Sacrifice Pt. 01

The bed itself sat in the middle of an enormous steel cage which extended part of the way into the rock wall of whatever space it occupied. Torches burned outside the cage on either hand, lighting the cage but very little of the surrounding darkness. An alcove was opened in the rock in the rear of the cage and Andy could hear water splashing. Slipping out of the bed, he pulled a sheet loose and wrapped it around his waist. The heavy chain attached to his collar led across the floor and out under the door of the cage, which was secured with another heavy padlock. The chain ran a few feet out onto the floor and was attached to a metal eye set deep into the rock. Enough slack in the chain gave him room to explore this space, dragging it jingling behind him.

The passageway in the rear of the cage opened into a small dead end room carved into the rock. A low stone shelf with a wooden seat proved to be a privy, which he gratefully made use of. Water trickled freely through a small opening beneath, carrying away any waste. Another alcove inside the room behind a low wall had a steady stream of water pouring through an opening in the ceiling like a small waterfall. It fell to the stone floor and disappeared down a small drain covered with a steel grating. The young man stuck his hand into the stream. It was surprisingly warm, almost hot. Fed by a hot spring? Or the dragons own fires? He did not know.

One last shelf, also cut into the rock held a selection of large soft towels and a pair of short white cotton robes. He dropped the sheet and slid a robe around his shoulders, belting it firmly. It only came down to mid thigh, but it was better than nothing.

"Ah. You are awake. Good."

Andy started as he stepped out of the small room. An enormous figure clad in a long black robe stood just outside the door of his cage, his face shadowed beneath a deep cowl. He appeared to be a large man, about seven feet tall with wide broad shoulders almost twice the size of Andy's own.

"Who...? Who are you? Where is the dragon? Can you help me get out of here?" The cowled head shook back and forth slowly.

"I will not help you escape, Andrew. That would upset my plans."

"Such a thing would also doom your town and your loved ones. You came here willingly, sparing their lives for a year. Would you go back on that now?"

"N-no... no. I... I accept my fate. B-but... Who are you?"

A hand reached up and swept back the cowl, exposing the speakers face. A normal enough face for a man his size, Andy thought. Short cropped black hair, graying at the temples. Dark beetling brows over deep set green eyes. A firm jaw and a mouth surrounded by a well groomed mustache and goatee the same black shot with gray as the hair on his head. The open neck of his robe showed thick corded muscles running from his shoulders up to his neck, giving Andy a glimpse of the power hidden deep inside that robe.

"As to who I am... I am Grond Deucalious."

"B-but you are just a man! How can that be?"

"Just a man?" He shook his head. "I am much more than that, Andrew. Much more." His hands parted the robe and dropped it at his feet. Andy got just a glimpse of a hard muscled body that looked like it was carved out of solid oak before the man in front of him...shifted.

All at once the figure seemed to both draw away from him and grow larger at the same time. He dropped down onto all fours and he stretched, elongated and grew. Skin becoming hard scales. Hair becoming pointed plates and ridges. Those eyes increasing in size until they seemed to fill the room.

In a matter of seconds the man before him had been replaced by the very dragon that had threatened to destroy his town. The very one Andy has voluntarily sacrificed himself to. Smoke and a nimbus of blue flame wreathed the creatures mouth as it bent down to look into the cage where it's captive trembled. That great maw of a mouth gaped open filled with razor sharp fangs.

"DO YOU BELIEVE ME NOW, BOY?"

But the dragon received no response, as the young redheaded man had fainted dead away on the cage floor.

Moments later Grond Deucalious slipped back into his robe and unlocked the cage door to stare down at his captive.

"Quite inconvenient." He grumbled as he picked the young man up and laid him back on the bed. "But at least we got that out of the way quickly. We'll see how he reacts to the rest of it."

Chapter Seven

The young man started awake for the second time in an hour. In a panic he looked around for either the big man or the dragon but he seemed to be alone for the moment. The back of his mind almost made him wonder if he had dreamed the whole thing.

By the side of the bed he noticed a platter and a pitcher set on the floor. There was a slab of bread and meat and cheese and some fresh fruit. The pitcher contained cold clear water that was the best Andy had ever tasted in his life. Even though the water was ice cold it sent a glow of warmth throughout his body that made him feel awake and refreshed and strangely at ease.

And since he had been unable to eat for the last two days upriver, he was ravenously hungry and polished off everything on the platter in no time.

"Awake again, I see." Andy jumped and almost dropped the pitcher on the floor. How could anyone so big move so quietly? The man had dispensed with the cowl this time. Those green eyes looked almost amused.

"Yes."

"Yes...what?" Those eyes narrowed and the wide brow furrowed. Andy withstood that gaze for a second or two at best, then lowered his eyes and said "Yes, Lord Grond."

"Very good, Andrew. You have just passed the first test. There will be more." He stepped closer and unlocked the door of the cage, swinging it wide. "Wait there, boy. I will return." Grond walked off into the shadows.

"And here is the second test." The young man thought. "He's gone off and left my cage open. Yet I am still chained by this collar and couldn't get very far anyway. No point in getting him angry for no reason. The Captain taught me better than that." Thinking of his Captain made Andy's heart twinge in regret. Even if the monster let him live, he was sure he would never see his Captain or his town again. A look of deep sadness passed over his face and he sighed in despair.

Moments later the shadows parted and Grond reappeared, carrying something almost as large as himself. He bent low to pass into the cage and set his burden down in a corner. It appeared to be a great throne, carved from a single solid block of onyx chased on the corners and edges with gold and silver filigree. When Grond set the thing down, it made a resounding boom that echoed through the vast space and Andy could feel the impact of it through the stone under his feet. Yet the man wasn't even breathing hard! He had carried it as if it were no more than a bushel of wheat. Andy's eyes went wide and he gulped loudly.

"This is the throne... I should say this was the throne of King Agrramemnious The Great. Or so he called himself. Another in a long line of foolish little men who thought they could challenge my power. He claimed he was a God. Can you believe that?" Grond looked over his shoulder at the redheaded lad and smiled slightly. Then he shrugged. "In the end he screamed and bled and died just like all of the rest." He was silent for a moment, then added "He didn't taste like a God. Just like another fool." That remark made Andy shiver slightly, remembering just who he was dealing with, whether he looked like a man or not.

The big man reclined in the stone seat and drummed his fingertips lightly on the arm.

"This is the smallest throne in my horde. I have collected hundreds of them. I thought I would bring it in here for when we have our little talks."

"Talks, my lord?"

"Yes Andrew. Talks. It is why I brought you here. One of the reasons, anyway. There are others we will get to presently." He stared at the young man so steadily and for so long that Andy dropped his eyes and drew into himself a little. "But for now I am sure you have questions. Just do not ask me 'Why am I here?' As I said, we'll get to that. Ask away, boy."

"How is it you can be both a man and a dragon?"

"An excellent question. I, Andrew, am an Emperor Dragon. We were born from the fires when this world was forming. And as we are tied to the energy of this world, we can become anything in this world we desire. I have often roamed the land as a great stag or a bear. As an amusement and diversion, I once spent a century being revered in a temple as a giant serpent in a great city which disappeared beneath the ocean ages ago."

"What is this place?"

"It is my horde cavern. If you were to slice the mountain you call the Spire off at the base, we would still be a further ten thousand paces below that. I found this cavern nearly five hundred years ago and spent all of that time in between opening up the tunnels and moving my horde here from it's last resting place. It is my home, Andrew. And now it is yours as well. My tunnels run for miles and miles. Be aware that if you were to run free and unescorted you would quickly get lost and probably perish before finding your way out again." Despite that dire warning, the hope of being free lifted his spirits just a little.

"Will I ever see my home again?"

"Your home and your Captain?" Grond saw the young man twitch. "Maybe from a distance. Other than that? No." The finality of that word made Andy despair.

"Are you going to kill me?" Grond shrugged.

"That is up to you, of course, Andrew. You volunteered, remember. And remember the terms of my demands. If you did not please me, then your life and the life of all in your town, would be forfeit."

"And how may I please you, my lord?"

Grond smiled and steepled his fingers together.

"An excellent question, boy. There are a few things that must be forefront in your mind at all times. The first and most important of which is how you might please me." The smile grew wider and Andy felt a little shiver run through him again.

"Once we get you properly trained you are going to be, most of the time, my servant. You will prepare my meals and tend to my things and fetch anything I desire when I desire it."

"So I am to be your slave, my lord?"

"More than a slave, dear boy. Provided you behave yourself, of course. More like a trusted servant and a cherished pet. And much more."

"More?"

"There are things that I desire, Andrew. Needs that have not been sated in ages, since long before your grand-sires were whelped. A fire in my soul. And the same fire burns inside of you as well." Grond leaned forward and his nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. "Desires in your heart that I can smell on you like perfume. Things that override the fear and doubt in your heart, Andrew. I could smell and taste your desire even as my feet touched down in that miserable little town. Even with all those frightened sheep in the town pissing their pants in fear... Over all of that, boy, I smelled you."

The young man paled and drew back on the bed. "I... I don't..." he stammered. "I don't know what you..." Grond leaped up from his throne and roared.

"DON'T LIE TO ME, BOY!!" He leaned over the cowering man, who had fallen back on the bed, trembling. One thick arm shot out and a pointed finger aimed an inch away from Andy's heaving chest.

"I can read your heart like it is an open book. The very blood coursing in your veins tells me your secrets. I am a dragon! My whole life is domination of lesser things and all things in this world are lesser to me!" That finger pressed into the smaller mans chest, pushing him deeper into the furs and blankets like he would squash Andy like a cockroach.

"Your secret, Andrew MacMeel. The one you would admit to no man. Not even to your precious Captain, who is so much the keystone around which your world revolves. No, not even to him whom you love so dearly! I knew what it was the moment I laid eyes on you there in the streets." The pressing digit retreated and Andy gasped in relief of the pressure.

"P...please..." he panted.

"Do not beg for mercy from a dragon, Andrew. It will avail you nothing.

"I...I've never..."

"You never spoke it out loud. You kept your desire locked deep in your heart, never thinking of it except in the deepest darkest night when you were alone with your thoughts and no one else could see."

"No..."

"You desired your Captain. You wished to be his."

Andy shook his head in denial.

"Even more than that. You wanted him to take you. To dominate you. To make you his slave. You wanted him to bind you with words and cords and will. To climb atop your body and take you like an animal, subject only to serve his basest pleasures." One hand grabbed Andy's arm roughly, the fingers digging into his flesh hard enough to grate against his bones. Grond flipped him over onto his face in the lush furs, that hand pressing into his back while the other swept the thin robe above his waist, baring his backside and thighs. Andy moaned into the furs. His whole body writhed beneath the hand pressing him down into the bed. One large rough hand gripped one of the trembling man's ass cheeks and squeezed it roughly.

"You wanted to be taken this way. Long and rough and hard in the way only another man could take you. In your heart of hearts, you wanted to be the sexual slave of another man. That is the one thing you desired above all else."

"Yes..." he sobbed. "Yes..." The weight pressing him down receded and Grond strode back and sat down on his throne once more and waited until the lads sobbing abated.

"Come here, Andrew." The young man rose unsteadily to his trembling legs, wiping the tears from his embarrassed face with one sweaty hand.

"Let me see you. All of you." His face flushed a flaming crimson that spread down into his chest as his hands dropped the robe to pool at his feet. Silently, the dragon sat and appraised the sight. Andy was just under six feet tall and very well built. His duties and training as a guardsman had toned his body, removing excess fat and building layers of strong firm muscle. Where he wasn't bright red from shame and desire, his skin was a pale white, scattered with freckles over his cheeks and down across his wide shoulders. A thin line of red hairs started just above his navel and ran down to flare out in a thick bush of hair surrounding his crotch.

A thick sturdy looking cock twitched between his thighs, half hard in desire and half soft in fear and shame. His sack was drawn up tight against his body as a natural subconscious reflex. And equally sturdy looking legs below that, the pale thighs studded with freckles as well. Grond was pleased.

He rose from his seat and one hand cupped the back of the smaller mans head as he towered over him. Andy looked up into those deep green eyes and could see a hint of fire behind the irises, the shadow of the dragon within the big man. An involuntary whimper of desire escaped his lips. That big hand could have easily crushed his head like an eggshell, but instead held him firmly but tenderly, fingers twining in Andy's short but thick red hair.

"I cannot give you your Captain, Andrew. I cannot give you that. But I can give you everything else your heart desires and more. You belong to me now. You are mine, little pet, to do with as I wish." With each word he moved closer until his lips were inches away from the smaller mans.

Just before they kissed Andy whispered "Yes, my lord..."

Chapter Eight

Andy stirred beneath the covers, moving gingerly as he lay with his head propped up against Grond's chest and an arm around that tightly muscled stomach. He was overly warm from such close contact, but it felt good. Even though the dragon had been fairly gentle with him, Andy still felt chafed and bruised all over.

After that first kiss Grond had lifted Andy like he weighed nothing and laid him down in the bed, lowering his body down next to him. He held the smaller man's arms over his head, wrists clamped in one hand firmly and had spent the next few hours playing with his body like a cat with a mouse. Oh, tenderly enough, but still. Even tender play from a dragon was enough to leave bruises. Grond had explored every single inch of his captive pets body with his fingers and his warm soft lips and that wet rough tongue, bringing Andy to climax several times, yet never seeming to take any physical pleasure of his own.

Even though he had surrendered his heart and his body to his new master... "Master!" the thought gave him chills all the way down his spine and made his sore abraded prick twitch between his thighs... Andy was still reticent about giving himself completely to this huge man.

Though indeed he had, as Grond had deduced, yearned to be taken this way by another man for as long as he could remember, he had never once actually lain with another man. And glimpses he had of that awesome tool that swung between the big man's legs made his insides turn to water. Surely it would split him right in half! He shivered hard at the thought.

A hand tugged the covers up higher around his shoulders and Andy looked up to see those green eyes looking down at him, a wry smile playing across the corner of those lips.

"Do you ever sleep, Sire?" The hand released the covers and patted his back gently.

"Sometimes I do, pet. When I wish to. I do not easily or readily get tired, so sometimes I sleep just to watch my dreams. I often stay awake for a hundred years or more. And when my belly is full and my need for combat is abated, I may sleep for twice that. Yet an errant breeze or the scurrying of a mouse in my lair will bring me full awake again in the blink of an eye."

"And what do dragons dream of?"

"Conquest, mostly. Domination and dominion. And gold, of course. Riches by the wagon load. But they too are just an adjunct of power." The big man stretched a little and patted the slim back gently again.

"In my dreams I see myself standing atop of the entire world, my wings and my claws and fire laying waste to everything around. I know that if I put my mind to it, I could accomplish this. There is nothing on this world greater than I. There is nothing to stop me." Grond stopped and sighed. "But if I do this, then what? There would be nothing left. Nothing but me."

"So I...pace...myself. Taking one small bit of the world at a time. Sleeping in between and then moving on."

"I am the very last of the Emperor Dragons, Andrew. The only one left of my kind. The others have all...gone. Some were slain by each other. Some were actually killed by men, back when the Gods took notice of such things and bothered to interfere. And some have drifted so deep within the earth that they have returned to the fire from whence we came."

"And now I am the very last."

"I am sorry, my lord."

The big man rolled out of the bed and slipped back into his robe, striding towards the door to shut it behind him with a clang. Driving the padlock home so hard he almost bent it, Grond said "Don't be sorry for me, Andrew MacMeel. Feel sorry for your townsfolk if you don't get to sleep. I will awaken you at dawn."

And he disappeared into the darkness.

The young man lay in the bed for awhile, wondering how many thousands of years it would take to make such a dragon lonely.

Chapter Nine

The next several days were taken up with what the dragon referred to as "training". Andy had awakened to find the heavy weight of the iron collar gone from around his neck. On tray next to his bed alongside the food and water was a softer leather collar with metal rings attached and lined on the inside with fur. After he had arisen and washed himself, he buckled it around his neck, all the while wondering once more how someone so big managed to move so quietly.

Grond had arrived after the young man had eaten carrying two leather straps in his hand. One was a leash about six feet long which clipped to his collar. The other was about three feet long, stiff on the handle end, but flexible on the other and split in two for about eight inches. He called it "The Dragons Tail" and Andy quickly found out why. When wielded by a practiced hand, those twin straps made matching red welts across his thighs and backside, driving home any lessons to be learned quickly.