The Dragon's Maiden (COMPLETE)

The Girl

My name is Lia.  And I was chosen to be a sacrifice to the dragon. My family, not as tearfully as I would have wished, agreed that an unmarried woman was the perfect sacrifice. And everyone agreed that woman was to be me. 

I wanted to protest, like I always do, but I couldn't find the words. I could not even find my tears. They tied me to that pole at midnight and I waited. With the sunrise the dragon appeared. Its mighty form glinting against the red sunlight. If I wasn't about to be eaten I may have called it beautiful. Beautiful in the way that out of control fire is only beautiful from a distance. 

But as it grew closer I found myself shaking harder. And harder. Until I could feel the force of its wings beating against my face.

It picked the pole up in one easy scoop and suddenly all I could see was the village below me as my eyes went black.

But I did not expect what I awoke to. Firstly, I was expecting to be eaten. So when I saw the dragon's green eyes piercing into mine I had no idea what would happen next.

In a stream of bright light the dragon started to cave in on itself. Scaly limb and leathery wings disappeared and a new form was born before my eyes.

A man. Eyes fiery green. Skin the sun kissed colour of a man who has lived a dozen and a half years in the forest sun. Hair a mess of dark bangs.

I gasped from my place on the cold stone floor of his cave. He came towards me and I wished I could move. Do something other than be tied to this pole.

He brandished a stone knife from the floor and came at me.

That's when I found my tears.

To be eaten all at once by a mighty dragon seemed a pleasant death next to a slow slicing torture by a magic mad man. Would he still eat me?

I sobbed quietly as his knife sliced at the ropes. He placed me on my feet - free from the ropes but not this man - no this creature's - grasp. He tossed the knife away.

I whimpered in fear as I saw him smile.   Bright white teeth - distinctly human, not even a single tooth sharper.

"What are you going to do?" My voice was barely above a whisper. He didn't answer. But his hands did.

They were touching me. His flesh on my flesh.  His hands running underneath my clothes.

He ripped at them. I tried to wonder what he was thinking. I looked around the dark and musty cave.

I listened to the sounds of him ripping my dress off my body starting with my chest. I heard my destroyed garments fall to the ground in one loud dusty heap. I felt the cold of the cave stiffen me.

I wondered how he would start to eat me as a man as he hungrily touched at my arms and my chest. Then... then I felt something else.

I looked at the dragon man with a different sort of fear as I realized... this was the monster's bed.

I was a different sort of sacrifice.