20. Back from the Temple
When I opened my eyes again, I found myself back in the tent, naked again and back to the smaller, quarter-dragon form with Max's head buried against my chest.
“Must've moved here when he got unstuck…” I sighed as I looked around the tent, quickly focusing on folded clothes the same color as what I wore during the meeting with a piece of paper rolled up on top of them in the corner with my belongings. “Ok… it actually happened… no clue how she took me away without you noticing…” I gently patted his head and he mumbled happily as his ears flicked slightly at the touch.
“Mm…” he groaned softly and nuzzled against me more.
‘So cute…‘ I happily gave him a slight squeeze, resulting in more cute mumbles ‘Wish that you and Kat were all that I had to worry about, not all the bullshit with the gods…’ I sighed and wrapped my wings around him as I let myself start to relax again. After a few minutes of enjoying being cuddled by the cute dog boy, though, his ears started twitching before he stretched and slowly lifted his head from my tits.
“Nngh…?”
“Hey, pup, sleep well?” I teased softly and his ears quickly folded back against his head as a blush spread across his face.
“Y-yeah…” he mumbled softly and shyly looked away for a moment before quickly leaning in and kissing me. A soft giggle escaped me as I happily kissed him back and playfully wrapped my tail around him.
“Aww, still need to work up your courage for that? Even after last night?” I laughed softly and squeezed him against me.
“... a-a little…” he whined softly, his blush deepening as I held him against me. I smiled a little and kissed him softly, making him melt onto me almost immediately. “Nngh…”
“Don't think about it too much, ok? Makes it easier when your nerves aren't in the way~”
“...o-ok” he sighed softly and nuzzled into my chest again then froze when he seemed to notice what he just did.
“It's ok, pup~ I just let you fuck me, you can get comfy there~”
“Ok…” he took a breath to steady himself and shyly nuzzled more “U-um, about that… are you ok? Y-you fell asleep right after… I was worried…”
“I'm fine, still sore,” I laughed and kissed the top of his head.
“Sore…? D-did I hurt you??” He gave me a worried look “I-I knew we should have waited… y-you were just hurt…” I smiled a bit as he started rambling.
“Max, you didn't hurt me.” I tried to tell him but he was too busy fussing about me and mumbling to himself. I let it continue for a moment before I unwrapped my tail and wings from him and easily rolled both of us over so that he was under me with a cute yelp from him. I then playfully grabbed his hands and pinned them above his head. His ears folded back against his head shyly as he looked up at me. “See? Perfectly fine~ not much pain from moving.”
“Oh… um…” he stammered softly, obviously losing his train of thought as he stared up at me.
“I really appreciate you worrying about me but I'm tough, ok?” he nodded a little and I kissed his nose softly. “But next time you're definitely getting me ready before we get too excited and do it anyways~”
“O-ok…” he squirmed under me a bit.
“Good boy~” I teased, then happily kissed him. I immediately realized that was a mistake when I had him pinned like this as I felt him get hard against me. Even more worrying was the popup that appeared, even with my eyes closed.
Animal Handling skill (Rank E) has been acquired
‘Dammit, he already practically melts when I kiss him, I don't need a skill to help that. W-wait he took charge yesterday at the end… kinda? Does he have the draconid one like Kat???’ I quickly let go of his wrists and broke the kiss to get off of him as I felt my face grow warm with embarrassment and arousal. “S-sorry, didn't mean to get you excited again so soon. Didn't realize that would affect you that much.”
“W-why does it feel so good to be…” he whined softly and his own tail tucked between his legs and he shyly covered his groin with it the best he could. I smiled a little at this.
“Y-you're just into it, pup~” I gently patted his cheek then I crawled over to my belongings to check the piece of paper before he could see it. “Oh, so, um… how did you get everything cleaned up so good…? I can't even tell that we did anything last night…?” I tried to keep him distracted with a question.
“K-kat taught me that prestidigitation can do more than just sparks…” He mumbled, still seeming dazed. “Dunno how she knew it could clean too…”
‘Forgot you had that, would have been nice to avoid the bath incident but if that didn't happen we wouldn't be together yet…’ I thought with a sigh as I unrolled the paper to read it. “She probably saw it used like that before.”
Alex,
Thank you for your cooperation with the meeting. I left you how I found you with your mate but I also decided to leave you the clothing I provided, enchanted to be able to fit you in any humanoid form.
‘Thanks but I can't exactly start wearing it right away and it's still a dress. Not good for fighting even if I wanted to wear it…’ I thought as I grabbed the outfit and stored it away in my pack. I glanced at the rest of the letter and was only able to catch the words: mate-bond before I heard Max start to get up behind me. I folded the letter in half and put it away as well. ‘I'll look at that part with Kat…’
“Y-you're probably right. She had to see it before… I don't even know if rangers can learn it… and she acted like she didn't have it.”
“I don't think she does,” I shrugged and fished clean clothes out from under the new outfit.
“You don't know…?” He gave me a confused look.
“She didn't have magic the last time we met… and I keep forgetting to ask…” I explained as I pulled underwear on, much to Max's apparent disappointment. “Or I've forgotten them to be honest… don't have the best memory, I forgot you had prestidigitation too.”
“She definitely has Ensnare…” he mused softly and a shiver of arousal went up me as I remembered her leashing me with the spell.
“I-I'll ask her later. Won't hurt to know so we can strategize… Let's just get dressed and head out, ok?”
“I-it doesn't sound like they're packing up or cooking yet though…” he gave a cute pleading look. “Being held by you felt good…”
“I'd love to cuddle you more but we're both getting too excited being pressed together like that” I teased softly and playfully prodded his chest with my tail. “Like I said, I'm still sore from last night~”
“Sorry…” he mumbled and shyly hugged my tail.
“Max, don't start worrying about me again. It's ok” I smiled and leaned over to kiss his cheek before continuing to get dressed. It was a bit awkward, but I let him continue to hold onto my tail since it seemed to make him happy. He made no move to get ready as well and was still hugging my tail by the time I was dressed. “I'm going to need that back, pup~”
“...” he hugged my tail tighter for a moment then seemed to get a burst of courage. “I-I want a kiss first…”
“Oh yeah…?” I giggled softly and moved closer to him. His ears perked up and he made no effort to hide his wagging tail as I leaned in and cupped his cheek. “You're going to make me spoil you by making demands like that just to get my tail back.”
“Y-you still owe me kisses…” he mumbled and leaned his head against my hand.
“Mhmm” I rolled my eyes then pulled him into a deep kiss. He whined happily and almost immediately dropped my tail as I pressed my lips against his. I soon had to break it when I felt excitement start to well up in me again, leaving him panting softly and dazed again. “Happy now~?” He gave a little nod and I kissed his cheek before pulling away to exit the tent, playfully grazing my tail across his body as I left.
“Morning, cutie!” Kat called out and I looked at the source of her voice to see her sitting with Eris on the rock that they were using to keep watch from.
“Good morning” I called back as I stretched my wings out.
“You're getting the middle of the night shift next time we camp!” Eris yelled, her voice, despite sounding tired, revealed that she was in a lot better mood than the previous night.
“Good morning to you too.”
“I'm not joking, miss dragoness!”
“I know, I'm fine with taking a night watch next time.” I laughed as I walked over to them.
“You better be,” Kat jumped in as I heard her voice invade my mind as well, the magic detection aura lighting up around her. ‘How is he? Can he walk or are you going to have to carry him back~?’
‘You're already using that spell again…? Max is fine, I'm probably more sore than him…’
‘Oh yeah?’ She sounded even more amused at this.
“You guys let me rest yesterday… of course I'm going to try to take a watch next time to make up for it,” I responded to the vocal conversation, trying to ignore the inevitable mental teasing.
“Good.” Eris laughed and hopped down from the rock. “I grabbed your trophy by the way, I wanted to hang onto it to make sure you weren't completely sane yet”
“Trophy?”
“The poleax. You did kill the draugr. I'll keep it if you don't want it but you broke your sword so…” she teased as she walked away towards the tents.
‘Sore huh~? Here I was worried about you bruising his hips, amazon~.’ Kat continued. I sighed and glanced back at her as she got down from the rock as well. She then playfully cupped my cheek and pulled me into a kiss.
‘I-I didn't change this time… a-and he was bigger than I thought…’ I responded, getting lost in the feeling of the kiss for a moment.
‘Oh he is~?’
“I leave you guys alone for a minute and you're already making out,” Eris's voice sighed and I quickly pulled away from my girlfriend, feeling warm again already as I turned to face our fighter. She looked unamused with the draugr's weapon resting on her shoulder, and a hand on her hip.
“Of course~ she is my girlfriend after all~” Kat giggled and hugged me from behind.
‘You're just enjoying being taller than me again…’ I thought, but when she gave me a squeeze I realized I was broadcasting it to her as well.
“Mhmm, maybe you two shouldn't share a tent when we camp,” the fighter started chastising us in a joking tone, a slight smile at the corners of her mouth and I watched as Max crawled out from our tent, finally clothed and up. “If you two can't control yourselves around each other~ at least Max can control himself when he's alone with you.” The half-inugami in question's ears shot back immediately as his blush quickly returned before he went to retreat back into the tent.
‘Sorry, pup, you walked out at the wrong time’ I sighed and focused on Eris. “Y-yesterday was a lot for us, you can't blame us for wanting to be affectionate…”
“If you say so,” she sighed with a slight smirk then offered the weapon out to me. “Here's your trophy.” Kat let go of me so that I could take it. It had similar designs to the other draugr weapons, aged wood haft and dark metal for the weapon head but in the light and not having it swung at me, I could see that it was practically pristine, aside from the fresh bloodstain on the spear point, as if it was just made, and it had a magic aura around it. I immediately used inspect on it to see if I could find out more.
Identifying….
Identification partially successful: minor artifact of Goddess of Dragons
????
Enchanted Poleax
Enchantment :???? Elemental type of breath ????
Weapon size scales with size of attuned user.
Current haft length: approx 6ft
Current attuned user: ???? (Deceased)
Warning User Currently unattuned to weapon, enchantments will not activate
“Huh, it's magic… guess that explains why it made ice when it hit me…” I mused as I turned it over in my hand.
“Is it magic? How can you tell??” Eris gave me a surprised look and reached out for the ax again.
“Ah ah, you said it was my trophy~” I laughed as I playfully pulled it away and rested it on my shoulder, careful not to jab my wing with the spear point.
“Fine, but how can you tell so quick?” She crossed her arms.
“Think its a dragon thing, but I can see magic around people when they cast spells and I guess objects too.”
“Did you actually want it now that you know it's magic?” Kat giggled, “Bit heavy for you, isn't it? You have your bottomless bag anyways! It won't hurt for someone else to have something magical.”
“What's magical?” Max asked shyly as he walked over, obviously having taken the time to calm down from being flustered about what he overheard.
“Eris saved the draugr's weapon for me. It's magic,” I replied, hefting it off my shoulder a bit.
“Oh? Um do you need help attuning to it…? I haven't done it before but I have a book at home that might help…” He offered, his tail wagging slightly and clearly wanting to be helpful.
“Sure, you probably know more about this stuff than I do,” I smiled and kissed his forehead and his tail wagged faster.
‘Cute,’ Kat's voice giggled in my head ‘You bind him to you too last night~?’
‘I didn't get the message that it happened… oh, thanks for reminding me… Rissaeth gave me a note, it has something about the bond on it but I didn't get to that part yet.’
“We should pack up so you can actually go do that at a reasonable time today.” Kat said out loud before switching back to the message connection ‘You can give me the note, I'll read it while you do that little magic date with your boyfriend~ You owe me an actual date though~’
“Probably a good idea,” I agreed and gave her a quick kiss before grabbing Max's hand to lead him back to the tent to start putting it away. ‘It probably won't be much of a date, Kat, but sure’
‘Thank you~’
Breaking camp took almost no time, and getting back to Vinewood was only about an hour's hike away. It took a couple more hours to find a wagon in town that was headed towards Rookville and negotiate a ride back instead of walking. By the time we actually got back to our destination, it was already early evening. I let Kat take care of securing a room for us and I handed my bag off to her to let her take a look at Rissaeth's note while Eris got her own room. I noticed that Max seemed nervous as we split ways with Kat and Eris to make our way to his house, with his ears shyly folded back and he was clutching his staff close.
“What's wrong?” I asked, playfully nudging him a bit.
“Huh? O-oh it's nothing…” He shook his head a little, trying to act like he's fine.
“I can tell that you're nervous…”
“... w-well um… i-it's just that Mom's going to know right away…” he sighed.
“Nothing wrong with that, right? She seemed to like me.”
“S-she does! It's just… since you're my first girlfriend…”
“Oh… I understand, you haven't brought anyone home like this”
“H-have you…?” He gave a pleading look.
“Um, Kat's met my parents but not as my girlfriend… I also had one before her that they knew about but never met… so… no, sorry.” I gave an apologetic smile.
“Oh gods, I have to meet your parents sometime too… a-and they're both part dragon…” I flinched a bit at this, knowing he'd never meet them and gently pulled him off to the side between a couple buildings.
“Don't think about that yet, ok, pup? One thing at a time, you're just making yourself worry more than you have to.” I cupped his cheek to make him focus on me.
“O-ok…” He mumbled, slowly relaxing against my hand for a few moments “I-I normally hate it when people call me that…”
“O-oh... um, Sorry for calling you it last night... I can stop if you want...?”
“N-no!” He quickly blurted then a blush spread across his face. “I-it feels different when it's you…”
“You're too cute,” I laughed softly and kissed him. He whined with embarrassment at first but he quickly relaxed again. “Feeling better…?” He gave a slight nod. “Ok~ let's get moving again then~”
“O-ok!” He hesitantly grabbed my hand before starting to lead me to his house again, a little more confident now.
‘Glad I have such a good effect on him~’ I thought happily as we walked. He didn't let go until we reached the door and he immediately got it open and held it open, his ears folding back shyly.
“U-um after you,” he yipped softly and his tail wagged slightly behind him.
‘So cute~’ I smiled and happily took his offer, walking in ahead of him.
“Mom, we're back from the quest!” He called out when he entered and his ears quickly folded back when her voice called back from the kitchen.
“You're back sooner than I thought, everything go alright?” She responded
“Everything went fine, Mrs. Wells” I answered for him as I walked to the kitchen door so that I wasn't rude and talking to her through a door, getting a look from my boyfriend as I did so. I gave him a comforting smile and lowered my voice to him. “Go find the book you were talking about, I'll take the heat about being together if it comes up.” He gave a slight nod before making his way to the stairs.
“Oh, hello Alex!” She greeted cheerfully as she looked over from a cutting board, currently working on cutting vegetables for what looked like a stew or soup with the ingredients she had around. “How are you holding up with having extra dragon in you?”
“Getting used to it faster than I thought” I shrugged. “Would you like help with anything?”
“Only if you're willing to stay for dinner,” she laughed. “I'm not putting you to work if you're not going to enjoy it too.” I thought about it before relenting, not knowing how long the attunement will take.
“Sure, I'll stay for dinner, what do you need me to do?”
“Wash your hands and chop up the vegetables, I can take care of the chicken.” I nodded and immediately went over to the nearby sink to do as she asked, setting the poleaxe down in a corner away from everything. “You said everything went fine?”
“I got fairly beat up at the end, have a new scar, my fault really, but everyone else is fine.” I answered dismissively.
“I swear all you front-lining adventurers are the same, especially you barbarians,” she sighed. “Max's father is the same, getting hurt protecting the rest of the party all the time, especially protecting me.” I glanced at her as I was drying my hands off to ask about that only to find her giving me a knowing look.
“O-oh his dad is a barbarian?” I asked, trying in vain to steer the conversation away from the inevitable.
“Close, a Skald, but don't think you're getting out of it so easily, young lady. Just so you know, my ears and nose are just as good as any dog's. And you were talking just outside the door.”
“He said you'd find out right away…” I sighed and hesitantly walked over, still willing to help with dinner prep.
“He knows he can't hide anything from me,” she laughed. “I'm happy to know you're together finally but you have another scent on you that's making me concerned. You've been kind and respectful every time I've seen you so you must have a good reason…”
‘Shit, she can tell… no point of hiding it from her, I guess...’ I thought in slight panic. Despite it not being in her nature, the observation that she still had the knife in her hand still crossed my mind. “So a weird situation came up… between Max, me and Kat, the friend I've been trying to get to…”
“You aren't leading him on are you?”
“N-no, I learned that both of them liked me around the same time… I couldn't pick one of them…”
“So you plan on dating both of them?” She gave me an incredulous look.
“To be fair, It was Kat's idea that I try… not mine.” as she kept the look towards me I felt obligated to continue talking. Cursing my inability to hide things from my own mom, I sighed and lowered my voice “Probably because she thinks he's cute too…”
“Nyarae, ‘preciate it but I didn't mean for this much help for him” She said under her breath as she pinched the bridge of her snout “Calidus, you're going to get a kick out of this when you meet your son again…” she looked back at me “Max at least knows what you are doing, right?”
“I-I made sure he knew, wanted to give him a chance to back out if he wanted… but he didn't… look, I care about both of them equally… I won't do anything to hurt Max… I promise”
“You're lucky you made a good impression, I trust you to keep your word about this” she sighed, seeming to collect herself before giving a slight smile. “As long as he's happy with the arrangement, I'm not going to get onto you too much about this. I am, however, going to get onto him for letting you face me alone even if you offered to do this. Now come here and help with the veggies like you offered.”
‘Sorry, Max, tried to make it easier for you’ “Y-yes ma'am” I replied and followed her directions, willing to help however she wanted me to.