The Twilight Dragon

Chapter 4

I went down into the basement and collapsed on my bed, my head spinning with the events that had transpired. A dragon. A real dragon. And he didn't eat me! Well, not literally anyways. I prodded at a root as I thought about Duke. Now that he was gone it was hard to believe that it ever happened. I would have continued to think about him had I not remembered that I had work to do. I put on my jacket and scrambled out of my tree to the direction of the village.

The place was already loud and rowdy by the time I got there, I could hear lyres and drums pounding as I entered through the backdoor of the brothel. There I spent the next few hours doing dishes, taking out the garbage to throw into the dumping area, and other odd jobs for the chef. He tossed me a few coins for my troubles and I went deeper into the brothel to find other work to do.

"Lianne." I heard my name and looked into one of the rooms. It was Donya, one of the brothel prostitutes and also the closest person that I could call a friend in this village. "Hello Donya." I said as I watched her put a robe on, covering her large breasts and voluptuous body. I tried not to be too jealous of her beautiful light brown skin and overall gorgeous body, but sometimes it was hard.

"Laundry pile is over there." She said, and I hurried over to pick up the sack of clothes. The laundry was done every few days here, but there were some of the nicer items the women liked to have cleaned more carefully. All I had to do was pay a coin and then I was welcome to use the laundry room whenever I wanted. Some of the women argued about the cost but when I stood my ground they usually backed off. They had better things to do than argue over a few coppers anyways. "Thanks, Lianne." Donya said, placing a few coppers into my hand. Donya never stiffed me on the cost. "You look different." She commented as she sat down in her makeup chair, eyeing me as she brushed her long, dark brown hair. "What have you been up to? Have you caught the attention of some young man?"

Maybe it was because I feeling particularly envious today as I watched her, but it made me want to show off a bit. I paused for a second, deciding whether or not to tell her. "What do you know about dragons?"

Donya thought for a moment, eyebrow arched, considering the questions. "Just stories told around a fire to young ones, there was once a legend about a stone dragon-"

"I met one." I blurted out suddenly, full of jitters and eager to share my discovery.

"I'm sorry?" She stopped brushing her hair and stared at me. "Have you been up in the sun too long my dear?" She offered me the jug of ale she kept on the table but I waved it away impatiently.

"He saved me from a group of bandits."

Donya looked at me calmly, a little too patiently I thought suspiciously, and so I told her everything, from the way he snatched me up to take me to his lair, and how I used my smarts to lure him into cumming and falling asleep. Donya still looked skeptical but at least she was the decent kind of woman that didn't just laugh in your face if she didn't believe you.

"So this dragon...did he have a name?"

"Yes, his name is Duke."

"Duke..." She considered it, and finally nodded. "And you said that you would see him in three days?"

"Yep, that's the plan." I said, a little tired of all the skepticism, even in the nice way that Donya did it.

"May I come too?"

Oh, I guess I should have expected that. "So you do believe me."

"You seem pretty adamant that you are telling the truth."

"Well I am!"

"So I would like to see for myself."

"Well I dunno..." I had wanted to keep Duke and my meeting just between the two of us.

She nodded and took silver out of her purse and put it on the table. My eyes widen at seeing the coin. A silver was more than my pay for a day's work.

"That's not fair." I mutter, pocketing the coin quickly.

Donya shrugged with a good-natured smile. "I think it's more than fair, if you ask me."

I chuckled. "Fine, you can come too."

****

The days leading up to the meeting with Duke were long and hard, often I would walk home and collapse onto my bed without changing or taking a bath. I marked the days on a piece of bark I had cut from a tree. And then the day came. I hurried to the meeting spot that I had arranged with Duke, and Donya was already there, dressed in a tan tunic, leggings and dark leather boots. I had never seen her outside of the brothel, so the modest garb was a little surprising.

"Hello Lianne." She said with a smile, and I ran over to her.

"He should be showing up any second now." I stated, as we watched the clearing. The wind blows a nice breeze through the forest, and we watch the leaves flicker to and fro. Donya and I started talking about how nice the clearing was, with the blooming wildflowers and deep green leaves on the tree, until soon we heard a flapping sound. It was the beating of wings.

He came from the sky, a shadow upon the ground, and landed quietly onto the grass.

"Oh!" Donya gasped, and I turned to look at her. Her eyes wide and her mouth a perfect O. She had grabbed a branch for support as she stared at Duke. "A-a a dragon!" she gasped.

I wondered why she was still reacting so strongly, hadn't I told her already that this dragon existed? I thought back to the silver coin that she had given me as payment. The look on her face suggested to me that perhaps she had never really believed that the dragon was real...

"Stay here Donya." I said after I was sure that she wouldn't pass out. She nodded, still looking flustered. "I'll be right back."

I ran over to Duke, who greeted me with a cocky smile. "Hello, Lianne." He said, accepting the hug that I gave him.

"I must ask, who is that lady over there?" He nodded at Donya, his sharp eyes looking over at Donya.

"I'm sorry, there was no way of asking you first, but I told her about you and she wanted to see you too."

"I see." His brow furrowed. "And you trust her?"

"Well...to be honest I didn't think it would be a big issue." I said uncertainly. " She didn't believe me until she saw you."

He nodded solemnly. "Some humans...cannot be trusted. They do not view dragons as good creatures. And of course, some of us aren't. Hah!" He took a step towards her. "I must see what kind of person she is." He walked purposefully, with me in tow.

Donya seemed to have found her composure again, though she looked apprehensively at Duke when he approached.

"Hello." Duke said bluntly.

"Hello."

I looked at them for a moment before I realized he was waiting for me to introduce him.

"Oh! Duke this is Donya, and Donya, this is Duke." I said.

"So, Lianne said you didn't believe her when she told you about me." He lifted his wings widely and bared his teeth. "How about now?"

"Yes... I do." Donya stammered. She backed up against a tree trunk and looked me for help.

"Oh stop it, Duke." I said, smacking him. He grinned at me and lowered his wings, though he was still looking at Donya intently.

"Why don't we go back to my place? We can have some tea."

"That sounds lovely." Donya said with a smile at me, eager for the distraction.

"Yes...good idea." Duke rumbled, following the two of us.

****

We must've been a strange sight, a scruffy looking girl, a woman, and a large dragon all sitting together drinking from my wooden cups. It was an evergreen bark and wild berry cold tea I had made a day ago. I quite enjoyed the tea, and if Duke and Donya had any qualms about it, they were polite enough not to mention it, though when I offered them more they both politely refused.

"So how long have you lived nearby?" Donya asked Duke as I sipped my tea.

Duke had a calm and very slow way of talking around Donya, almost as if he was assessing her every reaction. "Before there were humans here, and some time before that."

Donya thought about it and nodded. "That's quite a long time."

"It is." Duke stated.

"That was before the time of King Edward the first then." Donya said.

"Pah. The craziest king I had ever seen. He wanted a thousand knights to help him conquer Stronghammer."

Stronghammer was a kingdom that was an ocean away, and the thought that some king wanted to travel all those miles away was laughable. I was a little jealous that Donya was getting Duke to reveal information he never had, so I jumped it.

"And what was the most interesting thing that has happened so far?"

Duke looked over at me and smiled his fearsome dragon grin. "Oh I think I'll save that for another time, but one of the more interesting events was the civil war a hundred years ago..."

He started telling a story, one where the people of our home kingdom, Donghan, fought against each other to overthrow the current king, who had possessed a thousand slaves and executed people in the public square every week.

"And finally they broke down the barricaded door to where the queen and the king were hiding, and it was a horrible bloodbath, the way they killed everyone in that room and beheaded the king. The heads were rotting on pikes a week later." He chuckled.

I looked over at Donya to see her horror mirroring mine.

"That...was a different time." Duke smirked at the two of us. "Perhaps a story far too violent for delicate female ears."

"I'm fine with that." I scoffed, unable to admit that Duke was a very visceral story teller. Donya led the subject to more mundane matters, talk about less violent history, until I tuned out and started playing with grass that I had pulled from the ground.

"Well I must be going now, it was a pleasure to meet you Duke." Donya had said, and I looked up.

"Yes, a pleasure." Duke said with a nod.

Donya stood up and brushed the grass off her

clothes. "I will see you tomorrow, Lianne." She said with a smile.

"I just..." She hesitated for a moment. "May I...touch your face?"

Duke looked at her for a moment and nodded. "Alright."

I watched as Donya put her hand on Duke's snout, rubbing the scales. Her eyes lit up and she looked like an elated small child the way she touched him. "A dragon..." She muttered in an almost revered tone.

Duke smirked cockily at her. "Feel free to ask any more questions that you have next time."

Donya gave me a hug as she said her goodbyes, and then she was going, fading into the forest back towards town.

"Interesting woman." Duke commented, watching her retreating form.

"Yes, she is." I shift from one foot to the other, feeling a surge of jealousy as he continued to watch the forest. But then he turned to me and I was rewarded with the beauty of his mesmerizing dark eyes.

"It felt like so long since I have seen you." He pulled me in close, nuzzling my cheek. I would normally be opposed to this sudden contact, but a happy shiver ran down my back, and I hugged him back. It had been so long since I felt another's touch, and I craved the physical interaction.

After we walked out of the clearing, I show him the river and as we walked alongside it, we talked. I told him about what I did for work, and I described some of the women at the brothel. He laughed at the story where one of the girls had decided to try on new perfume not realizing that it was she had confused the wrong jar. She wore the lemon perfume proudly until finally someone told her that she smelled like a liquor that one of the patrons had left behind. Before we knew it, it was dark out, and we retired back to my home. I built a fire, and we continued talking, Duke sprawled out on the grass, me resting on him, the fire warming my front.

After a while our conversation lapsed, and I could feel Duke's hand rubbing against my breast. I bit my lip at the feeling, somehow he could elicit these erotic sensations in my body that I had never felt before. I squirmed as he pinched my nipple and rolled it between his fingers. I felt warmth spread between my thighs, and it was not from the fire. I put my head back and rested it against his chest, closing my eyes and just living in that moment, with Duke touching me and my body relaxing against his. I could feel my face flushing, and so I turned my face upward to the cool night sky. Duke put his lips against mine. I could feel his tongue in my mouth, and I put my hand against the back of his head, caressing him fondly. Then we settled in to watch the fire, until eventually I had to force myself to keep my eyes open.

"I think it's time for me to go." Duke said, shifting his wings as he prepared for flight.

"Oh, alright." I said with a frown. "See you tomorrow?" I asked hopefully.

"Okay, tomorrow." He said with a smile, striding towards the forest and taking off with a beating of wings. Soon I couldn't see him in the darkness of the night.

Once he left I was actually more awake than before, and so I started walking to a nearby hill, where I sat back down to watch the night sky, the smattering of stars that lit up the night with their brilliance.

Out here, surrounded by nature, I never got tired of the beautiful sight. From here I could see the village, the small dots of torchlight. There was a large spot of light near the center of town, where they usually had a large bonfire of some sort. It was one of the more pleasurable sights of my day, and watched the fires flicker for a while before I went back to my tree to retire for the night.