Christi’s Quest

Once, very long ago, before mankind had banished dragons and fairies and all sort of beautiful and terrible creatures to the pages of children’s books, one such dragon terrorized a small village in a remote area of a forgotten country. It had long since been the time of many dragons, when such beasts were common and not looked upon with such terror and suspicion. Perhaps this dragon, whose scales belied description–for they were wont to claim the colors of the earth and sky of their own accord–perhaps he was one of the very last.
Still, he preyed on the livestock of the village, not really eating more than a hungry fox or wolf, but being so frightening and inexplicable to the villagers, they thought him much greater of a menace. So that they complained to their Lord, loudly and frequently. The Lord, wanting to quell the threat of an uprising, called upon a hunter to dispense of the menace. The hunter who answered the call in the remote village, was in fact, a Huntress of some reputation–despite her lack of experience with dragons. Many of the town elders complained that her skills were fine for deer or even bear, but that she was surely no match for such a beast. But, her calm resolve and the utter lack of another candidate, earned her a purse of coin…with the remainder to be paid when the beast was eliminated.
The Huntress went out laden with weapons, strapped in black leathers, with a mane of golden locks–which attracted much speculation from the town gossips—Viking blood or fairy spawn? Christi Elohem was her name, at least the name she gave the villagers, for she cloaked herself in mystery and claimed no ties or loyalties. She spoke quietly and moved silently, but these qualities only amplified the power of her presence.
In this manner, she stalked the dragon. She was delayed by many suitors on her way, but knowing her true duty, she dispensed with them all with promises of future favors and flowers from the meadows. Finally, she was certain she had found the liar of the great beast. Christi was surprised at how easy she had been led there, which put her on guard, as she sniffed around the cave where the dragon lay snoring. She grabbed a great lance from the saddle of her mount, and checked that her lesser blades were secure in their scabbards on her hips. Then she eased inside his cave.
The beast lay stretched on its belly, before a low-burning fire. A half-eaten goat forgotten near it’s great jaws, and a pile of other bones lay scattered in a far corner. The smell made her nose wrinkle. Fear ran through her in increasing waves, as she realized the size of her foe. He was bigger than a stable. The claws that still half-clutched at the goat could easily enfold her. His head was an enormous display of scales and horns in inexplicable patterns. His nostrils were smoldering caldrons of flame. The beast’s wings, folded most gracefully across his huge back, were each larger than a banquet table at the grandest inn.
But what fixed her to her spot, other than fear…more than fear…was the beauty she beheld in the dancing colors of his skin. How it reflected and expanded the firelight, and almost glowed with its own light. Then, just when she dared to wonder, when her mind dared to imagine what the beast might be like awake, with eyes open….he stirred! She immediately–and quite violently–regretted her wonder! She readied her lance and stepped forward from the shadows, hoping he would somehow turn to present his soft belly as a target. Smoke bellowed from his nostrils as he snorted and rolled his great head–gold and red and palest of green dancing off the tips of his horns. Then his eyes opened, slowly, silently…as though anticipating the sight that was before them. They fixed on her. Huge golden eyes with cat-like pupils of great purple depth.
She took aim, her target centered between those two eyes, knowing she would have only this instant to kill him or be killed herself. Her heart wailed and mourned at the thought of killing this creature. More than it had ever wailed at taking the life of a buck or a wolf, and she said the prayer she always said before taking such a life. As she mumbled the prayer under her breath, which came ragged in her chest, the dragon lifted his head slightly and appeared to smile at her.
“You’ll need a much greater prayer for one such as I,” he said in a rich and rolling tongue.
The lance fell to the dirt floor as Christi, more in shock at his sudden movement than from the realization that he had spoken to her, prepared to be consumed in flames, or in great claws, or teeth or all three.
“Open your eyes,” said he. “I’ve already eaten today.”
She did…slowly…for the force of his voice compelled her. Her curiosity spoke up against her fear—and together they stilled her and fixed her to the space just in front of the beast.
“So, they sent YOU to rid the earth of ME?” he asked mockingly. Which did not sit well with her, and the indignation puffed air into her deflated courage.
“Yes, and I shall. Do not think little of me dragon. I have defeated great beasts before!”
He laughed and pulled himself upright, rising high into the darkness of the cave, before coming to rest in a position to put them delicate face to huge horned face. She backed up and reached for her lance, willing her mind to search for a plan…or at least an escape. A burst a flame halted her action.
“Leave it!” he bellowed. Then softer, “There will be time for you to kill me later.” She stood frozen, feeling it must be a trap and wanting to avoid it. “Now, why is it you have come to kill me?”
She told him how she had been paid by the villagers.
“But why have YOU come?” he asked.
“ I told you,” she replied, growing more fearful at the delay of what certainly would be her death.
“No, why do YOU seek to kill me? Why do you desire to kill me?” he asked searching her face with those tremendous eyes which held her firmly, but almost tenderly.
The directness of his question, the strength of his gaze, compelled her to consider his words carefully. “ I don’t,” she answered, looking down, realizing she did not have the strength of purpose nor of will to take the life of such a wondrous creature. “I have been paid to do so,” she explained. “You are a menace. You steel and kill the village livestock, you frighten the people. They fear for their lives.”
“Why? I take only sheep and goats, and an occasional cow, I’ll admit. I have never harmed a human in my life.”
“Don’t you see how just the very sight of you strikes terror into their hearts? Could you not avoid them, and ease their fear?” she asked, beginning to hope for an agreement with the dragon that could save them both.
“Little One, humans fear so much. Do you have enough lances to murder all of their fears? Do you have enough breath to bargain them all away?” he laughed sadly, softly within his chest.
She put her hand indignantly on her hips, fingering the hilt of her sword, and weighing her options with this insulting creature.
“Easy there,” he said, eyes opening wider, flashing her a look she could not fathom. “I will give you your chance at my belly later. I will give you a clear target to my heart,” He rose up to expose the huge bands of scales on his underside, holding a claw to his chest where she assumed the beast’s heart beat. “First, I would know yours.”
“You would know what?” she asked, becoming increasingly suspicious.
“I would speak with you, and know the heart of the one who will defeat me. Is that too much to ask? Must you hurry away to murder another creature?” his voice grew mocking as he looked at her closely.
She was confused, her fear wrestling with her curiosity, and an odd feeling for this dragon who stood just feet away. She looked him over well, telling herself she was studying for a weak point in his armor, knowing she hungered to know more.
“Great Huntress of the Wood,” he addressed her formally with a low bow. “I give you my word, my oath, that I will offer my life up to you for you to complete your duty and collect your purse. I will allow you to take my life, if you will but spend a few hours with me.”
“Dragon, I do not understand,” she said, looking sideways at him. “Why should I believe you would do such a thing? Why would you wish to?”
The great beast slumped into the dust and let out an equally great sigh, which filled the room with warm and slightly unpleasant air. “Is not the word of a dragon worth anything anymore?” he said with a moan. “I propose this for selfish reasons, I assure you.” He continued, chin resting in the dirt. “I am old. I am tired, and I have fears of my own to rival the fears of you humans.”
She stepped slowly forward. “A great creature like yourself…you are afraid? Afraid of what? What fear could you not defeat?”
“Did you or your village of humans who hired you ever ask why it is I might hunt their livestock, when I could have delicious game from the forest? Did you ask why I would allow you to get within a mile of my home without making cinders out of you? Did you ask why I fly low, and sear the edges of their precious wheat which stole the forests from my land without harming a single one of them?” his voice rose in timber and in anger as he himself rose from the floor. She humbly shook her head no…they had not asked these questions.
“No, I thought not. For the truth of those answers might dispel your fears. And above all else, humans must have fears,” he shook his head and his gaze grew cloudy.
“Why?” she asked, quietly. “Why do you do these things? Why did you allow me to come here?”
He looked straight at her, golden eyes blinking liquid in the firelight. “Because I desire, before I die, to be known.”

In the long silence that followed, she began to shiver. In time, which they stood apart from, it had grown dark and chill. He gathered logs in his claws like kindling and lit a great fire to warm her. She sat down, breathing deep, willing the fire to ease the feelings that shuddered through her body. Knowing that this knowing would change her forever.
He began to tell his story. He began by telling her his name, which in the language of dragons was almost painful to her ears. He graciously translated.
“You may find it easier, as humans have before, to call me Draconus. Elwart Woelen.” She offered her name, which he seemed to already know.
His story then began in earnest. His musical voice rolling over her like a calming tide, his tongue clicking and snapping as a curious punctuation of his tale. He cooked the rest of the goat for her to eat, which she did with just a hint of smile at the irony of the meal. When she excused herself to tend to her horse and to relieve herself, his heart froze in fear that she was escaping from him. For a moment he thought of taking her prisoner and flying to a remote island where he could have her forever, such had become his desire. But it was not in his heart to do such a thing.
Christi came back long moments later, having traded her battle garb for a soft tunic of a dusty shade of rose. She was tall and firmly built, but not without the soft curves of a woman. He smiled, and she was more warmed by his gaze than by the heat of the fire he kept constantly fed for her comfort. She asked him to continue his tale, which he took up again with renewed enthusiasm, for she had returned having left her fear outside the cave. He poured her some wine, for dragons are known (at least they were) for their love of good, and finely aged wine.
He told her as much as he remembered of the times when dragons were more plentiful and of many sizes. When they were known and loved by man, when man’s vision was more true, before the time of fear blinded them. Many of his tales made her weep, but many made her smile and laugh, so that she lived his lifetime with him in that evening—or in many evenings. For it is not known how long she dwelled in the house of the dragon.
Draconus sadly recounted the history of the demise of the dragons, of how man had hunted them as a quest, as a test of strength and courage. He told her how many dragons had accepted death from a strong, young knight in hopes that the goodness in that knight might shine through when he rose to power. Sadly, this rarely happened. But it was his loneliness she found saddest of all. For he was one of the last of the dragons left on earth, and had not known the company of one of his kind since he was a youth.
“And being a youth, even a dragon youth,” he explained, “ I was full of my own power, and my own beauty and Love for my self, that I did not see nor experience the power, beauty and love all around me. That is, until I was left to do it alone. And while all that in this Creation I still value, and give thanks for, I have always missed the sharing of that…of love and of myself.”
He lowered his eyes and fought for control of his long-checked emotions. When he looked up, Christi had come to stand near him. She was visibly awed and somewhat frightened by the effect of his size so near, but she was drawn forward by something far more powerful.
“Go ahead,” he said softly, coaxing. “I will not bite, nor sear you, Little One.” This time she found the term endearing, and cautiously reached out her hand to touch his cheek.
The scales on his cheeks circled round in a spiral, growing larger as they moved under his powerful jaw. She traced their path carefully, tenderly, delighting in the texture of his skin…in the electricity which jumped from the plates of changing colors to her fingertips and palms. Her smile grew wide, and childlike as she moved her hand beneath his jaw and stroked as she would a beloved kitten. He rewarded her with a low and musical dragon purr. She laughed out loud at the sound, and in laughing grew bolder. So that she moved around his great body, looking and touching, and even daring a tickle under his wings.
“You are a trickster!” he accused, teasingly. “You have touched a dragon before. This is no doubt how you have defeated my brothers in the past!”
Comfortable now, she casually jumped over his huge forked and spiked tail. “Tis not true,” she protested, feigning considerable hurt. “You are my first. You must know this if what you say is true, that there are no others of your kind for many leagues.”
“Then you must be a dream,” he countered. “Because you know me too well.”
“Do all your dreams come to kill you Lord Dragon? And isn’t that exactly what you desired?” she asked, coming up to his face as his expression changed from playful to deeply moved.
“It is exactly as I had desired, but not exactly as I had planned,” he said, looking away from her. “And yes, my dreams often come to kill me.”
“What do you mean?” she asked, full of concern and deeper feelings for a creature with such a heart.
“I often dream of death,” Draconus said simply. “I long for it.”
“Why would you wish to die?” she asked, but she knew already. She felt the weight of his solitude, the depth of his loss of kindred and of the magic that was once his world.
“Yes, you understand,” he said, seeing that she in fact did. “But, I too have fears like humans, and I am ashamed to say that I am equally paralyzed by them.”
“What do you fear?” she asked, stroking his cheek.
“I fear what I remember, what I once knew to be true…I fear it is not.”
“What did you once know that now you are unsure of, dearest dragon?”
“I did not used to fear death because I knew… I remembered… the place I had come from and the place to which I would return. When there were others of us, we would share splendid stories of this place beyond the stars.”
He waved his tail across the ceiling of the cave, and the rock vanished revealing the universe stretched across the night sky. She shuddered at the vision, at his magic. He put his claw gently around her back to reassure her, and stretched his other up to the heavenly view.
“I can no longer find the place in the sky,” he said hoarsely. “I no longer know if it exists. I cling to this life. I eat fatty goats. Because I fear I will cease to BE if I give in to death.”
Christi felt his fear as her own, and she pulled his grasp more firmly around her, holding him there. “But you knew it was there before? Why would it cease to be there now?”
“I am wise enough to know that fear makes no sense, Little One. But not wise enough to free myself.”
“There is something more,” she stated, looking directly into his eyes. She felt an unfamiliar sense of peace at being this open to him…of opening her heart and seeing his. This peace gave her a certainty she had never known as well, as though mysteries would reveal themselves most readily in this state. He tried to look away. “Dear Draconus, you cannot ask me to know you, and then to not know you. What else? What do you try to hide?”
“Perhaps I should not have chosen you to be the One. I needed a hunter of compassion, but you are much more.”
“You chose me?” she asked.
“In a way, yes. Remember, I allowed you to come here and find me sleeping.”
“For what purpose?” she asked, and yet again caught glimpses of the truth floating in the air.
“There is another reason I fear for my soul.”
“Tell me, for I will understand.”
“I have not, in this long life, I have not really loved. Not as my soul has cried out for me to do, as my heart has longed for me to. I fear by not doing so, I may have given away my soul, I may have lost it. And then death will be final, and I will not return to my true realm.”
Christi was deeply and powerfully moved by this confession. Her ears heard her own truth spoken from scaled lips and the clicking tongue of this beautiful creature. Her tears fell freely from wet lashes and green eyes. Her throat was tight with the emotion she held inside. Great sobs escaped a life-long prison. He brought her up, level to his heart and held her gently against his chest. She leaned against him, her small body spreading warmth through his great one. Her tears melting away the fears of his mind.
After a time, she quieted, and put her palm to his breast to feel the pounding of his huge heart.
“You will not lose your soul,” she said quietly. “For I feel your love as I have never felt love before. Can you tell me that what I feel is not there?”
“It is there, Little One. What you feel is true.”
“And can you not feel my love for you. There is so much I feel my heart will burst,” she said, smiling warmly through her tears.
“Yes, yes…I feel it. Don’t cry. I feel it. Although I do not know how you could love the very thing you feared would destroy you, the very thing you came to destroy.”
“You knew from your first question that I would not kill you. Even if I could…I could not,” she declared, searching for his eyes so he might see the truth in hers.
“But you must,” he stated strongly, avoiding her eyes and glancing up to the expanse of sky that still hung as the ceiling of his cave.
“I cannot do what you ask,” she whispered, knowing but refusing to hear what he desired of her.
He raise her up so she could not escape his loving, pleading expression. “If you love me as you say, as I feel…then you know it is what I most desire. It will not end me, but set me free.”
“NO!” she cried, quiet no longer, finally awakened. “Stay with me! How can I , having finally found love, murder it?”
“Precious Little One, you know that you cannot murder love. Now found, now realized, it will always be there for you, as I will…in your heart.”
Still she shook violently in protest and beat on his chest she had before caressed. His heart filled with sadness, but it could not replace the love which had filled it earlier.
“What life could I offer you here on this earth?” he asked. “What kind of life for you to live in a cave with a beast such as I? Don’t you desire a man to love and children to bless your home? What kind of happiness could I offer you? My love would rob you of your life, of your people. That is not my desire.”
“Stop talking always of your desire! What of mine? I do not care about a life like that if having it means not having this love. I have no people! Why do you think I hunt dragons instead of milking cows? I have no one. I desire to be with you!”
“I can not deny that I desire to be with you, but you will grow old and die in what is but a heartbeat to me. Then I will be alone with no way to go home. Is that what you wish?”
“No,” she admitted. “But I will not, I cannot kill you!”
“Yes, you can…you must! Don’t you see?”
“I do not see. I do not! Kill yourself then. Bring the cave down upon us right now! Set it a blaze and consume us in fire. Do it! You have more power than I to end this,” she raged at him.
“Perhaps you are right,” Draconus said, to her surprise. “But I cannot cause my own death and still hope to return home. I would have done that thousands of your years ago, would that have been possible. And I cannot cause yours…not that way.”
“What do you mean?” Christi asked, her rage lessening.
“I swore an oath many, many years ago, not to ever take a human life. Doing so would sacrifice my birthright as well. I cannot bring down the walls of this cave and cause your death…nor mine. There is only one way. You must kill me.”
“Put me down.” He did.
“I do not have the courage to do what you ask,” she said calmly, looking into the fire.
“Yes you do. I see it clearly inside you. It is why I chose you, why I prayed for you, and called to you.”
She looked at him questioningly, “How did you know…to call me?”
“Mankind is anything but complex, My Love. Your hearts are easy to see once you wade past the fear. I’ve watched you hunt. I’ve seen your compassion. I’ve seen your love for the world. I will admit, I longed for that love. But my only hope was that you’d find, in your heart, compassion enough to end my suffering. This great love of yours is much more than I could imagine. It humbles me, and expands me, but it does not keep me from my true purpose. This opportunity will likely not come along again.”
“How can you be so hard? How can you ask of me what you do? I would rather take my own life than yours. I would die with you.”
“Why do you say these things?” his voice heavy with feeling.
“It is what I feel.”
“But you do not mean this,” he stated…he asked.
“Yes, I do. Look into my heart if you really can. See that it is true. See that if I take my sword to you, I will then turn it on myself. If all I have left to share with you is that, I shall share your death,” she stood up and faced him, looking proud and resolved, and completely in love.
He looked, and saw, and took a shaky breath at the possibility before him.
“But you will do as I desire?” he asked.
She nodded her head firmly.
“Why?” his question was a whisper.
“Do you play with me? I will because you desire it….because it will set you free and give you the happiness I desire for you to find. I will because…I love you.”
He put his head down to her face, she embraced his cheek as his lips mouthed I love you as well, and a single tear fell to baptize her head in that love.

After much time, time enough for tears to dry, she whispered, “When?”
“Now.”
Christi stepped back so that she might look into his great golden eyes. “No, not yet. For you have not finished your task which will assure your soul,” she said.
“What do you mean?” he asked quietly.
She reached out and traced the line of his jaw with her finger tips, then moved closer to follow the path with her lips. “You have yet to finish sharing yourself with me, you have yet to know me, and to love me in all ways,” she murmured as her lips continued their journey. She heard his sharp intake of breath.
“Do you understand what you ask?” he questioned, passion creeping into his quiet musical tones. “Do you truly desire what you say?”
“Yes.” She answered, covering his face with kisses and promises.
“Then there is another way to free me,” he whispered.
She quickly stepped back to meet his eyes. Searching, hoping.
“There is another way for us to remain together for as long as you desire,” he said, a warm smile playing on his lips.
“Tell me then,” she commanded, her voice growing husky with her growing lust. “I have told you, shown you what I desire. Tell me how we make it so. I shall do anything.”
“Do not say that until you have heard. This way will end your life as you know it on this earth, and you may not return,” he remarked gravely.
“My Dearest Draconus, I do not care! I will endure it to be with you. How can it be worse then taking the life of such a beautiful creature whom I love?”
“I understand, for this way will require me to take such a life from a beautiful creature.”
“But I thought,” she said, green eyes looking up at him through long lashes, “that you could not take the life of a human.”
“Unless it was in an act of love,” he answered. “There are exceptions, based on love. There are stories of dragons who have so loved humans, and have been forced to take the lives of these humans, at their own request, for love’s sake. Much as you agreed to take mine.”
She swallowed a mouthful of fear and bade him continue with his explanation. He told her what he remembered of the place beyond the stars, and that their souls would travel there together when they met after death. She would become part of his realm, and sacrifice knowledge of her own. “This may seem an easy thing, My Christi, but it will be painful to forget.”
Still, she was determined that this was the best, no the only way, and begged him to make it happen much as he had begged her. Reassuring him that her love was strong and pure, and she knew it would exist through out time and space. Her strength rekindled his own courage, and her smile strengthened his desire to have her near him. Finally, they agreed, both knowing it was their hearts’ desire to free their spirits. Christi, the Huntress, said she would loose her horse, and return to follow him where he would lead.
While she was outside, he again suffered a fear that she would not return. When the moments turned long, he began to despair. A cry of great pain collected in his dragon’s throat, and tears made smoke of heated sobs. Then he looked up and she had returned, with flowers from the meadow for him.
“Do not doubt, My Love. I have made promises I will not be able to keep. But this is a promise I made to my own soul as well as yours. It will not be broken,” she said, placing the flowers within his great claw. Tears slid down his cheeks unheeded.
“Don’t you wish to go outside just once more? To fly and say goodbye?”
“No, I fear I would lose my resolve. I would see the beauty of this world, and I would not have the strength to take you from it, nor to leave it myself,” he replied.
“I confess, I had hoped you’d take me flying, just once,” she said, girlishly.
“My Love, where we are going, you will fly all by yourself.”
Christi smiled and pulled his face down to hers. She tenderly kissed the lids of his eyes, and tasted the tears still pooled at their corners. Her first taste of him made her hungry for more, as her kisses grew more bold and searching. Draconus held very still, allowing and reveling in her exploration which was both innocent and knowingly seductive at the same time. He marveled at her sometimes contradictory nature, the inter-play of strength and vulnerability, of wisdom and wonder. Smiling as she explored him with her tongue, her lips, her fingers, and strong hands, he knew it would truly be an adventure to know and be known by her, as she explored herself in exploring him.
The dragon grew restless in his mounting desire, and gently but firmly placed her to stand in front of him.
“I desire…” he said stretching tall, sparks and smoke coming from his nostrils, steady, consuming gaze never leaving her.
A moment of child-like fear washed across her face, and he thought she might change her mind.
“Do you possess the courage?” he asked, voice rumbling deep in his throat which he casually stroked, expecting to find the imprint of her hot caresses.
In answer, her expression changed to a smoldering glance of promise, and she began to undress for him. Soon she stood naked before him, meeting his gaze with some effort, but with the courage he knew would be necessary to make the journey. He moved his head in close and covered her in a breath of warm air to keep the chill from her soft flesh. Then he inhaled deeply of her scent which stirred long-unfulfilled needs within his dragon’s armor.
“Would that these claws could touch you as a lover should,” he said sadly, realizing the limitations to their rising passions. He stretched out on his belly in front of her, and offered her a resting place within his palm. She welcomed the feel of him against her skin, as she lay back safely there, stroking his talon-like fingers with strong hands. He groaned at the effect such a subtle motion had on his deepest fires.
“Tell me, what would you do if you could touch me as you say?” Christi asked, greatly enjoying her effect on him.
“I would not leave an inch of you unexplored, My Love. I would follow every lovely curve, and dip into every crevice, trace each bone and line of muscle, and memorize every crease of your flesh. I would watch you closely as I explored you, to see how each stop on my journey made you squirm under my hands. I would spend a good bit of time on your lips, knowing fully those weapons which have branded me already,” he explained in a hushed, rasping song of seduction to her. She licked her lips slowly at his last comment, which made him smile.
“But I must admit, that I would perhaps most like to touch your breasts. To have hands like yours to cup them in, to feel your nipples harden in my palms. To gently circle them with a finger, to roughly grab them in my fist.” As he explained his wishes, she began to touch her breasts as he had described, looking at him to see the pleasure he derived from watching her. He continued with his intended route on her body, and she mapped his steps with a growing enthusiasm, as her own caresses aroused her.
“Then, when I was sure to have stirred you, I would not be able to hold back from dipping my hands down to find the well of your desire, to feel the wetness I had called forth from your depths.” She eased her hand down between her thighs to find for him what he sought. He swallowed hard. “Then,” he continued unsteadily, “I would spread you open before me so that I could see where I might pleasure you. Your dewy petals surrounding your flower of ecstasy, or the depths of you I so long to explore.” She chose for him, and rubbed her finger slowly around her folds, then with tightening and quickening circles, until she moved and moaned within his palm. He had to check his breathing or risk scorching her with the fire she stoked inside him.
“Ah,” he smiled as he felt her near her climax. “But I would greatly desire to tease you, to make your pleasure endure until you could not endure it any longer.” He moved her hand from between her legs with his thumb. She moaned in complaint, still moving to her internal rhythms. “There, there,” he laughed softly. “You forget that I also desired to explore your depths.” He let go of her hand, and she reached again for herself. “Now, plunger your fingers deep inside you,” he commanded. “As I would, searching for the embrace of your depths. Do it now!”
Christi complied, arching up to meet her own assault. Draconus stifled the dragon roar that threatened. A cry caught in Christi’s throat as she imagined her dragon within her.
“You are searching for your release, aren’t you My Dear?” the dragon asked. She murmured that she was, nearly lost in her need. Again, he removed her hand. She complained loudly, to his great amusement and satisfaction. “I promised you release, did I not?” he asked.
“Yes, but I thought…” He broke off her worry with a sly smile and a flick of forked tongue on her neck. Her look of realization nearly made him roll with laughter.
“You see, I have been gifted with other methods to enjoy the pleasures we both desire.” He leaned his head in close to her, and began his feasting along her neck. The dragon consumed her earthy scents as he inhaled, and warmed her more as he exhaled. And so he continued to her breasts, which he worshipped much as he had first promised. He traced the muscle of the arm he held under his thumb. Then he released his hold, wrapping his tongue around her wrist and pulling her hand inside his mouth. She was limp form his warm and wet attentions, and offered no resistance. He stroked each finger with his tongue, swallowing the hint of her taste that clung to them, biting gently in hopes of finding more. Until they both could stand the teasing no more.
With a low growl, he dropped her hand from his mouth and spread her legs with his free claw. Christi focused on him with wide-eyed anticipation, as his long and agile tongue approached its target. Her intake of breath steamed as when water hits hot coals, and she arched up longing for more and more. His tongue sent the heat of his desire, of his very being deep into her to mingle with her own. So that, very soon, as its forked magic wove in and out of her folds, it blurred his desire with hers.
But he had already learned her well. When she came near to breaking free, he would stop and sit back, rolling his tongue back into his mouth, enjoying the taste of her there. Waiting, savoring, until she begged him to complete his task. Finally, he complied, massaging her deeply with hot moisture. Diving inside her, licking slowly back along the walls of her womb. He imagined that he had driven her nearly mad, and he was pleased and all the more aroused, as she arched and squirmed and begged him for the release he promised but withheld.
“Now!” he commanded, and he found the rhythm he knew pleased her most. In a heartbeat she felt herself explode in a wave of pulsations which reverberated through her and into him, so that he himself thought he would not be able to hold. Christi called his name over and over, the sound bouncing off the walls of the cave and traveling into the stars he had hung above them. Her call filling his ears as her orgasm waned, and she fell still in his hand.
They slept for awhile then. Pleasant exhaustion and his hot breath cloaked her, making her safe in her nakedness, safe in his embrace. He wondered if he himself would have the courage he had asked of her, but he was a dragon, was he not? He fell asleep listening to her steady breathing.
Christi awoke to find him deep in sleep, stretched out across the cave. She slipped from his hand to explore more leisurely this giant creature she had come to love so much. Amazed that she could find him so beautiful, amazed that one so great could possess such tenderness and love, amazed at her longing to lay with him which stirred strongly within her.
Already, their connection was strong, and her rekindled passion woke his own. He let out an almost musical growl from deep in his throat, and rolled over onto his back. He flicked his tongue teasingly at her, and was surprised when she clamored onto his belly and sat straddling him.
“Show mercy on me, Lord Dragon,” she mock-pleaded. “I can handle no more of your tongue’s kind attentions.” He smiled, licking her face as a puppy would. She wiped away his affection with her palm, and lay down upon him, breast touching his soft under scales. Christi did not realize the affect this had on him. She was unaware how sensitive his seemingly tough scales were, especially to her touch. She just wished to embrace him, to feel his heart beat near hers. Laying there, holding him, she did feel it. A great beat pounding in his chest, beating like a huge drum against her whole body, beating faster, beating faster. She felt his heat wherever their skin touched. She sat up so that this heat could meet her own, and she could feel the beat of his heart rise up inside her.
Draconus stretched to see what she was doing, feeling the electricity spark through his hide, feeling her wetness begin to drip. “Speak not to me about mercy,” he said, dropping his head to the ground, and fighting for control. “When you do torture this poor beast.”
“My Love, it is not my intention to torture you, but to bring you as many pleasures as I am able,” said Christi. “I do believe you will have to help me, and tell me just what I might do.” She looked behind her, down the length of his underside and then back to him questioningly, child-like seductress.
The dragon laughed out loud, his whole body quaking with the effort, the cave filling with his merriment. The huntress road her beast, holding tightly with arms and legs for fear his quaking would throw her to the floor. He put a claw carefully across her to ease her fear and keep her safe, as he tried to control his mirth.
“Little One,” he said, still chuckling. “You are amusingly obvious, and so endearingly unaware.” Christi indignantly struggled against his protection. “Now, now,” he continued, rolling over and placing her on the floor as he sat fully upright in front of her. “I don’t mean to insult you, so drop the daggers you throw with your eyes.”
“How is it that I amuse you so much?” she asked, unwilling to be placated.
“Because you have a woman’s desire as big as all the heavens, wanton and wonderful, and impossible to resist. And yet sometimes you have a child’s way of asking for that desire to be sated, innocent, and unsure, and expecting,” explained the dragon.
Christi was not pleased with his observations, more because she recognized the pure truth in his words. She found herself feeling very naked in front of him, which she was, and she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“Are you cold?” he asked, bending down to her and blowing the warmth of his embers over her. He put his snout between her legs, knocking her slightly off-balance so that she had to brace her hands on his face to keep from falling. He breathed greater heat, a different heat, between her thighs. “I don’t want your fire going out on me, not after feeling it sear through my hide,” he said, voice deep with intimacy. He cut off her attempts at further arguments with more hot blasts from his nostrils. She made no effort to move, and soon no effort to argue.
“My Christi, are you certain of your desires?” he asked. “I will show you what you desire, I will give all that I have promised, but you must be certain.”
“I am,” she said, standing straight and tall in front of him, gently stroking his cheek. He rubbed his face up and down the length of her, inhaling her, giving her courage, drawing from her his own.
“Then behold!” Draconus said, rising up to his full height, holding her firmly in one claw, and unsheathing his dragon’s shaft with the other. “You shall have what you desire…we both shall.”
Christi saw, and felt weak and consumed with passion at the same time. Her blood pounded in her veins, her heart in her chest, and her desire in her loins. Yet her mind could not fathom what her heart called loudly to consummate. She reached out, for her hands ached to touch him, and the dragon brought her to him.
His member stood erect, it’s powerful contours outlined against the pale scales of his belly. Christi put both hands to his shaft and felt the life pounding through it. Draconus threw his head back and moaned loudly into the cave, sparks and smoke coming unchecked from his nostrils. The Huntress attacked her prey with strong, slow strokes and hot, searing kisses. His moans encouraged her, and she began to move against him with her whole body, rubbing her wetness down his length, branding him as her own. Her body and soul cried out her need, and she mumbled his name into her kisses. The heat of her tongue against him sent showers of sparks into the night to mingle with the stars.
Draconus lost himself in the sensations she fueled within him. He feared he would burn from within if she were allowed to continue. Still, he pushed her closer to him, wrapping his claw around her and his shaft, and moving both of them up and down in a rhythm older than all dragons. He knew she was near to her threshold, as he teetered on his own, barely able to remain in control. He looked down and watched her ride him as he stroked, the sight nearly sending him over. Christi caught his eye and in that glance both knew it was time…the knowing was nearly complete. Still holding his gaze, she reached up to the tip of his shaft, to where a great drop of his seed slowly rolled towards her. She dipped her fingers in the molten liquid, and licked them off slowly, lovingly with her tongue, savoring the taste of him. He growled from deep in his belly, and moved her reluctantly away from him.
“Christi, my love, it is time,” he said with a passion that stilled any fear in her mind.
“Yes.” She held tightly, arms wrapped around his claws. He brought his great head down and nuzzled her once more, purring softly against her warm flesh. Then he seized her gaze with his dragon’s power, and with his love.
“Look deeply into my eyes, Little One, for there starts the journey. Keep yourself there and I will do the rest,” his voice was layered with passions and yet soothing like a lullaby. “See your self there, standing on that threshold. Look deep down the corridor at which you are paused, and I will come to meet you there. I will take you beyond the stars, and beyond your dreams, to where your desires are sated, and we will know love!”
Slowly, he moved her back down to his great organ. She opened herself to him, arching with desire, dripping with need. Draconus moved his shaft against her, slowly and then building as his thrusts grew more demanding. Both blinded now by the power of their passion, they called out words of love in the darkness and light that exploded around them.
Finally, the great dragon, one of the last of the dragons, Draconus Woelen, leaned over and whispered to Christi the Huntress, “I swear to you, by all that I am, you will feel no pain. I love you.” Those were the last words she heard as he impaled her with the strength of his dragon’s love.
As he had promised, Christi felt no pain, she felt only the ecstasy of the union as his shaft pierced her womb, exploding within her while her own rapture answered his. Draconus drove into her and released his final dragon roar along with his seed. His fires blasted from his nostrils, setting the cave ablaze, and tuning all the stars of the sky dim by comparison.
In taking her life, he broke his vow, but taking it in love not only released him from his earthbound body, but returned him to his truest form. He found her there at the edge of the tall corridor, shaped as the cat-eye pupil of the dragon he had been. He felt her gaze land on his soul, and he beckoned to her to cross over the threshold and into the realm of love, where they embraced fully, without fear. Forever to exist beyond the stars, in a time and space where dragons still fly.

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Village Soothsayers were brought to the cave not long after it was consumed in flames. The horse had returned to the village, and had been tracked back to the dragon’s lair. Stirring the ashes of the great beast, and the bones of what was assumed to be the Huntress, the Soothsayers weaved a story of a great sacrifice, and a greater love, which is always easier for humans to know in a story than to know in their hearts. This tale was passed down and like most, lost among many other legends and myths of long ago. It is only remembered now by the few who have the vision to find a dragon in the bend of a tree branch, and that love hiding in the depths of their hearts.

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