A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 21

Yuan was careful in how she worded things -- very careful. She wanted it to sound a certain way to Beyl'eth. Her friend was no dummy, but Yuan was a dragon, the epitome of patience and very nearly so for cunning, though she meant no harm here. To her, it was very important that the Tarkroth mate -- if they were the last pair, so to Yuan, it was important that they be a pair. From the little that she knew thus far, Beyl'eth's pride could cause her some trouble. She hoped not.

Yes, she told herself, it would hurt a little, because she'd really felt love for Billy, but it wasn't as though they'd really had something for a time. They'd only barely started. To a dragon, everything could be compartmentalized. It was a small matter to separate herself at this point.

If they'd had something - really had something, then Yuan would move mountains for the one she loved.

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As they discussed what would need to be done and the way to do it, Yuan ate and sat Beyl'eth down again as she was told of what had happened between Yuan and Billy a few nights previously.

"I was surprised at how much work it was to get him to lie with me," Yuan said, "and it was more than the language. I could see that he wanted me -- and yet, he didn't want me at the same time, so I see what you tell me about how he withdraws.

I was upset then, not so much over him, but I thought that you had died as I flew here. I wanted only to forget what I thought that I had to do the next day to deal with the body of the only friend that I have ever had. I was feeling sick and being with him was a way to set everything aside."

She looked at Beyl'eth closely, "Or have I upset you with this?"

"Only a little," the demon smiled uncomfortably, "but I am thinking of what you said about sharing. If he saw you as the human, ... Yuan, I have no charms to match yours."

"Yes you do," Yuan smiled, "You do not see it, but you are so beautiful to me. Even more than you were on the island. This is how you should look always. He is as you are, so do not think about him not wanting you. He will want you, Beyl'eth. You are very fine to look at.

I have a third shape which neither of you have seen. It is a little closer to what you are in size. Before I sleep tonight, I will change it again. I wish to make it plain that I am what I am, and so I will do that, and also, I wish to be a little smaller, closer to the height of my friend, closer to the fine body that she has. I ask my friend for her help.

You can guide me if you would, and after that, unless I have a need for the human shape, such as finding myself needing to be among them, he will not see that one again. I wish you to help me to look as you do, other than some things which I must keep as what I am. Help me to become what I wish, as much as it can be done, since I can change this shape. It is the newest one for me, and so it is still changeable. The others are not. They are what I was born as. It should tell you something about your charms if I wish for mine to be like them.

Would you help me?"

Beyl'eth looked at Yuan searchingly, "I think that I can understand that there are no others for you. In this, you are as I would be without the chance that we talk of -- and of course, we assume that he would want this, so it could turn into the very same thing for me. But while I can see how you MIGHT wish for what we speak of, I think that I can see that you really want this, and thinking of that, I remember now that you have not told me how it was with him, so I think that you have not said something else as well."

Yuan sagged a little and looked a guiltily at Beyl'eth, "There is more, but I do not know how to say it. I do not wish to hide anything from you, but, ... Beyl'eth, of us two, I think that you know more of males than I. I have only had a few, and it was done so that they could not see me. You call me beautiful always, but you are the only one who has really seen anything much of me. He is the only male who has ever seen my body aside from the one who was as my father to me.

I know now that I did not see him as he is, but I can say that he has a strange beauty which comes to me anyway. I can say that he was very kind to me and so gentle because I think that he knew that I needed that. I cried under him, Beyl'eth, I was so happy with him."

She looked down, "I am sorry that I did not say it plainly. It likely means nothing and he will want you when he sees that he has the chance, but, ... I am sure that I love him. We could not speak to each other, but I knew it at the end. Can you see this in me? Does it change anything? I would be happy to be his, and I could share him with you easily. What I am, I think that I must be happy to take what I can find for myself."

"I can feel it a little," the demon said, "but, ... "She pointed to the corner of the sleeping bag that Yuan held, "You worry that thing so much that I think you will wear it through soon. When I spoke of his sadness, your fingers almost flew in how you twist and turn it, so your feelings and your worry for him are plain.

I have known and played with many males in happier times, Yuan, but I have never taken one because of what I am. A Rohn makes her choice once only. I have never had anything inside me but my fingers -- well, yours too, a little.

So this is why you wish to become like a Tarkroth? To share a male with me and try for young with him?"

Yuan nodded slowly, "Yes. And, ... there is more as well. I was sent here for a purpose, and I see that it was not known clearly by my mother, so I must search and seek to learn more. But I know that no matter what is found or done in all of it, I have found people who are like me in having some ability. But you have something which I lack and I grow to want it very much. You are a kind which has learned to stand together and lean on each other to be helped and to help in return. I think it is because of the place where you came from. I want this. I am all alone, and I do not wish to be. I seek to belong to someone and a place to belong to as well."

If they hadn't been friends as close as they'd gotten since they'd met only a short time ago, Yuan would have said nothing about being with Billy. If they were only a pair of females here with not much between them, Yuan might have tried to do what she could to try for Billy all by herself -- dragons also being capable of selfishness. But Yuan was going for the bigger picture here.

First and foremost, she'd help Beyl'eth in any way that she could. Second, their kind should have a chance to survive in her view.

And thirdly, she wanted to smirk to herself, if it meant that she might have to share with her friend, she had no issues, as long as she got some. The way that she looked at it, their friendship was the main gift to her. She'd do anything for Beyl'eth even try to guide her without her knowledge if she could. She planned now to be here for a while, so if she found herself with young, she'd have a chance to keep her kind alive as well.

She didn't know about the lifespans of these wild demons, but she was fairly confident that as a dragon, she had a long run left to find somebody. She wasn't about to ruin Bey'leth's chance at the last of her kind. Besides, as a human-looking male, he'd been sweet. She really wanted to lay eyes on what he looked like as the male version of her friend. She went back to their conversation.

"That is why I want to be as you are -- as much as I am able to make myself as you are. Can I be accepted like that? Will you help me?

Beyl'eth hugged Yuan and nodded against her head, "I would help you in anything, Yuan."

Yuan smiled her thanks, "I made no joke when I spoke of sharing, though it will have to be seen if it can be." She reached out and moved Beyl'eth's hair back over her shoulder. "I have a practical need in mind for us both, Beyl'eth. Can I tell you?"

The demon smiled and nodded, taken a little aback at Yuan's words.

"There are only two mountain demons left," Yuan said. "It is my desire that they mate, and you must know why. But what then? If you made enough little ones between you, all that there is for them is another of their own family. It could work if each generation made enough young, and some left after a time, so that there are two groups for each one to choose a mate from, but it is not the best thing.

Another possibility is if you and Ayt'han each mate with your own children, but that is even worse, for the confusion and other things which would come from it." She grinned then, "And I can even see that you do not like it, but wait, I only said it to show you another way.

If you can accept me as a part of this clan and allow me to mate with him too, and if his seed takes in me as well as it will in you, then we have a better mix of the blood -- two lines, and what comes with that, and though each will be half his, it will be better for everyone. What do you think?"

"I think," Beyl'eth smirked as she got up to refill Yuan's bowl for her, "That my luck improved that day when you and I met. I also think that these dragon girls are a low-down and sneaky lot, for the way that they act like a splinter, working ever inward toward what they wish for their selfish dragon hearts."

She looked down, as though she could see right through the table and the sleeping bag which her friend was wrapped up in as she sat, "Or maybe it is not for their hearts so much."

She plonked the bowl down in front of Yuan, "Eat," she laughed, "I wish for you to grow fat and ugly.

Fine," she said, "I think that it might be able to be done. We will make a clan. For that, you and I will have to work together. This is not a place where one like you can take the weather as lightly as Ayt'han and I can. I have a sense that in only a little time, it will grow cold enough to make him and me happy. You would die without help, so it is more than my joke. If his seed takes in one or both of us, I think we will need to help each other more than ever, because we still will need to eat."

Yuan nodded earnestly as she ate.

"More," the demon smiled with a sigh, "I really liked it when we played, you and I. It reminded me of being a young girl again with no cares. To have found that with you was a wonder, and I want it still, even though we can now speak to each other."

Yuan nodded as she worked to get a mouthful of soup down, "Agreed," she grinned, "I have never laughed so hard."

"Good," Beyl'eth smiled, "because it will become very important, if you wish for success with him. Tarkroth mating is a strange mixture of things -- mostly because of where we have always lived.

If you are in a warm place such as this with your mate, then it is full of play and laughter. If you are in a colder place, then it is done between two who love each other, and offer each other warmth and comfort, and there is much less play.

But it is good too, because it binds you to each other. You become a pair of Tarkroth who are strong and endure the climate. It was the best kind of loving for my parents, my stepmother told me, my cousin as well. You speak in low whispers and words then into each other's ears, and all that matters is that you have that part of him in you. The storm fades then while your hearts fly.

If where you are is colder still and miserable, it is much closer to just fucking then and trying to warm each other up a little. With the Tarkroth, the females are more forward because they need to be. I was surprised when I saw other kinds of female demons and how they are with males. If a Tarkroth girl was like that, she would never find a male for herself, and never be fucked well -- or even at all in the cold where we lived. We are more ... clear to show what we wish.

It may be in the middle of a blizzard outside where one is when you see a male that you already like and know well enough to want him. Rather than standing there freezing as you try to think of what to say to each other, the female shows her consideration by taking what he has to hold it while they talk. It gets the pair past the awkwardness much more quickly and it shows that you care for the poor parts of him there in the screaming wind.

It serves another purpose as well, though we girls never tell it to the boys. How are you to know if you like what he has if it has shrunken from the wind and hides in his fur? This way -- our way, you get to know in only minutes if it is what you would want.

It is allowed and expected that the pair be against each other to share their warmth and not have to shout against the wind. He will allow you to warm your breasts against his chest for this, out of the same consideration. It will not happen, since there are no other males, but if there were and you do not like the one that you talk with, you only stand close, unless it is murderously cold and there is no shelter, and like that, nothing matters but that you are warm."

"What about us?" Yuan asked, "How are we to talk like that?"

Beyl'eth smirked, "We are close, Yuan. I hope that you will not mind then, but I will pull you right against me. It is arithmetic. Four tits are warmer than two."

She laughed then, remembering something, "When I was eighteen, I remember one very cold morning when I wanted to go to the home of a friend. My brother had been out all night with a girl that he liked. There was heavy snow piled thickly over everything. I remembered wondering where all of the piles of rock had come from. I had never seen so many lumps in the snow before. Then one lump moved and it was my brother and his girlfriend. She still wore her band on her leg, but they had been rubbing together all night, and by the morning, they were frozen together.

I laughed at them, and my noise woke up all of the other "rocks" then, all of them trying to pull apart before anyone else saw them like that. I laughed all the way to my friend's home. And at her home, I met her older brother for the first time, so I learned my own lesson the next week.

When my stepmother came out to look for me, my boyfriend jumped up and ran away like a coward. I had a lot less of my fur for a time afterwards and my stepmother laughed at me. She knew where I was and what I was doing. She trusted me not to go further.

The next night, my boy did want to go further and I told him no, because he was much too hairy for me. He asked about it and I reached over and tore out some of the fur between his legs as I walked away. It wasn't anything about his fur. It was about the stones that he didn't have."

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"This is as far as I can go," Yuan said as they stood together looking at their reflections in the surface which she'd created for this. "I cannot make myself any smaller. Will it be enough?"

They looked at each other, and there was only about an inch or so of height difference between them now. Beyl'eth nodded, "It will do, Yuan. The Rohn have always been a little small and the Ch'arnn a little large. I was among the tallest, but you are now in the right area for a Rohn."

The trouble was, the witch thought, that her friend looked nothing like what she wished to be, she stood next to her as a smallish dragon girl. A quite lovely one, Beyl'eth thought, not being much of an authority on the subject of dragons, but that didn't matter to her. She didn't see how it was going to work for the rest of it.

But over the next few minutes, Beyl'eth seemed to gasp in amazement frequently as one thing after another, one aspect or detail at a time, Yuan became more and more ... well, Tarkroth-ish.

Her skin was the right shade, the darker parts, anyway, though it was scaled and a little plated here and there. Yuan tried, but that was as close as she could get to the smooth skin of her friend. Likewise, her neck was longer and her arms were at a lower height than was correct. The neck went in a smooth transition, widening as it reached her shoulders. Her tail was much thicker than Beyl'eth's but it had to be, Yuan said, or there would be serious balance issues in flight. As well, there were cross ribs to her wings to brace them, since she was still heavier, no matter what was done.

She did manage to keep her ears though, and they were exactly as her friend's and they'd laughed about it as the witch reached to feel them for a moment. "Just perfect," had been Beyl'eth's pronouncement.

Her snout was a little longer and her face did look quite a bit like the classical dragon face, but almost as compensation, Yuan had found a way -- after a lot of struggle where she looked quite insane and caused Beyl'eth to laugh until her tears came -- to make her eyes like the snow ghost that she was trying to become. She was very proud of them, though if needed, they'd become golden as before, since there were abilities which came to her then which she wished to retain. Her horns were the same downturned ones which Beyl'eth wore and try as she might, Yuan just couldn't lose the single row of short spikes which ran down the back of her neck, though the mop of the wild mane which grew on her head went a long way to hide them.

Yuan sighed, wishing that she could have gotten closer, but Beyl'eth shook her head. "It is enough of an honor to me that you wish to become my tribeswoman as much as you are able. You are still so beautiful, Yuan. If I brought you to my Quarn like this, you would be mobbed by curious and hopeful males. We would make a fine pair of Rohn girls, and I would be proud to walk with you there, most especially as you are now. You would need me to keep their hopeful pricks at bay -- at least until you decided which ones that you were interested in, and you would need me then too, to sort out the best from among them for you."

She chuckled with a little smirk as she ran her fingers over Yuan's bottom, "You should be proud of this. Rohn women have always had bottoms which could lock a male's eyes on them from one end of a Quarn to the other. I have made males fall down, and you have managed to keep yours and make it into a fine Rohn ass," she said with a laugh.

She looked at her friend a little critically for a moment, "All that is missing are the winter colors now. Look at me carefully, Yuan. The patterns are important, as they speak of which tribe we are. You may decide how you wish to look, but the ones on me, from my face to my ass tell that I am nothing other than a proud Rohn. It does not matter anymore, I suppose, but if this is what you wish to be, then you should use mine to pattern yourself after. Ayt'han's say that he is a Ch'arnn -- for now."

Yuan nodded and tried. She was very successful in matching what she saw on Beyl'eth as she went, turning her friend gently to see all of the patterns and how they ran on her body.

"What did you mean when you said that Ayt'han's patterns were Ch'arnn for now?" she asked, "Can they change?"

Beyl'eth nodded, "I think that -- if we are successful in what we plan with our poor unsuspecting one, then likely all of our patterns will change to another pattern which will say that we are a new clan -- which is what we strive to be. What is on our faces will stay. So yours must stay also."

"Ah," Yuan said nodding in understanding. At last, she stood face to face with Beyl'eth and placed her hands on her hips as she looked into her face. Beyl'eth wanted to ask, but after a moment under Yuan's piercing gaze, she saw the reason for it as Yuan's facial patterns changed to match her own exactly.

"Good enough to pass?" she smiled and Beyl'eth nodded grinning, "Oh yes! Any Tarkroth might look at you in wonder since you are still a little different in your lovely body, but that sweet face tells that you are a Rohn tribeswoman -- beyond any doubt." She looked for another moment and then she hugged Yuan to her tightly.

"Good," the dragon girl said wearily, "because now I must rest. Changing oneself is never easy, other than from one shape to the next. Changing everything about me is hard work and I am still weak."