The Dragoness' Hoard Pt. 02

This is a short work of erotic fiction containing furry, or anthropomorphic, characters, which are animals that either demonstrate human intelligence or walk on two legs, for the purposes of these tales. It is a thriving and growing fandom in which creators are prevalent in art and writing especially.

All work is fiction intended for fantasy only, regardless of content, and consent must always be acquired when engaging in any sex act with another adult.

Please note that all characters are clearly over eighteen and written as such in all stories.

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They were quite a way away, the adventurers, straining up the steep mountainous terrain, clad in armour, leather jerkins, swords and shields at the ready. They were far from knights, but they had heard of the dragon and, well, the treasures that she guarded. The last dragon that was -- the dragon that had buried the treasure in the mountainous cave so many years ago. Since they believed that the dragon had left long ago, all those treasures should well enough have been up for grabs...

They were close before her head shot up, a low growl rolling from her lips. Who was there? Her eyes widened, standing, backing up, though she didn't know where she was trying to go, her heart pounding, all thoughts of her arousal swept from her mind. They couldn't know she was in there, surely? And what was she going to do about it? Chase them off? Hide? Scare them? Smoke curled anxiously from her nostrils, tilting her head to catch the noise.

"The dragon has not been in residence for decades, Jack," one man drawled, though the worried tones of the other rumbled uneasily. "You're fretting about nothing. Dwarves know where it's at and there's nothing up here, no creature to harm ye. You're a yellow belly if you go back now."

She listened intently, able to tell who was there, even though she did not understand how her senses worked. A dwarf, that was who had spoken the most loudly and gruffly, though a low growl rose from her lips, throat trembling, as she took note of two humans, an elf and a halfling too. The word leapt unbidden into her mind, though she would have called them a hobbit.

"Here... The entrance! In ye go, lads! Onward to glory!"

And yet the adventurers, the unfortunate group, skidded down the small, rocky entrance -- more of a hole for animals than anything that she would have fit through, for the dragoness had her own entrance beyond the hoard on the other side of the slope -- without knowing that she was there. Instinct took over as she slammed a fist into the wall and roared, saliva strung out between her jaws.

Chaos enveloped them, shouts blaring, swords flashing, fire raking from her jaws. She did not care for them, not as instinct took her in an iron grip, as if her mind had blanked over. The person that Jason was inside took a back seat to happenings, even as she reeled in horror as a swathe of flame poured from her open maw.

It bellowed and belched forth, the fire so hot that the colour changed from orange to blue at the edges, burning up with flickering, deadly intent. The people before her made as if to run, though the dwarf and the halfling froze. Even in hindsight, she would never honestly know whether that had been in terror or if it was them accepting their fates, flame pouring over them.

Screams cut through the air -- but she couldn't stop! There was a part of her, a big part, that acted on instinct alone, sending out the intruders! They shouldn't have been there, should never have infiltrated her cave!

And yet the bodies melted in the shower of intense dragon fire, cries cut off, the end swift. Coughing, she gulped back the last of the flame, eyes itching and tingling as if they should have been, but she was a dragon and fire like that did not hurt her, did not make her eyes stream with the hiss and spill of smoke. For all that was left of the people, elf, halfling, human, was the charred remains.

She blinked at it, breath catching, hitching in her throat, though she knew in her heart that it had been self-defence. Look, there was the sharpened sword, there was the dagger, there was the armour. It was all there, all instruments used to protect them and bring her to her knees, all to come after her treasure. As much as she wanted to stay there and be close to it, she would never have accosted anyone else to get more of it, merely wanting to protect her home, her body, who she was.

If it was all she had in that world, she thought with a sad, downward tilt to her head, then it was all she could do to protect it.

That did not mean that it did not turn her stomach to see the empty armour, the metal remaining, everything else burned to a crisp. At least, for them, it had been a swift end and, perhaps, that was the best she could give them.

"That... They..." She shuddered, pushing the remains aside with her tail, though she knew that she was more than strong enough to take on the puny things ten times over. "They should never have come here!"

Emotion swirled in her chest and she shook her head, standing, brushing off ash from her scales, cleaning herself. It was not right to have the ruby and gold obscured in any way, she thought to herself, wanting to be resplendent exactly as it was. Pushing the part of her mind that reeled in horror away, she focused on what she needed to do, what was around her.

If she was going to defend her home, after all, she needed to know what lay there.

It was a good distraction, at least, once she had tossed out the remains and left the main hall of her cavern home clean and fresh with only her hoard to grace it. It was larger than even Jason had thought and she poured through the hoard, pawing at it lightly to uncover even more fine jewels and silver that looked to be of quality beyond anything she had seen in her world before. It caught her eye amongst the swathe of gold and the dragoness smiled as she polished it up, the mere act of taking care of her home and hoard settling her a little more, making her feel as if she was in control again. It hadn't felt like she was in control when her instincts had kicked in, but she understood, in a small way, that that was never the point of it. It was her body and mind protecting her and there was nothing she could blame herself for there.

After all, dragons deserved to protect themselves too, right?

She worked her way through the cavern, which was like a giant hall, almost as if it had been part of an underground kingdom before. The tunnels were wide and straight, allowing even her larger, towering form to move easily down them, and Jason could not help but gape in wonder at the crystal chandeliers, breathing fire gently to light the lanterns. Not because she couldn't see in the dark, of course, but more because she just wanted to enjoy the beauty of them.

The outside world, however, beckoned as she made her way to the main dragon entrance, a large open set of doors that did not close, for they were too heavy to be moved alone. She could budge one heavy, metal frame at a time, if she put her new muscle into it, but it also didn't seem all that much worth it to her. If people knew there was a dragon there, they would stay away, surely, even if her treasure was a lure.

Maybe there's a way to move it deeper into the caverns too?

It would be a lot to move, though she shook it off, standing out on a ledge and breathing fresh, clean air for the first time that day. The inner caverns had an acrid, charred scent to them that, while in there, had been comforting -- yet there was nothing quite like a crisp breath of fresh air, the world beyond her stretching out down the mountains.

"Wow..."

She took a deep breath, stretching her wings out. Distantly, there looked to be some sort of town, industrial, perhaps, smoke curling from tall chimneys, but it did seem to be more of a medieval-fantasy sort of world, at least from what she could see from a distance.

If she wanted to see more, however, the best way to rake over the valleys and forests and rougher mountain slopes would be from the air.

"No time like the present then..."

At least walking had not been all that difficult, moving around the cavern, for she still had two legs rather than four -- maybe it would have been more challenging for her if she had been a different type of dragon. Her claws dug lightly into the rock, leaving shallow furrows, and she leapt from the ledge, throwing caution, quite literally, to the wind as she hurled her body out into the open.

"Ahhhhh!"

A shrill cry, high-pitched and feminine -- and she flipped upright from where she had been turning head over tail, flapping uselessly. She had not accounted for where her wings were positioned on her back, appealing up close to her shoulder blades and higher than was perhaps functional for flying.

"Agh!" She cried out, flailing, skimming the trees, flapping wildly as the leathery cup of her wings slapped and shaped the air. "Stupid...wings... Come on!"

She had to wrestle her body into some kind of shape in flight, though it was not all as easy as she might have liked, especially at her size, not even accounting for the extra weight of her body either. She twisted, dropping lower, but could not stop herself in time from slamming right into a huge, grey, moss-laden boulder.

SMASH!

"Ah!"

She cried out and yet...there was no pain, her body strong enough as it was to crush the boulder and sending her tumbling through. And yet there was still forest surrounding her, crashing through trees, tail whipping around, rendering them nothing more but splinters as she tumbled through.

The breath knocked from her as she sprawled out in the valley below, a low groan rising from her lips.

"Oof..."

It had been quite a fall, though her body was none the worse for it, not even scratched up in any way, for which she was grateful. It seemed that power thrummed through her with more than mere muscle and she laughed aloud, flapping her wings, testing everything was still working again. There might have been heat in her cheeks from taking such a crash, but, well, she was sure it was something that had happened to many other dragons too, if there were even any others left in her new world.

"Right!" She said decisively, blowing a jet of flame up high, above the line of trees. "Let's try that again!"

There was no one else there for Jason to talk to other than herself, but she had to try, had to keep going. If she was to be her own company, it was best to let that come through as she learned -- and even as she flew too.

That time, she took to the air from the ground, her huge feet pounding the earth before taking off in a clearing, wings pumping the air madly to gain altitude. Up there, things went a bit more smoothly, though she had to concentrate hard to fly straight, the slightest wrong move from her wings sending her tipping to the left or the right, struggling to keep her altitude level as she evened off the path of her flight. She rubbed her fins where the base was a little sore going into her skull, laughing lightly to herself.

Up in the air, breathing fire and, slowly, learning how to bank left and right and do a careful loop upside-down, Jason explored her new powers, her sexy body. Even the sway of her wide hips and backside helped direct her flight and she used the weight of her arse and tail to flip herself over at the peak of her loop, laughing as she dropped into a sharp dive.

"Woohoo!"

It was exhilarating, even though she was naked, the rounds of her breasts swaying gently with every flap of her wings, enjoying the path of her flight, how the cool air up there caressed her scales. She didn't have to go too far, but she had to explore, enjoying her time there, letting her body settle as if it was a form that, truly, she had chosen for herself and felt at home in. In all truth, it would take a lot more time for her to adjust to having more muscle on her body to say the very least of it all. The breasts and the pussy, however...well...she might be quite okay with a little bit sooner. The fact that they gave her a lot of pleasure, she thought, shivering at the memory, helped rather a lot.

As night fell, she smiled, flying easily, her wings gently outstretched, languishing in the moment of flight, finally, coming more naturally to her. If she flew enough, surely everything would be like that, she thought to herself, her gaze flicking up to the three moons in the sky, though, strangely enough, every moon there was in a different phase: one full, one waxing and one waning. That was strange, very strange, but she could only, at that time, put it down to another magical feature of the world around her, the world that she was very much going to have to get used to if she was to live there.

Her time in that world had started easily and lightly, though she found that the world around her was not as calm as she might have wanted it to be, which was a shame for a dragoness who would have happily made friends -- if those had come to her with the intention of being friends, of course. Her instincts locked in and she knew, on guard for intruders, her senses so much more alert and quietly attentive than any human could ever boast, that the ill will of those that came to her home had to be dealt with.

It worried her at first, the number of dragon hunters and knights that were sent to defeat her, to see to it that she was brought down and her treasure stolen. The horror that had flickered at the back of her mind on roasting the first group of adventurers that hadn't even known what they were stumbling into was not present for those that came with the singular purpose of attacking her. Only anger, a sense of power controlling it, setting the limits and boundaries of her territory -- and forcibly enforcing them when they were trampled over.

"Leave!" She thundered, slamming her fists into the ground and sending great cracks through the earth, not far outside the larger entrance to her cavern, heart pounding, a cluster of dragon trappers with nets and blades huddling together as if for protection. "Leave and I shall not harm you! This home is mine!"

Hers, only hers. Jason needed somewhere to call her own in that world and she had to defend that home, sometimes viciously. The trappers, on that cloudy day, shook and trembled before her wrath and height, but they were not dissuaded, for she would later learn that there was quite a ransom on her head. But money in that manner did not matter, not anymore, to her, not as she bellowed and roared and roasted them where they ran, screaming, attacking, trying to come at her several at once in the hopes that one would survive.

None survived, for she could not leave any survivors, though she found the remains of them distasteful. Everything that remained of the men, she swept into dug-out pits so that she didn't have to have the reek of them linger around her home for any longer than needed, nostrils wrinkling. At least her strength meant that even hefting the charred suits of armour that they had taken to coming in, more so the knights than the common hunters and trappers, was no problem at all to her to move. That part of her "work" was a pleasure, feeling her muscles contract and do the work that they needed to.

Although it was difficult with her hands and claws being so much larger than the humans she killed -- most of the men around six feet tall in armour while she had determined that she was four times their height -- she managed to work her way through some of their bags and packs. A few horses had to be caught (and subsequently eaten, for there was no sense in letting a good meal go to waste) for her to get at the heavier saddle bags on the pack animals that had been brought up the mountain with some of the wealthier knights, but the notes within and letters told a tale.

In that form, she could still read, for which she was thankful, pawing through different belongings as she put together their lives, in a small way. It seemed that the king had ordered her to be killed, but, well, that was not going as well as it could have been for the king or the people that he sent after her. Whether they were humans, elves, dwarves or other races entirely, they all blended into one when they came for her, lips contorted into more beastly snarls than her own, steel and iron raised with the intent to cleave her skull in two.

"This is...difficult."

She had bested everyone that had come for her so far, sitting in her cave on the mound of gold as she read a series of letters in one knight's pack by the light of her flame. It was particularly handy, after all, for lighting lanterns. But the letters spoke of how the villagers feared her too, those in the villages surrounding the mountains where she resided, and also the town, the people there fearing her.

And yet some letters too spoke of the confusion as to why she had not yet come for them and burned down their homes, lingering anxiety pulsating beneath the surface.

She sighed, flicking through the letters. Why didn't any of them give her a chance to talk? They screamed over her, banged their shields, forced their mounts and dogs into a clamour so even Jason's words were drowned out. If she'd just been given a chance to explain that she wasn't here to hurt anyone and that all she wanted to do was relax in her home and work out what her new life there was to be. She certainly didn't want to be wasting her time every day, seemingly, torching knights and fools that thought that they were, somehow, immune to dragon fire. Clearly, after the number of bodies that she had buried as respectfully as she felt she could, they were not.

Several days later, she found a note made by an adventurer, one who seemed to have been seeking riches only, in his journal, that offered more information.

The beast does not appear to attack those that do not attack it, the human wrote, though all that remained of him, like so many others, were his words. But the king has ordered its destruction and that is what must be done. I can only hope that I will be the one to see it slain, for the reward and bounty on its head is great.

Alas, I cannot help but say that it is strange... The dragon has not eaten a single human, to all knowledge, for the remains have not been scattered as seen with previous dragon attacks. It is most peculiar, the behaviour of the beast. And that the dragon has not attacked further, we can only presume that it is because so many have led such a pressing attack in keeping it back in its deep, dark abode.

She snorted at that and rolled her eyes. How ridiculous... She could have torched the village or the town if she felt like it, but she really had no reason to, no desire in her. Not even her instincts tried to drive her to destruction, only defence, so it was hardly something she could see happening.

No one knows where the beast has come from, no dragons reported in the ruby mountain for five decades, according to local history and written records. Where has it come from? And why does it only hunt wild game, for those remains, cooked in a dragon's preferred manner, have been found?

Perhaps we are the ones intruding, the man, wiser in words than he had been in practice, commented in his journal. The beast appears to do no harm to those that do not seek to harm it, yet the kingdom is the one pressing the attack. And yet I understand too, for we cannot live in the shadow of such a monster, not when hellfire could rain down on us at any time.

No... We must protect our land and we must send the beast down into the abyss.

Still, even knowing that the people sent after her were having doubts about the king's orders, the bounty on her head must have been more than enough for people to decide that it was worth exterminating her anyway. It was kind of sad that no one was willing to listen to her, though she struggled to write with her claws in the dirt and the knights' horses had trampled over what she did manage to write anyway, as if she needn't have bothered in the first place.