15. Confession time and Dungeon Entrance
The mood was definitely ruined after the conversation with Eris and explaining all we could without talking about being chosen of Goddesses. She now knew of Kat and I being together, and that this wasn't our first time doing this. She had a lot of embarrassing, prodding questions, that we answered for the most part, apparently hermaphroditism is somewhat rare for the humanoid races so I guess the curiosity was to be expected, and she barely had a filter for her questions.
Eris also didn't seem that surprised when it was eventually brought up that it was Kat's idea to let me to continue to allow Max's advances, though, she was worried I was leading him on at first. Both fortunately and unfortunately for us, the young noblewoman also loved drama and agreed to stay quiet about it for now but we both knew she'd try to tease us about what she saw. Kat did manage to get me back to normal, quarter-dragon size through an embarrassing use of the leash and keeping my dominant instincts dormant with what I quickly found was her drakonid handling skill. I really wished the fighter wasn't around to see it but that couldn't be helped.
“Alex… you're going to have to tell him… soon... things… changed with what happened last night…” Kat whispered to me as we followed draugr marching tracks to find our quest target the next day.
“What? I thought you said you were going to talk to him…?” I asked just as quietly.
“I don't think we were supposed to do that last night…" She sighed. “Waiting now is going to hurt him instead… and if Eris ends up telling him… Look, I know you care about him, tell him… he'll just be your boyfriend first before I can get to know him more…”
“Feels so weird to hear you say that…” I glanced back at the other two to thankfully find them distracted talking with each other.
“I know, just good luck, ok? Trust your judgment and everything should be fine.”
“Wait, you mean now??”
“Sorry, I can't say anything else… the more I meddle the more I mess things up… just trust me, I'm trying to give you the best chance possible.” Kat sighed again then she gave a small smile and playfully but lightly tapped my arm with her fist. “Hey, Eris, come over here”
“Hmm?” our fighter replied and I soon found her on the other side of me.
“We're faster and quieter, let's scout ahead” Eris gave her a confused look at first then she looked between the two of us.
“Okay…? If you count me as quiet” She shrugged and laughed a little. “Let's go then, drakewarden.” She grabbed Kat's arm and quickly led her off ahead.
“What is that about…? Isn't Kat a hunter?” Max asked as he caught up to me.
“She's… just joking with her… might be talking about what we told her last night about our past…” I sighed.
“Speaking of… you guys have been acting weird since last night… everything ok?”
“Yeah, everything is fine, we're just figuring things out since finding each other…” I gave a small smile “...you, Kat and I might have to talk about something after we deal with this.” I motioned towards the tracks.
“Huh… why? D-did Kat say something to you…?” Panic started to enter his voice.
‘Shit, that might have been the wrong thing to say... fuck it, I'll tell him now... Kat made it seem urgent that I did...’ I thought as I stopped and gently grabbed his hand. “What are you worried about…?”
“W-well… um Kat and I talked before… and…” He stammered, a blush quickly spreading across his face.
“And both of you like me…?”
“S-she did tell you!” He whined and nervously clutched at his staff. “I-I wanted to tell you eventually… just every time I got close I got nervous and couldn't do it…”
“... it's fine, Max.” I gently squeezed his hand and his ears folded back.
“D-did you already pick her…?”
“... that's part of the problem… I can't pick only one of you… I've… been in love with her for years… and everything came out the night we found each other… and we…” his face fell immediately and I panicked, this was exactly what I didn't want to happen. Not wanting to lose him, I grabbed the front of his robes and pulled him into a kiss.
“Mmph…?” he whined softly as he practically melted against me.
I hesitantly broke the kiss and hugged him against me “Look… I like you too… just as much as her… and... I just said I can't pick just one of you…”
“W-what? You're just going to cheat on her with me…?” He whined as he gave me a confused look.
“N-no, no… not cheat… she… actually encouraged me to get with you too.”
“...what?”
“Look, it's really confusing to me too… I never even thought about being with a guy before you let alone being in a relationship with two people at the same time.” I nervously flicked my tail behind me as I hugged him more. “I'm really sorry, I know you haven't been with anyone before and this is really unfair to ask you to be ok with…”
“...Gods I should be mad at you two…” he mumbled and shyly started hugging me back “... but I was so worried you'd say no to me…”
“... u-um before you say you're completely fine with it… you do need to know… um I'm not completely a girl… so…in case that's a deal breaker…” he froze and looked up at me again.
“What do you mean by that…?”
“Um… this is awkward but I have a dick too… I have everything else you expect but I didn't want you to be surprised by it if we go that far...”
“...” He shyly studied my face then he squirmed a bit and looked away. “...T-That's not going to scare me away… but I-I'm not sure about… um t-taking …”
“O-ok, good… and that's fine…” I sighed in relief, but I also was worried about potentially ‘receiving’. “There's more I need to tell you and I really want to, but I need more time… ok?”
“Ok… c-can't be that bad, right…?”
“N-nothing bad… I would say... um I guess its some... responsibilities I have... I just need to figure out how to tell you” I gave him a comforting smile and playfully kissed him again. “I promise, I'll tell you when I'm ready” ‘Can't tell him about being a chosen yet… or a full dragon… but as long as he knows I want to tell him something else, it doesn't feel like lying anymore…’
“...ok” he mumbled happily.
“Hehe you act so different when you're the one being kissed~” I laughed softly and he snapped out of his daze.
“Nngh? W-what do you mean?”
“You kissed me the other day~ before Kat could.”
“I-I don't know what you're talking about…” he gave me an adorably confused look then realization dawned on his face. “Oh gods… that wasn't a dream…”
“It wasn't~” my laugh came out as a giggle as I patted his head. “I really appreciated it though, even though you were drunk for our first kiss~”
“T-that one shouldn't count! Y-you kissed me first just a bit ago! T-That's our first kiss!” He whined against me. I laughed more and gently pried him off of me.
“Hmm I dunno, I definitely remembered the kiss that confirmed my feelings for you.” I grabbed his hand and gently started leading him again as he protested more.
“But I had been thinking it was a dream! Y-yours should count more!” Him being upset about this more than me holding back on telling him about me and Kat was a big relief.
“... Nah” I teased and gave him a smile. “Yours was cute, you got so determined and you just went for it~ if you want I can just give you more kisses when we're done with this job~ just try not to get too distracted with all of this.”
“F-fine, but you have a lot to make up for though…” he mumbled but I could see his tail wagging behind him. I smiled more at his adorableness and happily kept leading him to catch up with the other two.
“Hey, lovebirds!” Eris yelled across the field we found her and Kat in, and in front of a cave that was sealed off with Nordic stone architecture that reminded me of a barrow from Skyrim. Kat looked up from retrieving an arrow from a dead draugr and she seemed relieved when she saw us. “You missed some fun”
“Sorry… how many were there?” I apologized as I approached.
“Just two, they fought better than most of the horde yesterday, though”
“They don't smell as godawful.” I observed. “Did they just send the rotten ones out?”
“Who knows…” Kat said as she walked over. “We tried the door but it's not budging for us. You want to give it a try? I'm hoping it's just that we aren't strong enough.”
“It might be locked, but sure'' I suggested and let go of Max's hand to go check out the foreboding wood and metal door. ‘The draugr yesterday were kind of weak, why would they use a door they can't open with their own strength…?’
“You didn't tell me you were already together!” Max hissed to Kat as I walked away.
“Oh you guys figured stuff out? That's good” Kat giggled. “So I don't have to be secretive about being her girlfriend anymore?”
“Aww, she confessed to you already? I wanted to watch the drama” Eris laughed.
“You too?!” The mage whined. "Why am I the last one to find out all of this...?"
‘At least he doesn't sound too angry with them…’ I thought, looking over the door and quickly noticing my magic detection activate on it. ‘Huh, weird… the draugr didn't seem too good with magic…’ I scanned over the door from a few yards away and spotted an almost cuneiform-like writing across the double doors. A popup appeared before me with the translation to common.
Draconic to Common translation:
This Barrow welcomes those who are faithful to the Goddess of Conquest and Treasure as she has provided our people with glory.
‘Goddess of conquest and treasure?’ My tail flicked a bit in thought. ‘I really should read that book more… I don't know any of the other gods well ’ I shrugged and decided I might as well try to brute force it open, I had the best chance out of everyone. I stretched a bit to prepare myself before charging at the doors. I tried to brace myself for impact but it never happened, the doors swung open when I got within feet of it and I nearly ran into a large brazier in the center of the room on the other side. “Uh… it's open!”
“You find a switch or something?” Eris asked as she strolled in first. “I figured you'd just break it down”
“... I tried and it opened before I could touch it” My tail flicked in irritation this time, breaking something did seem like fun.
“Why does it smell like the ocean?” Kat asked as she and Max followed in after the fighter.
“Don't know, the draugr smelled like this yesterday… just more… death and I still smell that here…” I glanced at Max and the look on his face confirmed he could also sense it too.
“Weird,” my girlfriend sighed then playfully kissed my cheek before walking to a door at the back of this entrance room. I quickly noticed that Max got an adorable pouty look at this.
‘Oh… Kat might get the competition that she wanted with him’ “We should probably follow before she gets too far ahead…”
“Yeah…” he mumbled and followed me when I turned to go after our ranger. She was already pushing the door open as we walked over, revealing a staircase that led down into an unlit tunnel.
“Fucking Skyrim all over again.” I grumbled softly and immediately heard a muffled laugh from Kat as she covered her mouth and tried to pass it off as a cough before the other two noticed.
“You want to go first, Dragonborn?” She teased and motioned down the stairs. I rolled my eyes at her.
“Very funny. Not like I have a choice, I probably see the best in the dark anyways”
“Max had the same eye shine as you last night.” She shrugged. “Hey, Max, how good can you see in the dark?”
“Um… not great…? I can see better than my dad at night … so I guess better than most humans?” He answered.
“He's definitely not going up front.” I said. “I'm the barbarian anyways, I can take a hit.”
“I can go if you're too afraid Ms. dragoness~” Eris laughed.
“You'd be blind and I'm going, just give me a moment.” I drew my sword and after some thought, I used my fire breath to coat the blade with the flaming liquid my mouth made to use it as a torch for the others. I then started down the stairs in front of everyone, keeping watch for movement in the darkness beyond the light of my sword.
The tunnel that the stairs led down to matched my expectations of what I was going to see: nearly completely carved from stone with mostly empty alcoves on either side but a few had dead or dormant draugr. I approached the first occupied alcove and tentatively poked at the draugr and thankfully it didn't respond and I gave the all clear for the others to follow me. As we walked further in, the number of unoccupied spots where there should be entombed draugr concerned me and left me hoping that either we, town guards, or other adventurers had dealt with the missing ones already. Furthermore, the further I led my party into the eventual maze of corridors, dispatching occasional groups of draugr that were actually active, I felt dread in the pit of my stomach along with the growing disgust for the creatures.