Lilly touched down carefully on a rocky ledge that overlooked a narrow gorge. She looked into the canyon below and searched its barren stone walls for any sign of the red. All that was evident to her was the lifeless rock of the mountains standing in cold silence.
“He has to be down there, someplace?” she thought.
Carefully she took back to the air and swooped into the gorge, searching the walls until she saw the cave opening. It was tucked under a jutting ledge of rock and near impossible to see from above. She tried to land without making a sound, but dragons do not land softly, and she rattled the stones around her and kicked up a cloud of dust.
The air outside the tunnel stank of the unmistakable smell of smoke and meat, a smell she now associated with red dragons and wondered if her cave smelled similar. She noticed the floor of the cave was gouged with claw marks, and the ceiling rose three times her height. It was jagged and uneven and had been clawed away in places to make it taller.
“What am I doing?” Lilly said as she stood outside the entrance and looked into the tunnel. It went back many paces and turned to the right and went down a gentle slope out of sight. She tried to argue and convince herself she needed to flee immediately. However, in the back of her mind was a voice that cried, she was a dragon, and her horde was someplace inside.
“No!” Lilly tried to argue back. “Why do I need my hoard? I have Gersius and Thayle, who love me.” Just saying their names made her mind spin with emotions she never felt before. She saw an image of Gersius in her head and felt a clawing need rising in her stomach. It was almost primal, like her desire to have her hoard, no it was exactly the same desire. Then she saw an image of Thayle and felt a different need, one of possession, one of protection. Thayle was her hoard now, and she needed protection.
“You need gold and silver,” the voice inside whispered. “You must feed your nature!”
Lilly turned away, but her emotions raged again, and her mind was lost in the storm. The dragon won and pushed to turn back to the cave and look into the darkness. With an insane determination, she crept into the tunnel and crawled down its twisting path until she reached a deep chamber. There before her was a modest pile of gold and silver and some other things that looked shiny. It was roughly as large a pile as her own body, and her hunger for it began to grind at her soul.
She looked around the open space and wondered where the red dragon was? There was a second tunnel on the far side of the chamber. Perhaps he had gone deeper in. Maybe she could check this pile to see if she recognized anything before he returned. If it was her hoard, she could run off with it before he got back. She crawled slowly into the chamber and stalked toward the pile of coins. It was only when she was nearly to the pile she heard the deep growl.
She turned, and there was the red on a ledge above the tunnel she had just come out of. She could see more treasure above as he glared down at her with red glowing eyes. Lilly instantly regretted her decisions and looked to dart out the tunnel, but he jumped down and settled between her and the exit.
“So a female comes to mate,” he said in a deep rumbling voice that echoed in the chamber.
The word mate struck a chord in her, and for a brief moment, every emotion in her body cleared and cried out in one voice, “yes!”
For a moment she was staggered as her nature screamed at her to accept. The new feeling in her stomach seemed to respond as well, urging her forward. It was a bestial feeling that rose and made her crave his offer. She had to struggle against her inner dragon and fight her way back to who she was. She wasn't just a dragon who was little more than an animal. She was Lilly, and she, unlike other dragons, loved!
“I will give you what you desire,” the red said as he took a step forward.
Lilly was immediately defensive and growled back at him and his assumptions. “I have not come here to mate with you!” Just saying the words drove the voices inside mad, as a desire crawled into her soul.
The red stood tall on his limbs nearly twice her height and stalked to the right beginning to circle her. “If not to mate, then why did you risk entering my lair?”
“We did come to mate!” the voices cried, but Lilly mentally yelled at them to be quiet. She was sickened at how her nature was struggling to get control. Whatever this was had to do with this new feeling that was stirring inside. It was somehow linked to a need or craving for something. She assumed it was her hoard, but now that she stood before this dragon, she knew it was something more. When the dragon lowered its head in a low snarl, she realized she had to respond.
“I came to see if you were the dragon that attacked me months ago,” Lilly defiantly growled back in her own dual voice.
“I do not recall fighting with another dragon in the last thousand years,” he rumbled as he slowly resumed pacing, and eyeing her the whole time.
“You are not the dragon I seek, you are larger and less hostile,” Lilly corrected. “But I had to know for sure.”
“Hahaha! So now you have seen me, are you sure you do not want to mate? I am a mighty dragon, a worthy male for your young.”
The offer to mate struck her again. This was somehow related to it, but how? Why? Just thinking about it made her hunger to accept, but then she saw Gersius in her mind and heard his voice.
“I love you, my beautiful Lilly.”
Lilly turned her head to the side. “I already have a mate, and he will stay to help me raise my brood.” She almost breathed a sigh of relief to have denied him a second time.
The great red regarded her with suspicion. Its eyes narrowing, and its black claws digging at the rock.
“What riddle do you speak? No male stays to raise a brood, and no female would want him to.”
Lilly realized at that moment just how human her thinking had become. She found it difficult to relate to the dragon before her. To her, this dragon was an animal, and all it wanted was food, sex, and gold. As she realized how horrible that was, the voices in her head began to die out. The dragon nature was losing the battle, and Lilly, the wife of Gersius and Thayle, was resurging.
“I speak in no riddle. I am a dragon who serves the Goddess Balisha. I do not live as most dragons do. I travel the lands, mingle with humans, and I have a mate who stands by my side and cares for me.”
The reds eyes narrowed to slits, and the light that came from them was visible in streaks and rays in the air. A curl of black smoke escaped his lips as they pulled away from his teeth in a snarl. Lilly knew if that jaw closed on her neck, he would snap it.
“I do not know this Goddess, or why a dragon would willingly serve one. Nor do I believe that you would waste your time on the rodents. You are either very weak or a liar!”
Lilly bristled, going as tall and as broad as she could with her own mouth now curled in a snarl. “I do not lie! I was attacked by a red dragon months ago. He stole my hoard and left me for dead. Humans of all things found me as I was dying and saved my life. I have spent a great deal of time with them now, and I have learned much of their ways, but I still kill them by the hundreds when they challenge me, and I have killed many today!”
“Ha, ha, ha… So you were saved by the rodents, yet you kill them freely. How they must regret the day they chose to save you.”
Lilly kept up her snarl and glared at him, unwilling to show fear. She wanted to change the subject away from both her and mating. Carefully she chose to turn the topic back on him.
“Tell me then, how have you remained hidden here so long?”
“Ha, I hunt in the mountains. Few rodents come up here. When they do, and I find them, I eat them, but there are plenty of other animals to eat when I feel like eating. Are you sure you don’t wish to raise a brood?”
Despite her efforts, he returned back to his base needs. Lilly could see that all he cared about was to mate. She knew his patience would soon wear thin, and he might become violent. Still, this was an opportunity, and she didn't want to waste it. If he was here, maybe there were other dragons. “Do you know of any other red dragons?”
“You are determined to find this red that attacked you then. I might know where to find another red, but what is the information worth to you?” he said, stalking slowly towards her.
“I am not trading a mating for the information!” Lilly roared, stopping him in his tracks. “Do you care about nothing else?”
He blinked and laughed as if Lilly had told a joke. “A female enters a male dragon's lair, and she wonders why he thinks about mating. It is the only reason a female enters a males lair at all. I do not require your help to eat or sleep, so what other purpose can you serve?”
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Lilly felt genuine disgust at his attitude. She was confident she was never so simple and crass, and yet, wondered if she was. No, she could never have been this crude, even Shadros had deeper thoughts than this. She looked inside herself to listen to the voices that no longer offered opposition. All she saw was Gersius and heard his voice in the calling deep inside. Whatever this new feeling was, it grew when she thought of him. She realized that she was something more now, and she was never going back. However, she still felt a strange hunger when she looked at the red, a sort of craving need. She closed her eyes and focused on answering him instead of dwelling on the feeling.
“Am I worth nothing to you but an opportunity to mate?” Lilly questioned him.
He cackled with laughter at her question. “What else is there for you to do?”
“You never desire to talk? Do you not get bored or lonely here in your lair?” She wasn't sure why she even asked the question. She knew she never did, and she was not near as base as this monster was.
“I have no need for such things. I have my gold and my lair. I keep a bed down here for the sole purpose of mating. I have no other use for you or care to waste my time talking to you. If you are not here to mate, then go, get out of my lair!”
Lilly felt a wave of relief to be told to leave. Thankfully in his stalking, he was now on the other side of the cave, and the exit was clear. She did not waste the opportunity and quickly turned and moved toward the tunnel. She wanted to say something defiant but decided to count her blessings and hurried down the passage. As she ran around the corner, she heard him following. He was making sure she left and didn't have any of his hoard. When she cleared the cave entrance, she took to the air immediately and flew away as fast as she could.
“Do come back if you change your mind. You will find few males as impressive as me!” he roared at her from below.
Once she was well away from the cave, the panic she had been suppressing set in. What a fool she was! Why did the pain of that battle make her so upset? She had lost her mind; that's why! She knew what she was thinking when the battle finally turned, and she saw the hundreds of wounded. She wanted to eat them one by one and make their suffering comrades watch. She felt such anger that she wanted to slip into her dragon nature and punish them all. She really did wonder if she was as bad as the great red she left behind. She wondered if she had met that red below while she was still in her dragon mind, would she have eagerly mated?
She shook her head at the disgusting thought. She would never have met the red below unless she had been on this path. Her whole life was now predicated on that one moment in time. That one incident that changed her forever.
Inside, her stomach twisted as the new emotion crawled through her. Something about mating was essential to her, and her dragon nature implored her to go back, but a second nature screamed at her to find her lovers. She thought of Gersius and Thayle as renewed storms of emotions racked her mind. Tears filled her eyes as she flew away, heading back to where she left the ones she loved, and the ones she desperately needed to love her right now.
Still, she wondered why she had gotten so angry during the battle. Was it the terrible pain of the spears being pulled? Was I the sense of helplessness when Thayle drew on her power? Was it pride that Shadros had been far more useful in the fight than she had? The feeling was something akin to jealousy, but what reason did she have to be jealous?
She tried to think of any reason she had to be jealous? She was jealous for a little bit that Thayle could give Gersius a baby when she so desperately wanted to give him one. It was a fit of pointless jealousy because Thayle was doing it out of love for Lilly, and Lilly could have children on her own now. Maybe it was the twinge of jealousy when Thayle said she had hoped she could ride on Shadros into battle? Lilly did indeed feel something at that moment, a desire to keep Thayle to herself. Was that part of all this? No, that was a silly thought; Gersius would ride on her back into battle. He was her husband, and he loved her dearly. He was the Dragon knight, the soon to be emperor of the dragon empire, and the high priest of Balisha. What more honor could he possibly bestow to her by being her rider?
“Why am I so upset by all this?” she yelled out loud as she soared through the sky. “Thayle loves me, Gersius loves me, why am I so terribly upset that I want to go back to being a wild dragon?”
Her mind danced about as she considered it more and more. She was so disgusted by the reds desire to mate with her. Yet she was aware that she felt something when he mentioned it. She did desire to mate; deep down, she felt a nagging need, as if something was pressuring her. But she didn't want to mate with the red. She wanted to mate with... Gersius!
It was in this moment of thought she finally understood. Her eyes went wet with renewed tears, and she beat the air fiercely with her wings. She needed the arms of her husband around her. She needed him to lay with her; It was time, and he was so far away!
Lilly was disheartened when hours later, she arrived at the site of the battle to find nothing but stained ground and mass graves. Gersius and Thayle were gone, as was the rest of the camp. She wondered for a terrifying moment if something had gone wrong. Maybe another army attacked. Maybe that cavalry charged down, and Lilly was not there to protect them! The thought went quickly out of her mind as she realized she could feel them both east of her down the road.
She took off again into the now star-filled sky and flew over the road, searching for the camp where her lovers had bedded down. She was grateful she could feel them, and the sensation grew as she got closer and closer. An hour later, she saw the twinkling lights of campfires, and with great relief her open-topped tent was set up and waiting for her.
She swooped down to settle in the confines of her private enclosure and smiled as Thayle stepped out of the doorway to greet her.
“Lilly, I am so glad you are back,” Thayle cried.
A white mist began to crawl across Lilly's scales, and suddenly it grew into a ball of swirling white smoke that engulfed her body and hid her form. When the flash of light that marked her transformation passed, Lilly ran out of the cloud and practically tackled the woman in the green robes.
“I am so sorry, Thayle!” Lilly cried and planted her lips to Thayles.
Thayle could do nothing but wrap her arms around her and surrender to the kiss. Lilly held her firmly pressing her lips to her own and did not want to let go until Thayle began to tap at her shoulder.
“My, what was that for?” Thayle gasped.
“I realized just how much I love you,” Lilly said, trying not to cry. “Where is our husband? I need him!”
Thayle smiled and took her hand. “He is inside. He has been worried about you ever since you left.”
Lilly paused and forced Thayle to turn around. “Is something the matter?” Thayle asked.
Lilly held up her arms to emphasize her naked body.
“Oh, sorry. I was so happy you were back, and your kiss made me forget you're not properly dressed. Come, my sweetheart, I will get you dressed.”
Lilly felt joy at being called sweetheart. It was such a silly thing, but every time Thayle called her that she felt something stir inside. That feeling now mixed with her new desire and made her crave the love of their embrace even more.
There was always a robe and a dress hanging on a post in her changing space. She opted for the robe because it was quick to get on and off. Right now, she did not intend to keep it on any longer than necessary.
She hurriedly wrapped the soft white garment around herself and ran after Thayle into the meeting tent. Several of the acolytes were there kneeling in prayers and looked up excitedly as Lilly entered.
“Priestess, Lilly!” one of them called out as she made her way across the room.
Lilly had to stop a moment to address the young man. “It is, Duncan, isn't it?” Lilly asked.
“Yes, my lady, I am honored, you know my name.”
Lilly smirked. She knew all their names. She never understood why humans found it so hard to remember names and faces. She could tell them what every coin in her hoard once looked like.
“Did you need something, Duncan?” she asked him desperate to move on and get to Gersius.
“We wondered if you were pleased with our healing earlier today?” he asked.
Lilly had to think back to the battle with a measure of distaste. She mused that she could remember every scratch on every coin, but she had forgotten it was the acolytes who healed her terrible wounds.
“You and the others did an excellent job. Your prayers completely healed me.”
He smiled broadly and tipped his head with a bow. “It was our honor to aid you, Priestess.”
Lilly knew he wanted more conversation, they always did, but now was not the time. All that mattered was Gersius. She excused herself and followed Thayle and the tugging in her heart to the tent doorway that led to their private space. Here was set up a simple table, a few chairs, and a bed made of several layers of thick blankets over a simple wooden frame. The blankets were stuffed with something Thayle called goose down and were thick and comfortable. They made the perfect spot to be in her husband's arms, arms the came around her almost the moment she entered.
“I could feel you were back!” he whispered loudly into her ear as he held her firmly.
“I am sorry I left. I was so confused and angry. I just wanted to run and hide from it.” Lilly tried to explain her feelings, but she could feel him across the bind, and she knew she didn't have to. Thayle's hands came to her back and neck as he held her tightly, and she surrendered to them both.
“I was worried you would not come back; you were so upset. I could feel your anger; you wanted to eat them.”
Lilly looked into his eyes and shushed him with a finger to his lips. “Let us not talk about that anymore. I was not in my mind at that moment, but my time away helped. I understand what I was feeling now.”
“I am glad that helped clear your mind,” Thayle said while rubbing her shoulders. Lilly wanted to stand there, being held and feeling Thayle's hands work the muscles of her neck, but it was time, and she didn't want to miss it.
“Gersius,” she began but struggled to say the rest. Never before had she been so bold with him. He always took the lead in intimacy, but right now, she needed to make sure he understood.
“Gersius, make love to me,” she said softly.
“My, now that is a marked change since this morning,” Thayle cooed from behind her.
“Please, I need you to make love to me, here, now.”
Gersius released her from his arms and stood back a pace to look her in the eyes. She was nearly as tall as he was perhaps only an inch shorter at most, so her eyes met him almost evenly.
“You never have to beg me for that. I am yours, and always will be.” He reached down, scooped her into his arms, and carried her to bed. Lilly latched on to Thayle's hand as she was taken away and pulled the woman along with her. “I want you too!” Lilly said in a determined voice as Gersius laid her down on the bed. “Please, Thayle.” she pleaded with the woman releasing her hand.
Thayle smiled and began to unlace her robe. “Our little dragon has gotten much bolder.”
“What has gotten into you, Lilly?” Gersius asked her as he removed his shirt.
“I flew to the mountains we saw a few days or ago. There is a dragon living there, a red male twice my size. I spoke with him, and he reminded me of what I was. How base and horrible I was, and I understood just how much you two mean to me.”
“Sweetheart, you confronted a larger dragon all on your own?” Thayle asked, concerned.
Lilly shook her head. “I wasn't thinking right. I was sitting on the mountain when he flew over. Seeing him made my mind go stupid. For a little while, I thought he might have been the red that attacked me. I thought I could follow him back to his lair and steal my hoard back. I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to be a dragon again.”
“Lilly, this sudden resurgence of your dragon nature has me concerned,” Gersius said as he set his boots to the side.
“It is very alarming, even Shadros thought you were behaving strangely,” Thayle added as she discarded her robe.
“Please, my love, I needed time to think, and speaking to him opened my eyes. I understand why I felt the way I did, and right now, all I need is to feel your love.”
Thayle and Gersius saw the truth in the aura and climbed into bed to give her what she sought.
Lilly relished the embrace of her lovers and before the night was over received the gift she was desperate to get; the time had not slipped away.
End of book 4.