Dragon's mate (Psionic and I)

As Talver laid his hands on Sya's scales and started slowly running his fingers across her body, he was rewarded with a contented sound, something like a cross between a purr and a moan. He smiled in the darkness, happy in the knowledge that he was making her feel good. He figured out that he had started at her hips, and so, using only his sense of touch, maneuvered his hands around until he felt along Sya's back. Now, with Sya lying down, Talver could really begin to massage her. He started to push his fingers into the scales on Sya's back, and kneaded her muscles, starting at the top near her shoulders and working his way down. He wasn't exactly an expert, but it wasn't the first time he had done this. "There...how's that feel, Sya? I'm sorry I can't care for you in all the ways another dragon would, but this is something we humans sometimes do to each other, it helps us relax...relieves tension...and your scales feel so good, too, I like the smoothing feel of your natural scale oil...reminds me of a snake I once handled." By now, he was about halfway down Sya's back as he worked her back over with his warrior's hands.

But it seemed Sya did indeed have ideas of her own, because--completely unexpectedly--he then felt a slithering sensation through his pants against his inner thigh, he suddenly realized Sya was sneaking her tail up him. The tip creeped up his thigh, tantalizingly close to his crotch, but then went slightly around and pressed into his lower stomach just above his crotch. Talver's loins stirred slightly as his body reacted to the teasing touches, especially with the anticipation of having no idea or warning where it would go next. The lack of knowing what was about to happen only made him savor the sensations all the more. "My my, Sya, it seems your tail has a mind of its own...I wonder what ideas it has?" Talver said coyly as he continued his massage, unbroken.

Hmm, so the kneading actually does help her muscles a little bit. Sya felt a slight pang of grief... She misses Farrith's touch so much. The way he would groom her after mating or if she felt ill.... It's like he had read her mind. At least his touch is somewhat pleasurable to her, the calluses of his hands helping to add contrast to her scales. She chuffed again, her own version of a chuckle. "Pips eat snakes for fun. What you call a dare," she informs him, remembering her own time as a young one when she had slurped down a snake that had wriggled all the way down her throat in displeasure.

Her nostrils flared as she caught the slight scent of his arousal. So different from the other times...Slightly musky with a hint of spice that is distinctly human. The dragoness is impressed that he keeps his focus on the massage with her tail where it is. With expert control Sya lowered her tail until she reached hem line of his. With a little bit of manuevering she slipped the tip under his shirt and rubbed it against his chest.

Talver's hands continued their work on Sya's back as she mentioned eating snakes was a dare among young dragons. His mouth tugged into a smile of amusement at the thought, and the knowledge that dragons did things like that was giving him ideas... "Hmm...so, dragons will do dares for fun, like humans do? I wonder...if I could think up any 'dares' for you..." He said aloud, with a grin evident in his voice in the darkness.

Sya's tail then moved away from pressing into his lower stomach, momentarily leaving Talver with no sensations to warn him about where it would 'strike' next. The tail then snaked around and under the hem of his shirt and creeped up his chest, the suddenness and unexpectedness of the touches causing his breath to hitch for a moment as his kneading hands wavered slightly. That damned teasing tail! The feeling of her thin, scaled tail against his chest made him itch, though it was a 'good' itch. But if Sya was trying to make him lose his composure, well, he wouldn't give in that easily. His hands continued to press firmly into the muscles on Sya's back, getting lower and lower until his hands were just above her waist and hips. Deciding to give a little 'tease' back to Sya, he allowed his hands to continue on until he felt the thick base of her tail sprouting from her body, and finally to her firm, scaled backside. His hands shamelessly continued their massage right on Sya's rump, though he was 'pretending' to keep it completely innocent, wondering if Sya would call him out on it.

Sya thought over his words. Older dragons don't do things so much as for fun as for necessity. The grooming rituals had been developed when dragons had noticed a correlation between hygiene and health over their long years of living for instance. She chuckled at the hitch in his breathing which she felt perfectly well through the tip of her tail. Along with his breathing she can also pick up his heartbeat. She slipped the tip of her tail to rest over his heart, and subsequently one of his nipples as well. Sya kept her tail still and let him do the moving.

The dragoness is rather enjoying so not innocent attention. Later she might tell him that the really sensitive spots on her body are the very tip of her tail and of course her wings. But for now she lets him do as he pleases around her firm, grey scaled bottom and the thick cable like end of where her tail attaches to her body.

Talver focused on keeping his breath steady, even as Sya's tail pushed against his chest and crawled around a bit, teasing him underneath his shirt. Sya could still tell that his heartbeat had slightly picked up tempo in anticipation or excitement, though. The weighty, scaled appendage felt oddly nice to Talver against his bare skin. It was thick and warm, and for some reason, made him feel like hugging it. He didn't though, as he was still having a bit of fun squeezing and rubbing Sya's firm and shapely ass, although he did slowly run his hands up and down the base of Sya's tail a little.

Eventually, he moved on to the backs of her thighs and started tending to the well-formed muscles there. He continued to knead along, and reached down to her calves as well. Soon enough, he had finished, and his hands paused in their labors. "Hmm..." He wondered aloud. "I'm thinking you've been liking this so far, right Sya? I'm not finished though...why don't you roll over onto your back, so I can sooth the front of your body, too?" He asked, though still trying to ignore the heavy tail against his chest. There was also a bit of an impish tone in his voice, and Sya could tell his heartbeat quicked slightly again...

If possible Sya would have gotten goosebumps when he rubbed over the base of her tail. Surprisingly her thighs are quite sensitive to his caress. The sensitivity wears off a little bit as he reaches her calves. Sya raised her head and looked at him when he spoke to her. She nodded in answer to his question. She wonders what he has in mind when she feels his heartbeat pick up again. Sya removed her tail from under his shirt so that she could move to lay on her back as he had suggested.

(So sorry for being away for so long! Bad case of writer's block and finals week.)

In the darkness, Talver felt Sya's body shift and turn over as her tail left from underneath his shirt. He still had a good mental picture of where she was in relation to him, and slowly moved over on top of the dragoness until he was straddling her waist. The front of his pants had been bulging out for awhile now, and as he leaned down over Sya to continue his "massage", she could just barely feel his arousal pressing against her through his pants. Talver still could not really see anything in the dark aside from very vague outlines, and continued to navigate by touch.

His hands found Sya's shoulders, and he started pressing and rubbing her biceps and worked his way down her arms. Once he reached around her midsection, he brought his hands together and started rubbing across Sya's scaled belly and sides, and slowly worked his way up... until his hands cupped the bottom of Sya's breasts, and he started to squeeze them gently and slide his hands over them playfully. Without shame, he amused himself with Sya's 'assets', pawing and groping at them without even pretending it was a massage anymore. In the darkness, Sya's nightvision could make out that Talver was wearing an expression of silly smugness, far too overconfident, really. In his mind, Talver was amused at teasing Sya so, with the faint thrill of the unknown of how she might react...would she try to 'punish' him, and if so, what form would that take...? He may have ultimately agreed to be her stud and remain with her as penance for killing her mate, but he still found an arousing thrill in testing the limits of such a dangerous creature.

Sya really took notice of Talver's manhood when he came to rest on her torso. Her coal black eyes can pick up the lovely contour created by his arousal easily. Once more thick, cable like muscles flexed under his touch as he works down her arms. Sya playful twitched her tail beneath them, like a cat might when it's hunting something for fun. Unlike a human female's breast Sya's are firm all the time due to the muscle that forms them in her bipedal form. The dragoness gave an amused snort at the human's smugness. Like before a small plum of smoke came from her nostrils that drifted lazily into the darkness. Sya grinned herself and decided to play with him a bit. She brought up her tail and lazily moved him off her body with just the tip. That should wipe the smugness off his face.

With only his sense of touch to rely on, Talver could feel every knot and flex of Sya's muscles underneath his hands. And when he reached her breasts, he found they seemed to be made of more wonderfully firm muscle, rather than squishy fat. It was different, and Talver couldn't help but like it. But as he enjoyed himself, he suddenly caught a wiff of acrid smoke in his nostrils, which continued to waft up to his eyes, causing him to cough and his eyes to water, disorienting and putting him completely off-balance for what happened next. He felt Sya's thick, powerful tail push against his side, and while trying to clear himself of the smoke, could not stop himself from being pushed straight over the side and right off Sya. Unable to mitigate the 'gentle' shove, he rolled right off the pile of hay, still sputtering and trying to get his bearings.

Ohh, she fought dirty, she did, Talver thought once his head had cleared as he even smirked again despite his predicament. He still couldn't see, and now he wasn't sure where Sya's warm, comforting body was. He shifted to all fours and patted around the stone floor until he felt the beginning of the straw-pile. Moving forward with slightly more confidence, he started to crawl back up the makeshift nest, still feeling around like a blind man for any sign of Sya. He said nothing and did not ask for help, he was too proud to do so. And yet, as he fumbled forward, Sya could still see exactly what he was doing and where he was headed, and could move about or prepare anything she wanted for him to run into, without him realizing it...

The dragoness felt a pang of guilt when her smoke went into Talver's eyes. She hadn't meant to hurt his eyes! It is however amusing to see him coughing and sputtering in the straw like a disoriented hatchling. She tilted her head silently in curiosity as he smirked again. She would wonder even more if she knew he though of her body as "warm and comforting." Sya stayed perfectly still, reducing her breathing even so as not to give him any clues and watched him crawl back up to the cushion of dead grasses. Still amused Sya moved her tail so that he would run into it with a hand first, giving him plenty warning where the rest of her body is.

Move arm, pat, rustle, move leg, repeat. Talver slowly crawled his way back onto the haymat, one limb at a time, moving slowly to feel his way as well as quietly to better hear. But he couldn't hear Sya anymore, not even the sound of her breathing. Talver wondered what she was planning, but did not let that dissuade him as he continued to move foward. He took a few more motions forward, and then his hand brushed againt something fleshy and scaled. His hand gently latched onto the unknown part of Sya, and his fingers moved and squeezed around it, getting its shape to build a mental picture in Talver's mind. Thin, pointed, somewhat prehensile...ah, the tip of her tail. Heh. Holding a dragoness by her tail. Not something he ever expected to do in his life.

Talver's arousal was still raging in his pants, with this little impromptu teasing game making his body want satisfaction more and more. Oh, but he wasn't read to give in just yet--he decided he'd just tease Sya even more, see if he could get a reaction out of her. He moved his other hand above the first, with both his hands now encircling the tip of Sya's tail. Without even realizing that Sya's tail was one the more sensitive parts of her, Talver deliberately began his slowest and most focused massage yet. His hands squeezed her tail-tip lightly, and he pressed his fingers and thumbs into the muscles of the tail, enough to feel some of the bone underneath. Then he slid both hands up her tail just an inch, and continued his lavish feeling up with more rubs and clutching. Inch by inch, Talver continued trailing his hands up Sya's thickening tail as he moved his body closer as well. A quarter of the way, then halfway, and then when he was two-thirds up her tail, it was thick enough that he couldn't encircle one hand all the way around it, and both hands were circling together in the same place.

Finally he reached the base of Sya's tail where it connected with the rest of her body. With one hand now stroking up and down her tail, his other slide over Sya's thighs as she was lying down, and he inched his hand between her legs until he felt the telltale entrance to her slit. He trailed a fingertip up and down her entrance, then used his fingers to spread her folds open for himself. He then pushed a finger into Sya's smooth inner channel and began stirring around, trying to tease and arouse the dragoness, wondering how she'd react.

Talver really shouldn't be surprised that he can't hear Sya's breathing. After all, she is a skilled hunter. She'll have to be in order to provide for any pips that comes from their matings. Her tail gave a small twitch when he grabbed the nerve packed tip. With his lovely attention to the tip of her tail to the the base Sya gives him a mixture of a cat's purr and a throaty growl. Sya let her tail simply hang loose to get the most benefits out of his slow massage.

It feels odd to have one of his digits inserted into her feminine cave. With his attention her inner scales started to loosen, like a human woman's vagina would when aroused. His attention is indeed serving to make her more aroused from his earlier massage and his own arousal. Her growl-purr took a deeper tone as he continued to probe inside her.

Sya's pleasured growling and purring sent shivers down Talver's spine as he listened to her, noting that she apparently really liked having her tail touched. How interesting. Still, even when he had moved on from her tail to her snatch and started fingering her there, her growls deepened even more in clear satisfaction, she didn't didn't make any other obvious moves other than lay there and let him do as he was. He almost pouted, despite his efforts, he still couldn't provoke much of a reaction out of her (aside from her pushing him away when he got cheeky with her breasts). The tightness in his pants still demanded that he go down and fuck her right there to satisfy himself, but no, he wanted to prove he was the stronger-willed, he wanted to 'win' this little game.

Time to play dirty, then. Talver inserted a second finger into Sya's channel, stroking her inside, feeling around and searching for sensitive spots, while his other hand continued to squeeze and run up and down her tail. He listened very carefully, hanging onto Sya's every breath and rumble, guaging how aroused she was by sound. Then, when he could hear her breath shortening with an approaching climax...he withdrew his fingers from her body, and let go of her tail, before she could reach the edge. "So! I think I've massaged all of you by now...how was that, Sya?" He said in feigned innocence.

If that didn't get a rise out of her, he couldn't think of anything that would. Oh, he would probably regret this, but it was such a thrill to play with fire...

The heat was starting to build again just under her breasts, moving down to her groin as he continues to explore her inner scaled cave. Sure enough the tone of her growls change when he a spot at the base of her inner region. He had inner the thin but very tough membrane that covers the entrance to her cervix. Sya snapped and let a small burst of flame out when he claimed to be done. She knows that he isn't serious, but she isn't going to take that from him!

Surging upwards Sya wrapped her arms and legs around him to put Talver onto his back. She can see and smell quite vividly that he's fully aroused, and obviously he knows that she's unsatisfied as well. She knows if she attempts to remove his pants to be able to mate fully they would end up in shreds, leaving him without protection for his frail skin. "Take them off," Sya growls, knowing that he would figure out what she means.

Right after Talver had denied Sya a proper climax and leaned back, the area was illuminated for a split-second with the burst of flame, incidentally casting Sya's agitated face with dim light and shadow, causing her visage to appear almost monstrously ferocious from Talver's perspective. The next thing he knew, he was shoved back on the makeshift bed with the heavy scaled woman holding him down. Talver's heart was hammering away in his chest from a surge of adrenaline. He wasn't truly fearing for himself, but by the gods was he at the height of thrill. He needed this just as badly as Sya did, now.

At the dragoness' growled-out command, Talver certainly didn't need to be told twice. His hands went down to his belt as he undid his trousers and started worming out of them beneath Sya. Once his manhood was free and pressing against Sya's belly, one hand reached around Sya's scaled rump to grasp at the base of her tail again, and his other came back up around the back of Sya's head until he felt one of her bony horn protrutions, which he grabbed onto like a handle to pull Sya's head closer to his. Once he felt her lips meet his, he latched on in a rough, passionate kiss and tried to use his tongue to wrestle with hers as he groaned into her mouth.

Sya raised her body up to allow him an easier time removing his pants. She gave a low, simmering growl as his manhood pressed into her belly. She didn't put up any resistance as he pulls her head closer for a kiss. Sya played along with him, twisting her tongue with his, trying to stick his tongue through the slit in hers just for a bit of fun. He could probably feel her long, rich growls vibrate through her. After a bit of tongue play, Sya deciding she's had enough playing around. She sheathed him completely, grunting slightly at the pleasure of being filled again. She gripped around him, pleasuring them both in the process before releasing to lift her hips from him. Rapidly she thrust onto him, small pleased grunts coming from as she moves. Her position over him gives him a wonderful view of her muscled breasts as she continues her thrusts.

The tongue-wrestling with Sya was, as always, amazing. Her slithery, ribbonlike lizard tongue contorted all around his, and she seemed particulrly intent on getting his tongue to go through the hole in hers. It was the strangest sensation, yet oddly satisfying. The way she growled into his mouth even as he moaned back into hers also sent pleasant tingling thrills throughout his body. While he had been with women before, never before Sya had a woman ever made him feel so wanted.

Then, Sya suddenly broke away from the kiss, and wasted no time in quickly taking his entire cock deep inside of her snatch. She straddled him, settled down and wiggled a bit, causing him to huff in pleasure. Then she began rapidly pumping her hips up and down on him, establishing a quick tempo right away. Talver grunted loudly with Sya on every thrust, with the fleshy slapping sound of their union filling the dark cave. "Nnrgh! F-fuck, girl! Love how you...ngh...rrgh...take what you want...like that!" the man growled out underneath Sya. He continued to squeeze Sya's tail from base to tip with one hand, perhaps a little harder than he entirely intended, what with him being roughly ridden. His other hand, having left the horns on Sya's head when she pulled away from the kiss, moved around to Sya's front where he started groping at her ample breasts as they swayed over him with Sya's pounding motions. Meanwhile, he then got yet another slightly evil idea. "G-gonna...cum soon...you want it, girl? Huh? Won't give it to you...till you tell me...how much you want it...tell me!" Talver gasped out as his body shook beneath Sya's with every thrust of their rough mating.

Sya is very relieved to hear such noses of pleasure coming from him as she rides him hard. His grip on her tail doesn't bother her, his strength nothing compared to a dragon. She gave a rippling growl-purr when he brought his hand up to her breasts. She grinned fiercely down at him again when he tries to make her work for his release. She kept her pace as she spoke to him. "Holding back hurts you more then it does me," she points out. Sya twitched her strong tail in his grip, pointing out how much stronger she is than him again. The grin didn't once come off her face as she waits for him to release, seeing how long he can deny himself.

Talver kept huffing and moaning as Sya pounded away on his shaft, but when she refused his demand, he grinned back and chuckled as best as he could while she fucked him hard. Despite the long foreplay, she had only just gotten started on him, and he wasn't at his limit yet. She also wasn't going to give in easy on him herself. Good, that just made everything all the sweeter. "Ha...haha...you...sure about...that?" He grunted out, before he acted on the trick he was thinking of. He remembered that Sya had said before that dragons often nipped at each other, as well as how she seemed to react the most to her tail during his massage. With his hand that had a grip on Sya's tail, he pulled that prehensile part of her body around up to his face with one swift motion, trying to be faster than she could react, then stuck the tip of her tail between his teeth and bit down. Her scales were of course far too strong for him to actually break, but he was counting on it being a sudden and intense sensation for her to put her off-guard for his next move...

While Sya was certainly physically stronger than Talver, the human warrior had fought and wrestled all his life, and knew all about leverage and technique. Immediately after biting Sya's tail, he braced his leg and levered his arm under her, let go of her tail, then flipped her over onto her back on the straw bed as he rolled with her to stay on top of her and keep his cock buried inside her. Quickly he settled into hammering his hips up against Sya's to keep the motion inside of her going. He gripped both her shoulders with his hands to hold her down for a moment, before he pressed his face up against her neck and attempted to dig his teeth into her neck as well, remembering what she said about dragon mates doing that, too. The natural oil of her scales had a very interesting taste to it as well. "C'on 'irl...hell me...how 'uch...you wan' i'!" He growled out to her with his mouth full, then waited for her to make the next move in this contest of dominance.

Sya grunted in surprise when he pulled a dragonish move by bringing the tip of her tail into his mouth. Of course she could take her tail away from him, but with his teeth clamped around the end of the tip it would do severe damage to his teeth. Although it doesn't have the shock value as if a drake gave her a play bite, it is still rather pleasurable, his teeth working to activate the very sensitive nerves that make up the end of her tail.

She grunted again when he flipped her over on her back while still keeping his cock buried within her. It greatly amuses her when he releases the tip of her tail to bite the crook of her neck. Sya brushes the slightly wet tip of her tail over his back, seeing what that will get out of him. She could easily flip him back over and reclaim dominance, but stands to much risk of injuring him. She looked at him with her coal black eyes and decided just this once she would satisfy them. "I need it," she growls out as she thrusts her hips up to meet his.

Talver panted heavily through his teeth still digging into the scales of Sya's neck as he continued to rut his hip against her. Finally, she gave in and told him what he wanted to hear. He could have played around and tried to make her beg more, say exactly what it was she 'needed', but was honestly happy enough now. Maybe some other time. For now though, it was time for him to satisfy them both.

The human let go of the dragoness' shoulders and felt around with one hand to the back of her head and leaned his face into hers, bringing her into another hungry kiss as he moaned and searched for her delightful tongue with his own. His other hand wandered around to Sya's front to begin fondling one of her breasts, as he increased the ferocity of his thrusts into her. Finally, he felt his climax approach, and with a powerful heave, he hilted himself into Sya and let his cock spurt his seed deep inside her.

Talver held Sya close and tightly for a moment as he pumped his 'gift' into her, after which it slacked off and Talver relaxed, going limp on top of Sya. He gasped for breath from all the exertion, working to calm down from the sex high with Sya as he remained sheathed inside her. "Heh...so...how am I doing...so far?" Talver slowly whispered out, with his hands affectionally rubbing Sya. "Think I'll be able to...serve you well...for as long as you keep me?"

Sya willingly gave him her head when he leaned down for a demanding kiss. Like the past times that they had mated her inner chamber clenched around him, though not as tight as before, her body not so driven by the need to mate. Her smooth inner chamber relaxes as his blade becomes soft within her. "I think you shall do," Sya rumbled as she encases him in her wings, holding him close again.

It's a bright, sunny and warm day out on the mountain as Sya moves about the forest. She had decided that her stock pile of burnable material needed adding to, hence the trip to the lower part of the mountain. She works to take what is already dead and dry, such as trees that would probably come down with a good storm anyway. Of course they hamper her flight, but if she becomes with pips all the prep work would come in handy. A great thud echoes through the surrounding woods as Sya plows head long into an old stubborn oak, trying to get the roots to come up. A few more of the old tree's roots come up, but it's not the effect Sya wanted. She doesn't want to resort to using firing, fearing that the wood simply burn up in the process.

Several days passed, during which Talver began settling in and adjusting to his new life as the possession of a dragoness. They actually hadn't had sex again since Talver's "massage", both being busy with their respective preoccupations: Sya with preparing for the arrival of children (Talver still didn't believe it was actually possible, but he didn't bother saying so to Sya), while Talver had been working on adding some more human-oriented amenities and comforts to the cave, including beginning to lay the groundwork for a small shack/cabin just outside the cave entrance. It was very slow going, considering Talver had no iron tools to use and had to work with what he could make himself, but there was measurable progress. Basically every settler in the frontier town at the foot of the mountain had to construct their own dwellings.

At the moment, however, Talver was in the forest and apart from Sya, for the first time since she had captured him. With a crude bow and a couple arrows he had fashioned himself, he was tracking down a deer for a meal for the both of them, while Sya was out pulling up trees for extra wood. By chance, Talver had tracked the deer downhill, and wasn't very far from where Sya was working, although he wasn't aware of it. Eventually, Talver managed to get close enough to the deer for a shot, and took it down with little difficulty. Satisfied with his labor, he loaded the carcass into a net/sled that tied around his shoulders, and began dragging the deer back to the cave.

****

"Alright, do we have enough arrows for everyone?"

"Yes, for the last time, I counted all the bundles, we've got enough. And before you ask, we've plenty of swords and spears, too. Everyone's armed."

A large crowd of men stood in the town square, most of the able-bodied men in the town, in fact, and all were sporting a weapon of some kind. Several men conferred with each other on the center stage of the town square, one of which who was clearly leading the proceedings; Norman, formerly the lieutenant of the town militia under Talver, and now the captain in place of Talver's "death".

Ohe of the younger-looking men rubbed his neck and looked at Norman uneasily. "Really...are you sure about this, lieut--I mean, captain? I mean, how many died the first time Talver led us up there against the--"

"You better not be getting cold feet, boy. Most of us here were around for the first battle, we know how it went and are more experienced this time. Are you really going to let that monster get away with killing Talver? Will you dishonor his memory with cowardice?"

The young man cringed. "No, sir. I'm ready, sir."

"Good." Norman turned to face the crowd to address them all. "Several days ago, in the middle of preparations for our very holiday feast, the tryant serpent flew down from the mountain and snatched up our very beloved Captain Talver in broad daylight! It is too late to save him from that monster, but we will avenge him! The man who led us in building this town, the man who defended us, and the champion who struck down the dragon bane who plagued us a year ago! But today, we are ready! Today, we march up the mountain, and we will end this threat once and for all, rid us of the vile beast, and honor our fallen Captain Talver!"

A roar rose up from the crowd, and Norman led the procession into the mountains.

****

"All halt..." Norman whispered out, and the order was ushered by everyone behind him, and everyone behind them, and so forth to propogate through the staggered militia making its way up the mountain. "You hear that?"

A dull, distant thud echoed through the trees, then again. "There's only one thing big enough to make sounds like that...seems the lizard is already down the mountain! We didn't have to walk so far after all."

Norman turned and whispered another command. "Archers around and up, just like we planned." Again, the order was carried out, and two groups of archers broke off from the militia, heading off in opposite directions before heading up the mountain again. "Just like Talver led us last time, the archers have to get the high ground on the dragon, to pin it down and keep it from flying away." Norman had explained beforehand. The woodsmen-experienced archers moved swiftly and silently through the underbrush, using the thudding sounds to orient themselves and stay out of distance and sight from, as they moved to get into position...

Like a mix between a dog and a beaver, Sya set about breaking the log into smaller pieces so that she could carry them back to the den. The work is slow going and loud, plus the wood doesn't taste that good. Every now and then she stops to clear her maw of wood splinters. Because she's the biggest thing in the woods, Sya doesn't worry about anything bothering with her during her work. Satisfied that she had gotten a piece of the oak down to a suitable size, the dragoness carefully picked up a chunk in her front limbs, and prepared to take off.

It's then that she heard the first sounds of arrows being released. Having never heard the sound, Sya tilted her head to listen, until something sharp pierced the delicate tissue of her wings. Other arrows bounced off her hard scales harmlessly. Sya roared, showing her massive mouth full of razor sharp teeth. She tucked her wings against her body as best as possible before turning to loose a jet of flame at where the arrows had came from.

After Sya loosed a breath of flame in the direction of the arrows, it did cause them to stop off, but then more arrows came almost immediately from two more directions diagonally, too many directions to supress them all with fire.

Human warcries suddenly erupted in the trees all around Sya. She was surrounded. Humans came charging in through the underbrush to the clearing Sya had made, most of them carrying shields, where they all moved to create a perimeter around Sya, a circle of humans in the treeline. While most of the shields were wooden, they had been treated with flame-retardant tree sap. Javelins were thrown in against Sya from behind the shield-wall, and rocks and stones flew in to sting against her scales, launched from slings that many of the shield-humans had. The others had spears, which began to close in and advance on Sya from all directions while hiding behind large shields, jabbing at Sya to keep her confined and cornered. The humans were all shouting, arrows, javelins, rocks were coming from all directions, creating utter chaos around Sya.

Meanwhile, behind the throng of humans, Norman waited with his sword drawn. Once the dragon was distracted enough, he could run in and slide underneath the dragon's body, then cut across the underside of her vulnerable neck to slay her.

Just like Talver had done.

****

As Talver was dragging his burden through the forest, a raw, powerful roar thundered through the trees, sending every bird flying and all manner of prey-animals scurrying. Talver's heart stopped when he heard that roar. He knew that roar. It was the roar of rage the male dragon had sounded when Talver marched everyone to kill him.

Only this one was Sya's roar.

In the next instant, Talver was ripping off the shoulder-straps of his sled to free himself from the weight, and he immediately began charging through the forest towards the roar. Now he could hear the clash and clatter of battle, of human warriors engaged in combat.

No. No. No, no, no no no no! Talver repeated in his head over and over as he ran as fast as he possibly could, praying that he could get there in time.