Silent Flame

I inspected the piles of meticulously dumped junk again and with proper context I began to see a pattern. Fishing nets. Bundles of rope. A monocular. A cannon rammer, a linstock, a sextant, a pen, several knives, an ink bottle complete with ink... Sailcloth.

They were pieces of a ship!

Correction: several ships! I picked out parts of several different types of cannons, ropes used on different vessels, a barrel lid with Ironspire insignia. Whatever could be recovered from shipwrecks, I realized. A particular attention seemed to be given to valuables: sailor's personal belongings, pendants, earrings, a compass (that would have come in handy).

Coins. Anything that glittered.

"It's a horde!" I exclaimed. Eishe didn't seem perturbed by my realization.

Scanning through the piles I picked up a book placed in a particular spot of reverence. There was nothing extraordinary about it, a basic leather-bound volume, which had obviously been soaked in water, likely as the ship sank, but somehow still held together. I opened it. It appeared to be a diary. The ink had been smeared but the text remained mostly readable. That is, if I could read dwarfish.

I placed the book back in its place. There had been multiple like it: plain, unadorned bundles of pages. I had to reassess my conclusions. They weren't valuables at all. They were items of sentimental value.

I presumed Eishe didn't know what any of this stuff was used for, or their worth. She simply collected it out of curiosity. Or perhaps she valued it precisely because she didn't know what it was. Pieces of an unknown world washed up at the edge of hers. Stories of people from far away, intriguing in their alien nature.

A loud hiss sounded from the antechamber followed by a flash of light as Eishe lit a small fire from a pile of gathered sticks. As usual, she designated a portion of the meat for me then proceeded to roast the rest directly with her breath. Curiously, I also found a handful of nuts and berries lying by the fire.

"You got that for me?" I gestured at the fruit and me alternately. After processing, Eishe nodded her head a bit coyly.

"You know," I said as I roasted my portion of the meal, "I never thanked you. For uh... getting me here I mean. It was you who carried me here, right? I suppose it must have." I focused on the food so I didn't have to meet her eyes. "So, uh... thank you. Again."

It felt awkward repeating it so often. For once I was glad we couldn't understand each other's tongue. I could only hope she wouldn't notice my reddened face.

Once the meal was eaten, we stayed sitting by the fire, watching the flames dance in silence. Outside, darkness was quickly falling on the land. I must have been out for the better part of the day. It occurred to me then that I wasn't sure it was even the same day as when I blacked out.

"Why do I feel like I'm a part of your hoard now?" I asked jokingly.

Half-jokingly.

"Clearly, you're not used to having guests. Uhm, no offense! But I don't imagine you bring a lot of living creatures here with you. Just food," I gestured around us, my voice slowly dying in my throat, the sentence pouring out ponderously like thick molasses, "...and treasures."

A realization hit me. One I felt terrible for not accounting for earlier.

"How long have you been alone?" I asked, suddenly seeing the cavern and its inhabitant in a new light. There was no sign of another dragon in this cave. Noone to talk to. To keep her company. Maybe there were none in The Reaches. Unlikely - someone must have raised her, taught her their language - but plausible. Or maybe she just didn't get along with the others. Dragons weren't terribly sociable from what I knew, but at the first glance this wasn't a home of someone who was content with her isolation; filled to the brim with artifacts and curios of people from beyond the sea. And the only other people I knew of were the orcs.

I pictured in my mind a lonely dragon scouting the orcish settlements with the same curiosity she held towards the foreign folk. She would be observing them, studying their ways with quiet fascination. Maybe one day she even approached them...

Only to be met with the tip of a spear.

That is why she reacted with hostility when I first intruded onto her camp that one day. And that is why she had followed me after I offered her peace.

It was a first.

"Am I the first non-dragon you have ever talked to?"

Silence. I met her eyes this time, facing the piercing, all-consuming gaze of the twin fires inside. I had gotten used to that look by then. Intense. Analytic. Enthralling.

"Kveh'er tehn," she said quietly, her voice warm and vulnerable. After careful consideration she followed it up with something more, a sound that made my heart skip a beat. "Taankh oou."

I blinked in astonishment at those words. They were my words spoken back to me.

Eishe gestured with a claw at the wound on the side of her chest, ugly but faded, healing fast and steady. "Kveh'er tehn."

I had no words. I wasn't sure what amazed me more, her gratefulness or that she had voiced it. She could have held a grudge for getting her hurt in the first place. Instead, she felt thankful.

It had dawned on me then what I had done. I have not only managed to gain the trust of a dragon, furthermore, I have earned her gratitude. All this time, Eishe had been treating me like an equal. Like someone worthy of respect. That is more that I could say about most humans I'd met.

And between all that, I had come to care about her too.

I smiled. Eishe saw this, her eyes adopting a warm air. Her look had set. That mysterious gaze she held now felt different, decisive. The dragon shifted her weight on the other forelimb and leaned closer to me. With her face so close to mine she opened her maw, her tongue snaking out and licking upwards across my face.

I touched my cheek in confusion, trying to discern the dragon's motives. Until, suddenly, a whole bunch of realizations had hit me at once.

Oh...

Oh!

"Uhm... Eishe?" I wheezed as the dragon moved closer. She rested her paw on my leg, pressing her muzzle casually against my cheek. She let out an odd, relaxed sigh as her hot scales touched my skin, her breath making all my hair stand. "I... look, I like you too, but I think this is moving a bit fast... and... in a direction I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with. I mean, we'd only known each other for... two weeks or so! And you're... we're not..."

I struggled against her persistent advances, trying to wedge a hand between her face and my chest. "Gods, woman, don't you care we're different species!?"

Slowly, seeming to have finally taken the hint Eishe ceased her nuzzling. She retracted away not meeting my gaze, eyes focused somewhere into the waning fire.

I released a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding and brushed myself off. Emotions warred within me. My heart was still hammering from the sudden "excitement" but as my breathing eased and my head gradually cleared, I was starting to feel torn.

On one hand: what was she thinking!? I wasn't a dragon. I barely qualified as a human at the moment! There was no way whatever she was trying to do would have worked. Not with me! I certainly couldn't... meet her expectations! Be what she needed.

On the other hand, I felt guilty for having to let her down like this. I mean, for having to let her down! It's not like I had been unnecessarily cruel! It's not like I didn't like her either, I just had to! Right? Because... I just had to. It was a simple rejection, that's what it was! Just a kind "no". It wasn't my fault she had such a poor choice of mates! I did nothing wrong.

Then why did I feel terrible?

I leaned back against the ground, wiping sweat from my brows. Somehow, rationalizing what happened didn't seem to calm the whirlwind in my head.

Woman.

For some reason I felt surprised to hear that word come out of my mouth. Eishe was a woman. She was a dragon, sure, but still female. I mean, what do you call a female dragon?

I had lived in a city and served aboard ships with countless other races. Ever since I was born, I was coming into contact with members of other species, from neighbors to shop keeps, to friends to shipmates. It's not as though I called female dwarves something different. Or female orcs, or trolls or kobolds! I had never pointed fingers or shouted curses whenever I saw a pair of differing shapes or blood temperatures trot down a street with their hands entwined. Truthfully, I wasn't one to shake off advances from other races either.

So why did I struggle with the concept of seeing Eishe in such a light? Was it that she was just too different? That she didn't walk upright? Trolls didn't! That she had a wrong number of limbs? Lamias did! That she lacked... other feminine traits? Kobold did too!

How different was too different? Did it all just amount to something too much? Did it truly all come down to something so shallow?

I scowled inwardly as I lay there on the ground. I had done a lot of strange things in my time, entirely without a fuss. So why did I have a problem with the one woman I had come to care about?

I sighed and heaved myself up from the ground, shuffling closer to the somber dragon.

"Hey," I said somewhat ashamedly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to react so... It was all just a bit... sudden, you know?" Eishe regarded me with a warmth one reserved for rocks. "Look, maybe we could just... give it some time to crystalize? Let the air clear?"

She stood to all fours, avoiding my gaze like a gorgon and walked towards the darkness deeper within the cavern. I sprung to my feet and rushed to intercept her, cursing under my breath. I reached out a hand as I blocked her path and she leaned back to avoid my touch. Her head - now sprouting vertically from her torso instead of horizontally - looked down at me with poorly concealed hurt.

"Alright, alright! I apologize. It's not like I don't care about you. I do, Eishe! Maybe a little too much. And I... I have no idea what to do about it!" I laughed mirthlessly. "I know, right? Truth is I could barely handle my emotions around human women. I don't know the first thing about dragons, I just know I like you and I don't want to mess it up. So, if this was ever to go wrong I... don't know what I would do."

Finally giving voice to my thoughts, a wight began to lift from my shoulders. No matter the words I said however Eishe didn't react. Of course, they were falling on deaf ears! It wasn't really her I was telling them to.

Fuck it! This wasn't a time for words.

With my heart pounding, I reached my hand out and (with her face being too high up) placed it gently on Eishe's neck. That at last got a reaction out of her. The hardness in her eyes dissolved, giving way to warm bewilderment. I traced my hand down her shoulder and to her chest, feeling her smooth scales beneath my fingers changing in texture, growing smaller and smoother the further down I went.

She watched me entranced as I relished in the sensation. I never paid attention to the intricacies with which her scales were structured. It was like a mosaic of polished onyx. Dark as midnight, the dancing flames reflecting in them like shimmering stars. And so incredibly hot to the touch.

I leaned in and pressed my forehead against her chest, bathing in the heat of her body. For the first time I began noticing her scent. It was... exotic. Like smoke and petrichor. I could feel her heartbeat through her scales, so loud and powerful in comparison to mine. And it seemed to be getting faster.

Eishe retreated back from me and brought herself down again, her face hovering before my own. She closed her eyes and breathed in. Her nostrils flared as she took in my aroma and I suddenly found myself grateful that I was bathed. Slowly, I watched her mouth open, her sharp teeth on full display and coming closer. I did not flinch. Did not pull away. I shut my eyes and let her tongue caress my face again, travelling upwards across my cheek and to my forehead. The warm sensation of the appendage leaving a trail of wetness on my skin contrasted with the chill feeling once exposed to the cool air.

When she opened her eyes again, there was something else gazing back at me from within them. Something predatory. I moved to place my hand on her cheek, but I never got the chance. Without warning, Eishe pounced at me, charging forth like a mad hare, and pinned me to the ground.

My back protested as it hit the fuzzy pelt underneath. Reflexively, I squirmed, trying to wiggle my way from underneath the looming dragon, but a single clawed hand held me down. She pressed her weight lightly down on my chest, her claws digging deep into my skin, but not quite breaking it. Leaning closer, she planted another one of her "kisses" up my neck, starting at my collar and rising towards my ear. I didn't try to move away, but somehow, knowing that I could not had I wanted to, made me feel things I never had before.

The next one went across my chest. Her wet tongue caressing my smooth skin was starting to feel more and more natural to me. I shuddered to think what that said of me.

I also couldn't help but notice she was moving further down each time. Next thing I knew, I felt her muzzle prodding around my waist, my muscles instinctively clenching when she wandered towards my inner thighs. She seemed to know exactly what she was looking for too. I tried to raise myself when her exploring reached my crotch, but I was almost nonchalantly held down, seemingly without expending any effort. I wandered whether she even noticed the diminutive human struggling under her grasp.

With her other forelimb, she hooked a claw under the hem of my trousers - too close to my junk for comfort - and pulled them down in one smooth motion. Remembering the state that I had woken up in, a thought popped up in my head that this was not the first time she had done this.

And this was also apparent in that she did not seem surprised in what she saw. At first, I felt uncomfortable being exposed like this. It was much like being a youth again, nervous and inexperienced in the company of a woman, venturing for the first time into unknown waters. Which these certainly were.

I would be lying if I said Eishe's attention hadn't had an effect on me, but I was still more scared than excited. She sought to rectify this. Her jaws parted again to let her tongue roam my body some more. This time it headed directly for my manhood. The wet muscle touched down on my jewels, sending shivers up my spine as it continued to rise along the underside of my shaft.

It was surreal. I wasn't sure how to feel anymore. The rational part of me - the boring, cautious voice in each and every one of us that makes us say thing like "on second thought" and turn sharply at unexpected noises - whispered its warnings to me, pointing out things like "teeth!" and "claws!" or "huge fire-breathing lizard!" in a tone of utmost urgency.

But some other, deeper part of me rebelled. A part that made me board a ship as a wee lad to sail off into the sunset and sung in extasy as I gazed from the crow's nest at the never-ending horizon - a part that felt less like every man to ever live and more like me - screamed in desire.

Right here was a woman who had saved my life more than once before, a woman I felt strongly for; and one that, inexplicably, felt the same towards me. What was I doing even thinking about getting cold feet?

Once my body caught up to my spirit's newly discovered vigor, my ego quickly deflated. Even at full mast, my manhood appeared pitifully small next to the dragon's enormous body. Eishe however, didn't seem let down. She regarded the member with a wild curiosity, almost sensually feeling its hardness against her muzzle and sending a few more caressing licks up its length to make sure that it was performing at full capacity.

Apparently satisfied with her work, Eishe finally backed off and stood back on her feet. I hadn't even noticed when she'd withdrawn her forelimb from my chest. Judging by the faded indentations left by her claws, it was a while back.

She circled me as I stood up, finding a spot at the outstretched pelt. My gaze wandered to her hindlegs. She kept her wings raised slightly, offering me a good view of her draconic hips swaying from side to side as she walked past me. I swallowed emptily, but not drily. They were each thicker than my entire body and almost level with my head. I could just about wrap my arms around one of her legs in its widest point and I wouldn't even need to duck.

Looking behind as if reveling in my ogling, Eishe stood on the pelt facing the cave wall. Then, with a kind of primeval grace, she lowered her front to the ground, resting her head and chest against the fuzzy fur followed by her outspread wings. Finally, while presenting her behind dramatically, she lifted her tail and moved it aside, leaving her sex on full display for me.

I have caught a glimpse of it before, but looking at it now felt different. Dirty. Exciting. I wasn't sure what exactly I expected, but the hair-thin vertical opening between a pair of black, plump, scaly, lips looked much more human-like than I would have thought. Above it, right where her tail met her body, sat a tight triangular hole, which only reinforced the impression.

I would have assumed a dragon's, uh, anatomy to be a lot more... lizard like?

Then again. Dragons were often described as giant winged lizards, but beside the scales they didn't have much in common, did they? They had whole extra limbs. They were ancient, intelligent and - if Eishe's burning touch was of any indication - warm blooded. There really was no point trying to liken a dragon to a reptile. They were elemental creatures, older than time. It was like comparing a minnow to a whale.

Right now, though, lying face down on the soft pelt, inviting me into her most secret reaches, Eishe didn't appear like a primordial force. She looked almost innocent. Vulnerable. The knowledge that she was willing to open herself to me this way made my body react in unexpected ways.

There was a slight logistical problem, however. Her sex was at my neck height.

Meanwhile, Eishe was waiting patiently for me to take action, seemingly oblivious to the issue. I was not about to leave her hanging.

My heartbeat quickened with every step as I approached her behind. Standing right next to her, she appeared even larger, her hindquarters wide enough for me to barely reach around them. Her opening, though smaller in comparison to her body than I would have expected, was much larger than any woman I had ever met. It was almost intimidating.

My hand moved almost by itself. I could feel the heat radiating from her body as my palm hovered over her sex. Carefully, I brought my hand to her burning scales. A shudder spread through Eishe's body like ripples on water. My mere touch seemed to be driving her mad as I glided my fingers over the fine scales along her opening, droplets of moisture tracing the thin, vertical line.

Getting a firmer grip, I dug my fingers in and pulled the lips of her sex open, revealing the glistening pink folds underneath. Eishe dug her claws into the fluffy pelt as I coyly explored her tunnel. It wasn't structured exactly like a human's, but it appeared familiar enough. The strange, winding creases of her depths offered promises of heavenly pleasures, ones I was finding increasingly hard to resist. Somewhere below, there was a big, round nub hiding amidst the fleshy folds. Leaning down for a better look, the oversized slit appeared to pull me in, like I could burry my entire face in its embrace.

In fact, that is precisely what I did.