A Dragon's Tale Ch. 41

"Awkward?" Kendra grimaced.

"Yeah." She admitted, then half smiled. "I didn't hate it though."

"No?"

Selene shook her head. "No, not at all."

"Good." The dragon huntress said with the beginnings of an embarrassed smile. "Anyway, night."

"Night."

The other woman turned and slipped out, leaving Selene feeling slightly confused. Still, the hug had been really nice of the dragon huntress. Despite her future outlook on life, she didn't have a frown on her face as she laid down in the hammock.

Almost the opposite in fact.

* * *

Kendra felt rather stupid. Well, not exactly stupid, but something akin to it. She had been trying to be sweet like Taloni. That first hug from her had been one of the most wonderful and transformative experiences of her life, and she'd wanted to give the same to Selene.

Except she wasn't Taloni.

That was okay, but she felt a little foolish for having tried to be. She walked back upstairs and slipped into the captain's cabin, trying not to worry about her fellow wives seeing her scars when she inevitably took her dress off while sleeping. She shook her head; she had fellow wives. She had never thought that would happen.

"--it's just a feeling I have." Ethan was saying, apparently in the middle of a conversation with her fellow wives.

"What's a feeling you ha--" Kendra started to ask, then stopped short.

Alana was sitting on the bed nonchalantly... and she was completely naked. She was sitting in what Ethan once described as "Indian style", her small-ish breasts pointing out towards her husband and only partially covered by her hair. Nearby, Beth and Taloni were removing their dresses, and very shortly they also were as naked as the day they were born.

Kendra gulped and averted her eyes.

Ethan was laying on his side, eyeing his first wife and he looked up -- since his head was facing the door -- and smiled when he saw her. "You're here."

She nodded.

He smiled even wider. "Good girl."

She felt a rush of warmth that had nothing to do with the fact that her cheeks were incredibly red. She still couldn't look at the three naked women as they began to situate themselves on the bed. Rachel was also sitting on the bed, but she was still wearing her dress. The dragon huntress also noticed that she seemed to be determinedly looking at anything other than Alana's naked body.

She couldn't help but grin, even as her cheeks probably approached the color of Rachel's roots.

"Yeah, it's a bit awkward at first." The redhead said, giving her a half-embarrassed, half-sympathetic smile. "And maybe later too."

Ethan sighed contentedly. "I'm willing to put up with a whole lot of awkwardness to have the five most beautiful women in the world here with me." He grinned conspiratorially. "Even if two of them are overdressed."

Beautiful?

Kendra swallowed; Ethan thought she was beautiful?

She had never considered herself beautiful before. Never. Actually, the fact that she was fairly plain looking had proved to be an asset when she'd worked for the Aldmiri; it helped her blend in. By any objective measure, Kendra was the least attractive of Ethan's wives.

It wasn't even close.

"Oh you're just biased because you've bonded to all of us." Alana winked with a chuckle.

"Oh, I've done a lot more than bond with all of you." He grinned back.

His first wife gave him a sly smile. "Really sir? Whatever do you mean?"

"Yes Dominus, please explain." Beth grinned.

"Or better yet, please demonstrate master."

Kendra felt her stomach twinge, but nowhere near the level that it had been. It had actually gotten a lot better since... well since yesterday; her wedding. It still wasn't fully better, but she no longer felt the impulse to vomit when these sorts of things came up. She wasn't even mildly nauseous anymore.

Ethan looked up at her. "We'd have to clean the sheets, wouldn't we?"

"I don'tthink so." The dragon huntress grimaced.

"We should wait then, if it's okay with you master." Taloni jumped up and her wings became a blur as she used them to set herself down on the floor before skipping over to Kendra. It was really good to see the Fey using her wings as naturally as anyone else used their arms for legs. However, she didn't know what to do with her dear friend being completely and utterly naked in front of her.

She averted her eyes, looking upwards.

"Oh don't worry silly." Taloni beamed as she grabbed one of Kendra's hands. "It's perfectly fine for you to see any of us naked because we're all married to Ethan."

Thereafter, the tiny Fey gently tugged the reluctant dragon huntress over to the bed.

"Um, where should I sleep?" She asked, not even sure about getting on the bed yet.

"Anywhere you want, except in master's arms because it's Alana's turn tonight."

"We decided to keep it simple." Rachel explained. "It was a little chaotic with the previous system, so now it's just in order we bonded to Ethan. So Alana's first, then Beth, then Taloni, then me, then you."

"And it's my night tonight." The wood elf sighed.

"Not that you're taking advantage..." Ethan pointed out.

She dived at him, in a half tackle. He caught her and rolled so she ended up half under him, half spooning with him.

"Now it's perfect." The chocolate haired brunette sighed.

"Oh, and you don't want to get between Alana and Rachel." Taloni said with a grin.

Both of the aforementioned women blushed.

"Why?" Kendra asked, though she thought she could guess.

"Because no matter where they start sleeping, they always end up sleeping next to each other." Ethan explained calmly, not making a big deal about it... but his eyes twinkled.

Both members of the aforementioned couple averted their eyes, but both had what looked like involuntary smiles on their faces too.

"So they have that side, why don't you sleep next to Tee and me?" Beth suggested, seemingly completely unbothered that Kendra could see her entire chest and...

Wow.

She knew that Beth had long legs before, but damn; the blonde was all legs. Long, slim, well-toned dancer's legs. Kendra was jealous. Very jealous. They had about the same size breasts though, so at least she wasn't behind in that department.

"Um, okay." The newcomer nodded.

It took a minute, but they all settled in on the enormous bed under the light covers. There were heavier covers at the foot of the bed, which butted up against the rear wall. The top half of the rear wall was the enormous glass-blocked window that covered the entire upper half of the rear wall of the captain's cabin. The heavier covers would be useful in winter, but were out of the way for the warm weather.

Kendra ended up sandwiched between the two blondes at their insistence, but at her insistence she was still wearing her wonderful purple dress. Beth was closer to Ethan, and Taloni was at the end, firmly curling her naked body against Kendra's arm. It was a good thing that she wouldn't need the arm, because it felt like the Fey didn't want to let go. Beth was snuggled up close to her on the other side, though not as close as the honey-blonde was.

Kendra was in heaven.

Well, not quite heaven but close to it. Actually, she needed on more thing to make it perfect.

"Ethan, can you do that thing with your wings?" She whispered.

"Anything for my good girl." He nodded, spreading his wings over all of them.

Kendra's stomach twinged only a bit at the contact, and not enough that it was actually uncomfortable. It was incredibly mild compared to just 36 hours ago. However, hear heart soared at Ethan's words. She loved it when he called her a good girl. She wasn't entirely sure why, but she did. She liked that.

She liked being his good girl.

"Ethan." She whispered a minute later.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"What were you talking about when I came in?" She asked. "You were talking about a feeling you have."

"Oh, I get the feeling that -- assuming everything goes well with Selene's mission to Earth -- that she won't want to come back here. I think she'll want to stay on Earth and will break the bond."

"Really?"

"Yeah." He craned his neck to look at her. "It's just a feeling I have, nothing behind it, but we bonded today and I got a real sense of who she is. I don't think she'll want to come back."

"I thought she would." Beth said. "I thought she might be your sixth wife."

"Yeah, but I don't see hernot staying on Earth." He said, neck still craned around. "I don't know why, it's just the sense I get."

"Hmm." Kendra mused as she looked at him.

Ethan.

Her husband.

She liked the sound of that

He looked back at her for second seconds, then smiled. "Kendra, has anyone ever told you that you have beautiful eyes?"

She blinked, as her eyes seemed to have a bit more liquid than normal. "Nuh." She said, but somehow the sound she had intended hadn't come out since her throat had tightened slightly. She cleared her throat. "No, no one ever has."

"My brown-eyed beauty." He smiled. "Night Kendra." He returned to looking the other way, snuggling with Alana.

"Goodnight Drago." She whispered back.

Brown-eyed beauty?

She bit her lip.

He couldn't really think that, could he?

Taloni sighed sleepily as she snuggled closer. "You do have beautiful eyes."

"You... yo..." Beth yawned, then mumbled. "You do. Night."

"Night." Kendra replied.

The dragon huntress had cried herself to sleep before in her life, but not like this; not these kinds of tears. Her eyes felt like they were perpetually leaking as Beth held her on one side, Taloni held her tightly on the other side, and Ethan's wing was draped over her after he had just called her his 'brown-eyed beauty'.

She smiled, a bit of saltwater slipping into the corners of her mouth as she considered the very real possibility that she might overwork her 'smile muscles' before the night was out.

* * *

Selene was having the strangest dream of her life.

No exceptions.

In pretty much every dream she'd ever had before, she was always herself. Sometimes she was herself with super powers, or herself with slight changes, but she'd always been herself. Sometimes she'd even seen herself in third person like she was floating above whatever was happening, but she was still herself.

Tonight she wasn't herself.

Not even close.

Tonight she was a very large man built like a linebacker. Apparently one that had a really dirty mouth, a taste for beer and hard liquor, and a penchant for violence. For the third time in the dream, she'd watched as he -- or maybe herself through his eyes -- had beaten someone senseless, though thankfully not dead.

Then suddenly, she was seeing through the eyes of a ten year old boy who was being yelled at by a large man that she somehow knew was her father-- No, it must behis father because her own father neither looked nor acted anything like this irate man. She as the young boy -- or maybe her and the young boy together? -- dodged a flagon of ale from his father more than once.

Then suddenly they were running from some large woman -- maybe his mother? -- who was swinging a frying pan. Not really at him, but they were worried about getting hit. The two of them continued to run -- or maybe she was watching him run through his eyes? -- trying to avoid a seemingly endless series of flagons and frying pans.

Then suddenly they had escaped and he -- or maybe they? -- were standing with a beautiful young woman who was looking up at him adoringly. Somehow she knew that this insanely beautiful, completely idealized woman was her first crush.

Wait.

No.

It must behis first crush; she'd never had a crush on a woman before.

"I missed you dear." The woman said, but then her adoring face turned into a sneer as she looked behind him. "But I missed him more."

Selene, helpless to affect anything, watched through his eyes as he turned and saw a tiny little effeminate man that the woman didn't even like sauntering up while juggling bags of gold coins. He too had a sneer, and with a wave of gold, the effeminate man expelled him from the scene.

She -- or maybe they? -- were carried away onto some kind of military ship. That's when she -- or maybe he? -- had beaten several men senseless.

Except for the time as a little boy, she'd been a large man built like a linebacker the entire time. Someone powerfully built and over six feet tall; someone with muscles and fighting instinct built up over a hard lifetime.

Then she turned and saw a whole slew of prostitutes -- no he thought of them as whores -- all of whom had some feature or other that hearkened back to her first crush-- no, back tohis first crush. His great love who had betrayed him for money, which made her basically no different than a whore. His crush was perfection personified, so how could any other woman be better?

They must all be worse.

Therefore, all women must basically be whores who'd sell themselves for money. That's all they were. And if all women were whores, then he'd treat them like it. He grinned as Selene watched through his eyes while he tried to decide which of these subhuman fucktoys he was going to screw senseless while imagining that she was his first crush; his first and only love who had--

* * *

Selene jerked awake in her hammock, cold sweat covering her body as she breathed hard. She panted for several seconds as her heart raced, and she did some breathing exercises to calm it down. A minute or two later, her heartrate returned to some semblance of normal.

What the fuck was that!?

She took a couple deep breaths and went back over the dream, trying to figure out what could've possibly happened; how she of all people could've had a dream like that. She'd never had a dream like that before. Ever. It was violent, bloody, unsettling, and downright perverse. She almost wanted to take a shower.

Something about the dream and the thoughts in it felt so... so...

Ugh!

The way that he had viewed those women was just...

She shuddered.

She had been to some incredibly kicky corners of the internet and even enjoyed them, but someone viewing women as 'subhuman fucktoys' made her skin crawl and fists clench. It was utterly repulsive; totally repugnant. It made her want to take a hot shower or knee whoever thought that in the balls.

Ugh!

Where the hell had that dream come from? It seemed utterly alien and foreign to her. No experience in her entire life -- whether in a dream or the waking world -- had ever been anything like that. She'd seen things during the dream that she would've never imagined; things that didn't seem like they could've come from her brain. She just couldn't imagine where the dream could've come from.

What kind of person would have a dream like that?

On the other side of the blanket between the men's area and the women's area, she heard Raklan snoring in his sleep. He usually tossed and turned, and she doubted that he ever got a good night's sleep. Thinking about it, that might partially account for the large crewman's disposition.

She tried to still herself and heard the faint creaking of the Argo, plus a faint but beautiful melody coming from the weather deck; Anthiel no doubt. She laid back in the hammock, the melody helping her to relax as she tried to figure where the dream had come from while simultaneously attempting to ignore Raklan's restless snores.

* * *

Kendra woke to the pitter-patter of rain gently falling onto a window. She didn't move, over a decade of training and practice having conditioned her to let her senses tell her what was going on before she gave any indication that she was awake.

She was warm, just shy of too warm but oddly in a delightful way. She could feel naked skin touching her almost everywhere, except her back which was on the bed.

It was heavenly.

No, sublime.

Maybe transcendent?

No, it was... was...

She couldn't think of the words. Her brain reminded her that it was Beth and Taloni next to her, and Ethan's wing over her. Thankfully, her stomach barely even gave a half-hearted protest before shrugging and going back to normal.

Kendra opened her eyes.

It was still early in the morning, and she could see rain rolling down the large glass-blocked rear window of the Argo. It was a soft, steady, soaking kind of rain; the kind that made for cozy mornings in bed with a good book. The sky was slowly growing lighter, but it would still be a while before the sun rose.

She looked down to see that the Fey was using her left breast as a pillow in a totally innocent way. Her honey-blonde hair was splayed all over everything in a chaotic mess of lovely innocence. On Kendra's other side, Beth was sleeping on her side with her front towards Ethan and her back up against Kendra. Her upper leg had somehow ended up over Kendra's thighs.

She swallowed as she felt her overworked tear ducts start to function again. She blinked, trying to clear her eyes. Why was she crying so much lately?

It was like her eyes just wouldn't stop.

"S'okay, nuffing worf cry'n 'bout." Taloni mumbled. She looked like she was on the edge between awake and asleep. She would probably wake up soon and--

The dragon huntress stiffened as she realized that she was also naked. Her dress was nowhere to be seen, and if the blondes woke up they would see her scars.

She swallowed hard.

There was simply no way to extricate herself from the blondes without waking them, especially with how Taloni was half laying on top of her torso, and Beth's legs were over her own. Her mind raced, trying to figure a way to cover herself before they woke up, but nothing came to her.

"Here." A voice whispered from 'above' her, above meaning towards the door since she was laying on her back.

It was Rachel.

She was wearing her red dress and holding Kendra's purple one up. "I forgot to mention last night, if you take your dress off before you fall asleep, you can have it on hand when you wake up. Otherwise it goes Illuminar-knows-where."

"Thank you." Kendra whispered in reply.

Beth wasn't pinning her right arm, so she reached up and took the dress.

Rachel had kept her eyes averted, and the dragon huntress couldn't help but feel a burst of gratitude towards her for--

"Kendra, wha... wh..." Taloni yawned as she picked her head up and her eyes fluttered open. "What happened?"

Shit.

"I tried." Rachel whispered with an apologetic smile.

"Hmm?" The ever-curious Beth apparently had been on the edge of awake too, and the blonde turned to look at Tee. Kendra made to cover herself, but there were too many scars to cover with just her hands and arms.

"Kendra, what happened?!" Beth cried in alarm as she sat bolt upright.

Fuck.

After that, everyone was awake.

Ever the protector, Ethan was up in an instant and his war hammer hit his hand moments later as he looked around wildly for whatever threat had caused Beth such alarm. Of course, him jumping up threw the light covers off, ensuring that everyone got an eyeful of everyone, whether they wanted it or not. Rachel was clothed, but everyone else was wearing their original birthday suit.

Kendra tried to cover herself up, but there was no way she could. Her cheeks burned red as the numerous imperfections etched into her skin were displayed to the last people on earth that she wanted to see them.

"What's wrong?" Ethan asked, blinking and apparently trying to clear his startled-awake mind.

"It's Kendra." Beth breathed.

The raven-haired woman's heart sank. Was there really something wrong with her?

"She's got-- are you okay?" The blonde asked with genuine concern on her face.

"They look like scars Bee, I don't think she's hurt right now." Taloni said as Kendra wrapped her arms around herself to hide as much of her disfigured body as possible.