Tim followed along as he was half-dragged out the door into the luminescent night of an unfamiliar world. The only light source he could see was from an impossibly large moon overhead that bathed everything in a pale glow. Is this…a date? What's even going on anymore?

"To answer your question," Cindriz said as he reached the point of being able to walk normally next to her instead of being dragged along, "according to what Igyn told us, Sateus accepted her favor, and you'll be sent here after each fight you win as long as one of us wants to see you." She stroked the back of his hand lightly with one of her claws.

They continued along a road of stone, and he looked around, noting that behind Lekthi, who was following a few steps away, was a small, five-out-of-ten stone building with a softly-shining geometric symbol he didn't recognize over the door. There were other, similar buildings along the street that they passed, many with varying levels of decay. A number of creatures lingered on the road and near the buildings, with strange features ranging from wispy forms, to giant pincers, to glowing eyes.

"So any time you want to see me, I'll just get teleported here even if I don't want to?" he asked as he continued to survey their surroundings. He felt a heated glare on his back. Damn, she really hates me.

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Cindriz said. She looked down and flicked her tongue at him, which he'd learned was a gesture that meant something to the effect of "don't be ridiculous". "I thought males were supposed to like the idea of having a number of hot females to impregnate?"

"When you say hot…" Tim said. It's crazy how human she sounds. There was…sort of not a lot of real conversation with the others before with how excited they were.

She faced forward and opened her mouth. A small gout of flame emerged, dissipating into smoke immediately. "Hot. Like fire. It's a good thing," she said, squeezing his hand. "If you were taller, maybe I'd call you burning. Or even molten."

"Right, right," he said. "Of course you can actually breathe fire."

"Of course," she agreed. "It'd be very strange otherwise, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah, too strange," he said absently, coming to the full realization of exactly why the insides of the other three dragon-women had seemed just shy of being hot enough to scald him.

"It's also part of why we can't mate with those who lack the blood of dragons," she continued in a nonchalant tone. "They're too weak, so they would simply burn up."

"Makes perfect sense to me," he said.

"But you didn't burn up," she said as she steered him around a corner towards a series of glowing objects in the distance. Her voice took on a distinctly flirtatious note as it dropped in volume. "I listened to some of it," she said, repeatedly running her claws over the back of his hand. "Do you want to make me moan like Enzi? To call your name like Rai? Or maybe you want me to scream in pleasure until I pass out like Nela?"

Tim stroked his thumb claw against her hand. "What if I said all three?" he said, glancing up at her out of his peripheral vision.

"I was hoping you'd say that," Cindriz said. "My mate should be bold. Like me." She tugged his captured hand up and clasped it between both of hers, massaging it on both sides as they continued along the increasingly busy road. "How is it you speak our language, Drake?" she asked after a few more steps.

"Well," he began. I've been wondering that too, actually. And if she's asking, then she's not casting some kind of magic that handles it. Actually, there's no way I should be able to understand anyone since I assume they're all speaking other languages. But… It seems crazy to imagine, but I think it must be New Era's auto-translation is continuing to work? And it's…maybe even messing with my vision so it looks like people are saying the words I'm hearing or something? So disorienting to think about. "I think it's magic," he finished. Which sort of also explains why they sound so human if it's not doing literal translations?

"What do you think of my voice?" she asked in a voice that, now that he considered it, was prettier than he would've guessed could come from a part-dragon woman, and was maybe around an eight-point-six, which was yet another of the absurdly high ratings that seemed to be cropping up lately. Her head tilted down towards him. "Or," she half-whispered seductively into his ear, "maybe I should ask you like this, Drake?"

Her voice was clearly a nine-point-six, and he told her as much, though not in those exact words. "I like your voice," he said with a grin. "It's pretty." He looked up at her, finding that she was grinning back at him. "Like you," he added on a whim. "Ah, hot, I mean."

Cindriz's grin expanded, and she clawed his hand a little more.

"Cindriz, let's go back," Lekthi's voice called.

The dragon-woman holding his hand turned her head over her shoulder. "Lekthi, don't—"

"I had a feeling," Lekthi said with some amount of urgency. "Cindriz, please, let's go back now."

The purple-eyed woman came to a halt and looked back. "You really did?" she asked.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

What's this? Tim looked between the two, finding a different sort of expression that he had yet to see on Lekthi's pretty face.

"You know I wouldn't lie about that," the orange-eyed woman said, drawing up close to them and lowering her voice. "And Igyn even made sure to have me come along."

"What's going on?" Tim asked.

"Your existence has put us in danger," Lekthi hissed as she turned to glare at him.

"Lekthi's the only one of us who inherited the dragons' ability to sense danger," Cindriz said, beginning to tap her foot. "I wanted to take you to look at the celebration lights," she grumbled, looking back towards the way they'd been going. She let out a sigh. "Okay, Lekthi, let's go back."

"Just like that?" Tim asked. I expected her to try and push on with how relatively adventurous she's seemed.

"Lekthi might be annoying right now, but that's because she cares the most," said Cindriz as she released his hand and started back in the direction they'd come.

"Someone has to point out when you're all being idiots," Lekthi huffed, falling into step on the other side of the much taller dragonkin.

"You'd rather we be the last ones?" Cindriz said, taking on an annoyed tone. "Just because I try to find my own enjoyment in this doesn't mean I've forgotten why it's happening."

"If you're not into this, don't force yourself," said Tim. I've had enough of that for today.

"See?" Cindriz said in a merry tone. "He even cares for me some already." She snatched up his nearest hand again and started affectionately clawing it with both of hers.

"Alright, get 'em," called someone from behind them.

"Let go!" Lekthi commanded almost immediately.

Inventory. Inventory: equip armor set one. As Tim, newly armored, spun around with Cindriz, he retrieved the first weapon at hand, coincidentally the same halberd he'd just used.

Cindriz growled, low and menacing, a rumbling that rattled his bones as she poised herself to attack.

Lekthi was currently in the process of breathing a stream of white fire on one midnight-tentacled creature while another held her arms behind her back despite her struggles.

"Don't resist," called a third one as it approached Cindriz, holding up a collar and leash that glowed slightly pink with a cluster of its thin, writhing tentacles. "Your flames won't hurt us, and we don't want to damage you."

Another out of the six standing there pointed at Tim and let out an unintelligible sound. "Stop! Stop!" it called, rushing over to grab the one in front of Cindriz. "Look, look, look!" it shouted, continuing to point with several long tentacles towards Tim.

The one it had grabbed stopped, and several tentacles turned in Tim's direction. It let out the same, unintelligible sound, echoed by several of the others in quick succession. "Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!" it said in clear panic, dipping its amorphous torso low. "Champion, w—we didn't know it was you!"

The creatures immediately began scuttling away at an incredible speed.

Tim blinked. "What the fuck?" he mumbled. This is a joke, right? How could anyone be afraid of me here even if they've seen my fights? "What… Who were they?"

"Servants of Fraye, goddess of darkness, judging by the slave collars," Lekthi said quietly. "It's okay, it's okay," said in a more gentle tone as she hugged a trembling Cindriz next to him, the purple-eyed woman having buried her head into the other's shoulder. "You're okay, Cindriz."

He stowed his other thoughts as he watched for another couple seconds. Damn, she's terrified. He took a couple hesitant steps forward and tentatively took one of her hands between his, rubbing his claws against her scales. "You okay, Cin?"

She shivered, but her head came back up after a moment, turning her purple eyes back on him. "You really do care. Don't you?" she asked in a tone that made it seem like a genuine question.

"I…do," he said as he considered it. "You've all sort of grown on me, even though it hasn't been that long." Weird to think about, but being over here is sort of like taking a break from all the insane shit that's going on. In some ways, at least.

Cindriz showed hints of her teeth in an emerging smile as she stared down at him.

"Cindriz, no," Lekthi protested.

Cindriz pulled away from the shorter dragon-woman and leaned down to nuzzle her snout against his face. "Yes," she whispered into his ear. She straightened up and showed her usual grin to match his. "Let's get back quickly before I throw you down and make you scream my name here," she said in an upbeat tone, taking hold of his hand and pulling him along at an increasing speed.

"Cindriz, stop!" Lekthi shouted from behind them as they hustled back to the small stone building.

"Do you have anywhere I can wash up a little first?" Tim asked while his taller companion wrenched open the door ahead of him.

"I like the way you think, Drake," she said with a laugh. "You can wash my back. And my front."

----------------------------------------

"Wow," Tim said.

"Wow," Cin repeated in an agreeing tone.

"Are you always this warm?" he asked as he lay on top of her.

"I am," she said, sounding pleased. Her claws ran down his back over the site of earlier wounds that had necessitated the use of healing spells. "You're sure you're okay?"

"Never better," he murmured, shifting his head a little on her partially-scaled chest. Maybe a little weird, but she's just so comfortable to lay on like this. So warm. "You?"

"The same," she said. "It's so strange that we've met like this. What world are you from, Drake Storm, and why isn't it mine?"

He chuckled a little and started drawing small circles on her shoulder. "Good question."

"Would you like to live on my world?" she asked.

"Well," he said. She's just so normal. I can't get over it after how weird everything else has been. It's like I just went out, had a normal—sort of normal—date, and then we came back and had some of the most intense…

An impossibly soft, smooth tongue slid teasingly along the outside of his ear. "Can you go again before you leave?" she whispered.

He pushed himself up to look into her normal, draconic eyes. "Yes," he said without knowing entirely whether he was answering one or both of the questions she'd asked.