The Twilight Dragon Ch. 03

I tip toe to the entrance, taking much longer than I would have if I had just ran, and I reach the heavy wooden door. The thick bar keeping the door closed is stuck, and after trying to turn it quietly I finally give in and give it a good push. It creaks and I stop, listening to the silence, sure that the noise would've woken Duke up. After a few tense seconds, I come to the conclusion that he was still sleeping. I give the lock another push and the door opens. I close it behind me and stepped out into the bright sunlight, squinting at the brightness.

It must be noon, the hard dirt feels hot underneath my feet, and the sun is high in the sky. I'm a lot higher than what I thought before, I crawl onto one rock and look over the edge. It's steep, very steep, my breath catches in my throat as I look down. I swallow and brush my hair away from my face. This time I did not have the chance to grab the blanket, but perhaps it's better this way, I don't want to get caught on any branches. Besides, there's no one looking anyways.

It's very rocky here, and I have to be careful not to cut my feet on the small shards that are everywhere. As I slowly meander my way down the mountain, I can tell it's going to be a very long time before I can get anywhere close to the forest, if I went any faster I could slip, and fall...it would be a long fall indeed...I try not to look down and focus on putting my feet down on solid areas.

The sun beats down relentlessly on my exposed skin, I'm sweating profusely and my hair is sticking to the sides of my face. I look to my left to see Duke perched on a large rock looking at me, an unmistakably big grin on his face.

"How long have you been standing there?" I complain as I clutch the rock in front of me.

"A while, not too long." Duke kneels down to look at me. "You know, if you wanted to go home, you could've just asked. Nicely." He looks over at the distance nonchalantly.

A trickle of sweat makes its way down my cheek and I grit my teeth. "Fine, can you take me home? Please." I force out. He smiles an infuriatingly obnoxious smile.

"Of course. But wouldn't you like something to eat first?"

I pause. Now that he has mentioned it, I am really hungry, I haven't eaten last night and now my hunger comes back full force. I walk over to him and he takes me in his arms, flying us back up to his lair in a matter of seconds.

**

I smell the food before we even get back inside, my mouth starts to water as the rich scent of cooking meat fills my nostrils.

"Where did you get this?" I ask once we're in his kitchen. The large pig roasting over a spit in the fire is enough to feed at least a few grown men, and there is a large copper bowl of fruit, a bottle of something with two cups and a large loaf of bread with a cube of butter on a carved stone table with benches next to it.

"Well, let's just say that there are some people that still follow the old traditions and believe that dragons are sacred, and offer ritual sacrifices." Duke says, stretching his wings importantly. I scoff and for a second his expression changes. I'm afraid I've insulted him until he starts chuckling.

"I didn't say it was true. There's a water basin in the washroom over there if you want to freshen up. "

I nod and go into the other room, splashing the cold water on my body. The water is nice and refreshing, I rinse the sweat from my body and I wash my hair too before I return to the kitchen, by then Duke has already cut up some pieces of the roast pig and put it on a plate. I take a piece to try and as soon as the hot fat touches my tongue I am in heaven. It's delicious and savoury, and I am hungry, too hungry.

I sit down at the stone table and I try to eat slowly, to allow my stomach to get used to the rich food. Duke says nothing, he continues to slice off pieces of roast pork and puts it on my plate for me to eat. My hands are greasy from the meat and it takes me a few seconds to slice some bread for myself and butter it. I eat two slices before I look over at Duke. He hasn't eaten yet, he's been watching me. I sit back, embarrassed.

"Well, you cannot eat all of that without enjoying some mead."

"What?"

"Mead. It's a fermented drink." He says, popping off the cork and pouring some liquid into a cup. "Try it." I take it from him and take a cautious sip.

"Well?" He looks over at me.

"It's...sweet." I drink more of the substance and he holds out his hand for the cup. He fills it and hands it back to me, filling the other cup for himself. Only now does he sit down on the stone bench across from me with his own plate piled high with roast pork. I watch him guiltily but he raises his cup to me. "Eat, drink." He says with a warm smile. "Have an apple."

I take the apple from the bowl and I munch on it as he devours the food. I drink my mead too, it's nice, a little fruity too, it goes well with the apple. It's hot near the fireplace and the cool drink feels great going down my throat. My head feels a little fuzzy though, and I feel a heat between my legs as I look over at Duke. I watch him eat, my eyes wander around, I watch his cheeks move as he chews, then I look at his strong hands, his muscular chest. I can feel myself getting aroused, my stomach is wonderfully full for once, and I am pleased, and soon Duke will take me home. But I do not want to go home yet. I prop my head up with one hand and watch him. He looks me over with a scrutinizing gaze.

"I think I'll take that mead back now." He chuckles.

"No, it's mine." I clutch the bottle up against my chest jokingly and he raises an eyebrow. He steps up from the stone bench and clears the plates. "Come here." He walks around the table to me. He picks me up effortlessly, bottle and all. "Time for a nap? Then I'll take you home, how does that sound?"

"Alright." I agree as I yawn. The food and mead has made me sleepy, and I could do with a nice nap. Duke places me on the bed and tucks me in and walks over to the dressor to put the mead down. In the back of my mind I am still suspicious that this is all a trick, but for once my belly is full and I'm warm and tipsy. Duke lays down next to me, his clawed hand brushes my hair. I put my hands against his chest and feel his heartbeat. Sleep...

**

Unfortunately, I don't sleep well, the food sits heavy in my stomach and the mead made me so tired that at times when I drifted into consciousness, I could still hear myself snoring. It is hard to tell the time of day inside Duke's cavern, but I figure a few hours have passed. He is sleeping beside me, snoring lightly. The snoring is steady even as I stumble out of bed. I glare at the bottle of mead and reach for the jar of water instead, pouring myself a glass. The cool water sloshes over my parched tongue. I head to the washroom and do my business. As I pull the string that flushes the basin, I think just how nice Duke has it here.

"Ready to go?" I turn around and I see Duke standing there.

"God, how do you do that?!"

He chuckles. "Come."

**

"Now, left more, left!" I'm shouting as we fly past the location where Duke rescued me, he insists on dropping me off at my place. We finally arrive at my place, an enormous hollowed out tree in a forest of ones that look exactly like it.

"This is your place?" I roll my eyes at Duke's incredulous gaze.

"Hey, it's not that bad!" I climb up the familiar branches and pull on a certain park of the bark, it removes a large circular piece of the trunk, large enough to admit one person. I crawl inside and Duke peers in after me.

"Huh." I see him look over at the small decorations, the ramp leading up to the cellar and the other one to the sleeping quarters downstairs. I can tell he is trying not to look intrigued.

"It's more spacious down in the basement, which is actually underground." I can't help but feel a swell of pride, it had taken me weeks to carefully dig out and reinforce the area underground.

"It's very nice, if a bit gnome-like." He is pushing a basket wrapped in cloth through the entrance, something I hadn't even noticed him carrying while he was flying earlier.

"Duke-what is this?" I laugh as I unwrapped the tightly bound cloth sack. In it is the bottle of mead and what looks like enough meat jerky to last me for quite some time.

"Just some stuff I wanted you to have." Duke said. I set the gift aside and I move out of my tree trunk and he helps me down onto the ground.

"Thank you, really." I say, hugging him.

"You're welcome." he says, hugging me back. He smells musky, like earth and grass. He is a bit of a jerk sometimes, but now that I am know he keeps his word I think he isn't a very bad creature after all. Perhaps deep down he is just a big softy. I breathe in his scent and I hear him inhale. He presses his mouth to mine, and we're kissing, soon he has his tongue in my mouth and I'm feeling dizzy again, and this time it's not from the mead.

"I would like to see you again." He says after we break apart.

"Well, you know where I live." I tease. "How about...in three days?"

He pauses and nods. "Sounds good." he then walks away from me until there's a safe distance, and pushes off, his powerful wings beating, causing the grass around him to flatten. I watch him until he disappears into the distance before I crawl into my tree home.