouched.” I agreed then gently bumped Rei a little with my hip when I heard her huff. I noticed the hellhound drooling as she stared at the carcass and chuckled a bit.

“... We would greatly appreciate that… these animals have been difficult to bring down when we spot them…” The paladin said as I grabbed the foreleg of the elk just below the elbow with my mouth, put a ‘hand’ on the part I was just eating, and wrenched the entire ‘forearm’ part of the leg free before tossing it to the dog. She clearly wanted it but obediently looked at her master, who smiled and gave her an obvious go-ahead in demonic. The hound eagerly snapped it up to work on the morsel offered to her.

“... so… what are you doing over here?” Eris asked cautiously.  

“I am curious about your group, and I wanted to offer to give you aid again.”

“I'm fine with waiting… it doesn't hurt that bad,” the fighter insisted. I rolled my eyes and bit down on the exposed humerus I was once pulling meat from without thinking. The resulting crack made everyone look at me and I felt my cheeks grow warm with embarrassment.

‘Dammit…’ I shyly gnawed on it, letting my fire fluid pool in my mouth to further cook the almost-buttery tasting marrow I was getting out of it.

“You are… an odd group,” Vellia said thoughtfully. “Dragons are rare in our homeland, angels too, to run into a pair and learn that they are friendly and in an adventuring party is interesting. How did you all meet?”

“U-um…” Nicolas stammered a bit and I glanced up, my eyes meeting Kat's. She had a thoughtful look on her face, slightly spacing out and apparently trying to figure out how to answer.

“I met them not too long ago. Alex first. I dragged her out of the water when she broke her horn against a ship.” Rei said first. “She introduced me to the others days after…”

“Alex and I have been friends since we were kids,” My girlfriend finally answered and Vellia gave her a confused look then me.

“...Childhood friends? An elf and a dragon?” The paladin asked. “I’m not a mother, but I would never think to let one of my children play with a dragon… I've… heard stories of how protective dragon parents are.”

“... Alex was human before.” My girlfriend continued, obviously picking her words carefully, and the succubus gave me a shocked look. With her looking away, I barely noticed the nervous look that crossed Kat's face suddenly.

“You were human?” I hesitantly nodded. “Your name makes much more sense now. What happened? Cursed object?”

I opened my mouth to further answer but I was interrupted by the ominous, Predator-like clicking echoing out from the other side of the village that made Max, Eris, Nicolas, and I freeze up all at the same time. Vellia recognized the sound as well. She jumped to her feet so fast that her bowl of stew spilled across the ground.

“That's impossible… we scouted everywhere…” She said under her breath then gave Urbi a command that sent her into ‘work mode’ instantly.

“Shit.” I growled and got to my feet. “Nick, how are you feeling on mana?”

“H-huh?”

“Mana, how are you doing with that?” I repeated sternly.

“Oh, um, still low…” 

“Ok. You and Eris help with getting people away, the rest of us-” I ordered and turned to rush to the fight.

“No! I'm helping!” 

“You're hurt.” I said flatly “We need to go, now, catch them at the trees before-” Screams rang out at that moment. I cursed under my breath and bounded away from the group without a second thought.

“Vellia. I changed my mind. I’ll take your help.” Eris quickly announced as I got further away, passing confused-looking crew members. I knew it was stupid to charge ahead like this but the panicked screams of the villagers demanded immediate action. 

The flames of my rage flared immediately when I found that the Orca kings not only managed to make it up to the village but took advantage of the darkness to sneak up and corner a large group in the communal kitchen area. It was fanned even further when I spotted children hiding behind their parents in that group. With a roar, I barreled between the beasts, striking the larger one with the ax blade on my tail along the way, and threw myself between them and the tieflings with my wings spread out protectively.

The one I struck roared in pain and its companion let out a high pitched barrage of clicks and squeaks that made me flinch then turn my attention to it. The dim light of nearby lanterns and campfires gave me just enough color vision to find that, aside from this new one, the wounds the pair had sustained were already covered with pink scars.

‘So much for all that work earlier.’ I thought with a growl then I noticed that both had blood dripping from their mouths. They had got something or someone. I glanced back at the frightened tieflings and demons behind me. Among them, I spotted Zormir shielding the boy that came after the ball that hit me earlier.

‘No bodies… whatever they got, it wasn't here… Shit… I really need to make an opening for them to run.’  

Movement in front of me made my attention return to the beasts, narrowly avoiding the big one snapping its jaws down on my neck. I let out a hiss and swiped at its snout with my claws as I built up my fire in my mouth. The smaller one attempted to attack as well but was stopped when the feathery mass that was Rei slammed into its side and the pair tumbled away.

Zormir saw this chance and I heard him yell orders to the others, leading to the entire group just scattering to the nearby buildings. My opponent tried to lunge at a fleeing family but I quickly pounced and forced its head into the ground with both ‘hands’ and as much weight as I could put on it.

“Go! Now!” I ordered the stunned mother. Thankfully, she either understood me or the flaming liquid dripping from my mouth was able to scare her enough to take her two kids and start running again. A pained roar nearby stole my attention away from them and back to Rei and the other Orca King. It had managed to clamp its jaws down on the middle of her tail while she had all of her wing talons dug into its back. “Rei! Shit, I-”

My opponent chose that moment to suddenly toss me off of it with a roar of its own. I quickly rolled back to my feet and squared back up with it, my body low to the ground and my tail whipping behind me in preparation to use the armed tip. Another pained noise from Rei distracted me for a moment, just enough for the Orca King to strike again. I felt its claws graze the scales on my neck, if they weren't there, I would've definitely been bleeding out from that attack. It went for another swing… but a pained dolphin-like squeak came out of it as it fell short by several feet as vines rapidly wrapped around it. 

“Alex! Help Rei!” Kat yelled from the other end of the ‘street’ just as I spotted her drawing three more arrows to add to the three in the beast’s thigh where the vines originated. The rest of my party was with her, along with Vellia and Captain Faolàn. Eris was already rushing our way while Max, Nicolas, and the Captain were trying to direct the remaining tieflings their way. Vellia was casting… something and a second blue runic circle was lighting up around the first. I had no time to watch, though, Rei was being hurt and I could not let that stand.

I rushed over to where the pair were wrestling, trying to come up with a plan to get the Orca King to open its mouth. I landed on one just as I reached them and acted on it. Whipping my body around, I brought the hammer-side of my weapon down right on its snout with great effect, despite the blunt damage resistance the kaiju had. It dropped Rei’s tail as it instantly recoiled and she quickly retreated to my side upon being freed.

A bright blue light emanated somewhere behind us, followed by pained dolphin noises, but my instincts demanded I finish this one off first before taking a look. The heat in my mouth reminded me that my fire fluid had been building up there for some time. I smiled a bit to myself then quickly released the stream of napalm at the monster, transitioning it into a jet of fire as soon as I could. My target roared in obvious pain as it was enveloped but it wasn't over for it. Rei joined in with her own breath, combining it with mine that made the heat even more intense as it turned into a horizontal twister of fire.

Snapping vines behind me cut through the roar of flames right before I was sent tumbling with a huge mass. Sharp pain erupted in several points along my wings as I rolled with the bigger kaiju into a nearby building, resulting in the screams of the inhabitants.

“Run!” I grunted as I shoved the larger animal off of me with all my might with my legs, making sure to leave large gouges with my claws down its body. It retreated off of me and gave me the opportunity to roll back over. As I recovered, a bright blue beam of light raced across the ground like a spotlight from above and focused on top of the Orca king. It recoiled and jumped away from the beam instantly, now focused on avoiding it and giving me a moment to catch my breath and start charging my lightning.

‘Need to end this quick, everyone is at risk the longer this goes…’ I thought to myself, wincing from the pain in my wings. ‘Point-blank with plasma… should do it… hopefully, take out this one then the other.’ I gathered myself again and rushed back out. I met my opponent once again as it was dodging the light and we slammed against each other like a pair of feuding bears. The light momentarily went over me as I reared up and clashed against the beast. It created a searing pain wherever it touched but I was too busy keeping the Orca King from chomping down on my neck with my claws to worry about it. 

‘Wait… they resist lightning… What damage is plasma? Dammit! Gotta try it now!' I thought in a panic as I felt it dig its claws into the scales on my sides and start trying to crush me. It tried snapping at me again, forcing me to move my claws to its top and bottom jaws to stop it. That's when a new idea occurred to me when I looked down its open maw. It may be the outside that resists it. I shoved back hard against the beast and wrenched its mouth open with a tiring amount of effort as I combined my fire and lightning into a purple ball of plasma in front of my own without a second thought. Then I released it right down its throat. I quickly slammed my palm against the bottom of its jaw, just in time to aim its head upwards as a jet of purple energy shot out from the detonation. The beast dropped to the ground and a roar thundered somewhere behind me.

“Watch out!” Eris’s voice yelped as I felt something grab and lift my tail tip. I looked back in time to see the second Orca King impale itself in the process of trying to attack me from behind on the spearpoint of my weapon… held up by my party's fighter. It still had enough force to shove her back and against me and it would've crushed her if I didn't think to redirect it to the side.

“Dammit… Eris,” I panted, the effort of everything catching up to me finally along with aches.

“What?” She grinned at me and playfully pulled my weapon out of the kaiju with a gush of blood behind it to point it at me. “I saved your ass,” She winced a little and clutched her formerly-injured arm after that movement, though.

“You… rushed the healing didn't you?” I sighed as the others rushed over, Rei reaching us first.

“Are you hurt?” She questioned immediately, nudging me with her snout as she started looking me over. As she did so, I spotted new claw marks and missing feathers on her wings in addition to the bite on her tail.

“Might have a couple breaks in my wings… what about you, though?” I gently nudged her back.

“Alex! Rei!” Max yelled, quickly coming over to us and hugging my arm, Kat, Nicolas and Vellia right behind him. I smiled a little and happily nuzzled him.

“Hey, pup,” I murmured softly.

“You need to stop rushing ahead.” Kat chastised as she reached me and cupped my cheek. “What's the damage this time? How long can you wait? Nick just took some mana potion so it might be a bit…”

“Cracked bones maybe…? Wings… I don't think their claws made it through anywhere” I flinched as I adjusted my wings, they could move but it hurt to do so.

“... you saved my people…” the paladin murmured as she prodded the smaller of the two kaiju with her sword. 

“Of course, we wouldn't just let this happen.” Kat replied and smiled a little up at me. “Not that we could ever hold back Alex either…”

“I would've still jumped in, if she didn't," Eris laughed, still waving my tail tip around. 

“You would've just gotten more hurt,” her boyfriend pointed out softly.

“I dunno, I did kill one,” she grinned more at him.

“Mhmm… you used my tail and we did most of the work,” I teased, taking my tail back and motioning to Rei, only to flinch again from the movement. “Fuck… ow…”

“I… I can take care of you again in a moment, I believe I have a bit more mana before I have to feed,” the paladin said softly. “I need to find Zormir and coordinate a headcount to make sure everyone is accounted for.”

“He was here when it started… took off with a kid when everyone scattered…” 

“One of his sons probably… You all can go back to your meals, tell your captain too, we can take care of everything from here…”

“Even the fires…? We can help with those…?” Max asked, waving towards where Rei and I attacked the smaller of the beasts. I flinched in embarrassment this time when I saw minor fires all over directly behind where the Kaiju was, including on a couple buildings.

“Thank you, but the ebonwood we used is resistant to fire, those won't cause any damage before we get to them… go on… we have a lot to take care of here… I will be by soon to take care of your injuries if you can wait.”

“Well, I'm not going to argue with her if she doesn't want our help,” Eris announced nonchalantly with a shrug as she started walking away. I rolled my eyes at the noble and looked back to Vellia.

“If you change your mind, you know where to find us…” I told her before slowly following after the fighter, silently cursing the increasing pain in my wings as adrenaline waned.