Temple of Larousa

On the edge of a forest, set in a large hill, was the entrance to a cave. It would look innocuous enough to any passerby, although if one were to look closely inside, they might see a faint light coming from within. This cave was home to someone: A quadrupedal red dragon, known as Pahlok-thur. While rather small for a dragon, only about the size of a large horse, he certainly still dwarfed the kobold servants tending to him. Each wore naught but a loincloth and stood no more than 4 feet tall, with quite some variety in their colors, not a single one being the exact same color as another.
Pahlok-thur currently lay on a soft carpet in the frontmost room, braziers burning nearby for light, with closed eyes and occasional pleased growls as several kobolds massaged him. Eventually, his relaxation was interrupted by someone calling out to him. "We're back, master!" The dragon shifted a bit and opened an eye. The scouting party he'd sent out yesterday had returned, all 5 individuals accounted for. Hopefully they'd found something interesting. "Well?"
"Found a pair of hunters pretty far from here. Stayed out of sight, as you asked."
"Good, you're more use alive than dead. Anything else, or am I about to be disappointed again?"
"We actually found some ruins, as well, a temple of some kind."
Pahlok-thur perked up at this, raising his head and now actually giving the scouting party's leader his full attention. "Ruins? Give me more detail."
"It's about 8 or 9 miles southeast, and pretty overgrown, to the point where it was actually kind of hard to see it from outside. We didn't go far inside for fear of traps, but it looks like it's been untouched for a long time."
"...Looks like I might be making a nice addition to my hoard. Good work, all of you." He looked to another nearby kobold. "Bring Aeklir. I'm heading out, and I want him with me." The kobold nodded silently, running off to a tunnel leading to another room. Within a couple minutes, they returned, bringing another with them, who wore a dark blue robe. Aeklir was a rather exceptional kobold, with brilliant purple scales and a knack for magic. Despite Pahlok-thur's own scales being red, purple was his favorite color, making Aeklir his favorite servant, to which he gave special privileges. "Ready when you are, master." Aeklir said.
"Come. We have treasure to claim." Pahlok-thur got to his feet and started out of the cave, going a bit slower than he normally would so that Aeklir could comfortably keep up with him.

After a couple hours of uneventful walking through the forest, Aeklir started getting somewhat impatient. "How far out is this place, again?"
"Scout leader said it's about 8 or 9 miles. Shouldn't be that much longer."
"We could've been there by now if you'd let me on your back."
"Never. Not even you. I'm a dragon, not some common beast."
They continued mostly in silence for about another hour, before Pahlok-thur spotted a building made of stone bricks, heavily obscured with vegetation. "We're here."
Aeklir looked around in confusion. "Are we? I don't see anything."
"Well, I can see it. Come on."
As they drew closer, Aeklir finally noticed the ruin. "Ah, there it is. Any idea what might be in there?"
"It's a temple, there's bound to be old offerings I can help myself to."
Heading inside, the two explorers found this temple to be in exceptionally terrible state, as if neglected for decades. Moss and vines were growing everywhere, most of any wood furniture around was heavily rotted, and parts of the walls and ceiling had collapsed. "Ugh, those cowards", Pahlok-thur complained. "There's no way any traps would still be working with the place looking like this."
With that, they began their search for treasure. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to be had, only a scant few coins, which Aeklir held onto after notifying his master of them, and some trinkets that had become near worthless from their aging. Pahlok-thur slowly grew more frustrated as it became increasingly obvious that the temple had already been largely cleared out at some point. Eventually, there seemed to only be one room left, past a set of large steel doors. If there was any significant treasure to be had, it would definitely be in there.
Aeklir was the one to try the handle, as Pahlok-thur lacked hands. The door didn't move. "Think it's locked."
His master looked at him. "I trust you don't plan on actually searching for the key."
"Of course not." Aeklir's eyes softly glowed as energy visibly gathered around his hands, before he pressed both hands against the doors. There was a flash, and the lock audibly shifted open on its own, the doors following suit. He gestured to the now-open doorway. "After you, master." The dragon chuckled as he walked in. "Impressive as always, Aeklir."
This room seemed somewhat better-preserved than the others, with several rows of stone benches, only one of which was collapsed, before a large statue of what was likely meant to be a goddess. At the base of said statue was a copper box about the size of Pahlok-thur's head, green from tarnishing, with a slit in the top and padlock on the front. "Ah, an offering box. That's bound to have a good bit of money in it."
"...With all due respect, master, I'm... Not comfortable, essentially stealing from a god."
Pahlok-thur pushed the box, the jingling of coins being audible from within. "Well, they clearly don't want it. Why would it still be here, otherwise?" He awkwardly grabbed the padlock and near-effortlessly tore it off, then opened the lid to reveal a disappointingly small pile of coins. "Ugh, this hardly has anything either!" Passing the box off to Aeklir, he looked around the room while he waited for the coins to be put away. "Seems odd that whoever was here was so determined to keep such a simple room safe. There weren't steel doors anywhere else, but there's barely anything here."
Aeklir paused and surveyed the room as well. "...Now that you mention it, there's a trace of magic in here. An enchantment of some kind."
"Is there, now? Can you tell anything else about it?" This had certainly piqued Pahlok-thur's interest. A single enchanted object could potentially make this trip worth it all on its own!
"It... Seems to be watching the room. It's not sending anything, and I don't think it's storing anything either. Maybe if a particular thing were to happen in here, it would trigger something? Can't tell what either of those would be, though."
"Spread out, then. There wouldn't be a trap in a shrine, and we've had a pretty terrible haul so far."
Several minutes passed as the two searched the room, inspecting the benches, the walls, the statue... "Master? It might be nothing, but could you have a look at this?" Pahlok-thur came over to check what Aeklir was pointing out. "There's scratches on this side of the statue's base, here, and they don't seem random."
The dragon's eyes widened. "That's... An ancient form of Draconic! The people that lived here might have secretly been dragon worshippers!"
"Oh, sweet! Would you be able to translate it?"
"I'll try, but it's been ages since I've even seen any...mmmh... 'Stand bare before... La-rou-sa'? Is that who the statue is supposed to be of?"
"Never heard of them. Maybe it has to do with that enchantment?"
"It better, searching is boring and I don't want to do any more."
Both of them stood in front of the statue. Nothing seemed to be happening. Pahlok-thur glanced over at Aeklir. "Take off your robe, I think it's that we can't be wearing anything."
"O-okay..." Aeklir, somewhat embarrassed, pulled off his robe, setting it on the nearest bench, leaving him in only a loincloth. With a look from his master, he removed that as well, now fully nude and blushing, penis hanging between his thighs. "No need for embarrassment, Aeklir. I never wear anything, myself, and neither of us have ever found that awkward."
"...Yours isn't just out, though..."
"...Fair point."
They waited for some time... Until a rumbling started in front of them. The statue shuddered slightly, then began sliding to the left, slowly revealing a passage beneath it! Pahlok-thur grinned. "There we go. There has to be something good down there."
Aeklir stepped forward in wonder, completely forgetting his nudity. "W-wow, um... C-could I go in ahead of you? There may not have been traps up to this point, but there's a good chance there'll be some up ahead."
"Fine. Don't get yourself killed, you get me?" Aeklir nodded, and went toward the newly revealed passage, starting down the steps-
"Wait!" Pahlok-thur yelled, and Aeklir stumbled in surprise, losing his balance and falling on his butt. "W-what, what?" The dragon rushed over to the passage entrance, lowered his head near it, and lightly blew toward it. "...Yep. There's some kind of gas down there."
"Crap, I didn't even notice!"
"Of course not, your eyes aren't as good as mine. I almost missed it myself, it's a very faint pink. Can your magic clear it out?"
"It can, but we don't know if something down there is sending out more, or even making more. Worth a shot, at least." His eyes lit up again, and as he raised a hand, wind shot from the opening. The gas was cleared for a moment, and while more flowed in to replace it, Aeklir couldn't see that. "Did it work?"
"No, more came in. Damn it... You've been practicing holding your breath, like I asked, right?"
"Of course, master, but... Wait, are we...?"
"We're still going down there. We don't know what the gas will do if inhaled, so we won't inhale it. What's your best time?"
"...Only 3 minutes... But, I made a spell that helps a lot with it. With that going, my record is about 22 minutes!"
"Can you use that on both of us? If not, just do it on yourself, that's still a bit less than half what I can manage."
"I haven't managed to cast it on anyone but myself. It's kind of delicate as well, it goes away if I cast anything else."
"Then use it on yourself, and let me handle whatever might be down there. It'll be a pain that we can't really talk there, but I'll figure something out."
"Oh, that reminds me, I've been working on something that might help with that! It can go with the breath holding spell if I cast that after, as well. Let me touch your head, please."
Pahlok-thur hesitated a moment, and sighed, moving his head toward Aeklir. "I'm sure you know better than to try anything."
"Right, give me some time, this one's complicated." Aeklir put a hand on his master's snout and focused, closing his eyes. A glow slowly became visible past his eyelids, and after about 20 seconds, a light quickly moved from his head, along his arm, and into the head of Pahlok-thur, who recoiled as they felt a jolt. "What did you just do?"
Aeklir let his arm drop. "Hopefully that worked" Then, with his mouth staying shut, he seemed to speak again. "Can you hear this?"
"Yes, obvi... Your lips didn't move. How did you do that?"
"Then the spell's working! We can talk in just our minds, now, and the other will hear it."
"That's not reading my mind, is it? I'd rather keep that private than use this."
"Don't worry, only things that you fully intend for me to hear will be sent. Could you try it, just to be sure?"
"Alright..." Pahlok-thur closed his eyes for a moment. "Like this, then?"
"Good, good. Give me a minute to set up the breath holding spell, then... I guess, we'll go down there."
Sitting down on the same bench on which he'd put his robe, Aeklir concentrated on this next spell. Pahlok-thur sat down as well, though not on a bench, knowing it would never support his weight. Eventually, the kobold's chest softly glowed from within, seemingly outlining his lungs. "Got it. Just as well that I can't use anything else without losing this, think I'm tapped anyway. Am I still going first?"
"Well, you said you wanted to. Go on, then."
Aeklir went back to the steps as Pahlok-thur got up, and paused. "How high up does the gas go?"
"It's just below the edge."
"Right..." He descended to about the point where the gas was at his waist, then started breathing deeply, tilting his head back to ensure he wouldn't accidentally inhale any. Then, he held one, puffing his cheeks, and continued down. Pahlok-thur got just a single deep breath, not bothering with any preparatory breaths, and kept it in. He briefly considered whether to push out his chest and exaggerate how much air he was holding, but decided not to, and without puffing his cheeks either, he entered the passage.
It was dark in this new hall, a bit moreso than either of them were used to, with a tiled floor very dimly lit by glowing crystals mounted on the walls. Still, they could see decently well, and Pahlok-thur looked down at his servant, mentally chuckling at the sight of their inflated cheeks. "Always like that you do that."
Soon, the hall transitioned to a large round room lit by a much larger glowing crystal in the middle, with several doorways in the walls, only one of which was too small for Pahlok-thur to fit through. For the moment, he was more interested in the crystal. "The size of that thing... We need to clear out this gas, that crystal would look great in my cave."
"Well, which way do we go first?"
"Check that smaller door, there."
It happened to not be locked, and Aeklir opened it. "...Oh, it's... A broom closet." He started to close the door when his master nudged him forward with a paw. "Search it. This whole place was a secret, there's no telling what else is hidden around here."
"Alright, fine, hang on." He went in, rummaging through what little was there. "Yep, nothing here. Just mops, dust, a broken shelf..."
"Kind of figured. Needed you to be thorough, since I can't get in there."
They both stepped back from the closet, and Pahlok-thur considered the other doorways. "...That one.", he said, gesturing to the one right of the closet. Without anything else to go on, Aeklir followed their lead.
"Earlier, you said the longest you've held your breath was 3 minutes? I told you months ago to start practicing, and that's all you can manage?"
"I'm sorry, master. I try, I really do, but it's just too much! Even as I near that point I start to panic, the fact that I actually got there is practically a miracle."
"Then your practice will become training. I will supervise it, and I'll see that you reach our minimum."
Fear came over Aeklir. Pahlok-thur demanded that all his servants be capable of holding their breath for 5 minutes, and his methods in achieving that were brutal, to the point that some servants had been mentally broken by them, becoming terrified if ever even addressed by him. They'd be pinned down in a river until they'd choke, or fitted with a tight collar to keep them from breathing, or be ordered to gather dozens of coins he'd toss into a lake, and not surface until all of them had been acquired. Once, one that had consistently terrible performance with the latter was tied to a boulder that was then pushed into that lake, simply being told "Survive, and you'll have another chance." They weren't seen again after that.
"M-master, i-it's okay! I c-can figure s-something out!"
"See that you do."
Soon, the hall began having doors on its left and right sides, each with a sign next to it with a name on it, written in both typical letters and Draconic ones. The doors on the left were a more typical size, akin to that of the closet, while the opposite ones were much bigger, to the point that they were actually appropriate for someone as big as Pahlok-thur. Combined with the fact that they had a sort of lever instead of a handle, it almost seemed like they were specifically made for dragons. "Seems my 'dragon worshipper' theory might be true after all. Check the small rooms, I'll get these ones."
It took quite a while to search every room, despite most of them having similar layouts, and Pahlok-thur was the first to be done, with there being fewer dragon rooms. After almost 10 minutes, every room had been looted, though all either of them had to show for it was just a handful of coins Aeklir had found. "Well, it's something. I'll go put these in that box back in the statue room and bring it down, it'll be a pain to carry around much more than this."
The dragon shook his head. "Leave them at the start of the exit tunnel, we'll get them later."
"...Master, please, I'm starting to run out of breath..."
"You'll get air when I say. Come on, we're heading back to check another path."
Not willing to argue, Aeklir resigned to being forced to push himself. The money was dropped off, and they began down the next hall to the right. Pahlok-thur now walked alongside his servant, often subtly glancing at them. Aeklir's cheeks were a bit bigger and he had a somewhat nervous expression, his chest occasionally contracting. The dragon blushed at the sight.
Secretly, his reasoning for requiring his servants to be so capable at breath holding was that he had an attraction to it. Those one-on-one training sessions he'd do with them would always be entirely private, and he'd often end up getting aroused and masturbating to his servants' struggles, them being kept quiet about it by threat of "something worse than dying." No one knew what that meant, as they were too afraid to find out.
This hall led to a small library, a dozen or so bookcases each about half-filled, and several tables and chairs about the room. There almost certainly wouldn't be anything valuable to find in here, and Pahlok-thur knew that, but decided to delay their exploration for a time and watch Aeklir's lack of oxygen slowly grow more dire. "You know what to do."
"Of course, master. I'll get the left side."
"And the right. I don't feel like joining you this time."
Aeklir had started forward, but now stopped and looked back at his master, who'd sat down. "It'll take so much longer, though, I need to breathe!"
"Then search quickly."
Taking their advice, the kobold bolted into the room, hoping to get through everything and satisfy Pahlok-thur as soon as possible. Still, there was kind of a lot to check. Pressing on bricks on the walls, looking under tables, pulling the books on the shelves in case they'd trigger something... It was several minutes before Aeklir felt his master would satisfied, and he reported in. "M-master, I don't believe anything significant is here." He was really straining by now, cheeks not much smaller than his head, with little grunts and whines becoming audible as he approached the dragon.
"I feel you weren't thorough enough. Look through it again." Normally he would be satisfied by now, but he wanted to watch Aeklir really struggle, and was waiting for them to do a certain thing before letting them go for air.
Aeklir's eyes widened. "A-again? Master, I m-might breathe by a-accident, and we don't know w-what might happen!"
"I don't believe this to be the best use of your time. You're beginning to be more purple than usual, so I suggest hurrying." Pahlok-thur said, merely teasing his breathless servant, as their blush was still a typical red.
The pointless searching resumed, and Aeklir was more frantic this time, actually overturning some tables and chairs, and pulling books off the shelves entirely. Another couple minutes, and the poor kobold's struggles were becoming more severe, his desperate whines becoming audible to Pahlok-thur from some distance, and cheeks now as big as his head. The dragon was all for it, and as his dick began to slide from its slit, he started to masturbate. It wasn't long before Aeklir noticed this. "M-master? Why are you...?"
"Pay me no mind. Keep going."
The kobold continued looking at him for a moment, then went back to the search. Another minute, and Aeklir started to consider giving up and inhaling, but continued to hold his breath even as his blush began to slowly turn purple, now covering his mouth as he felt it had become necessary to do so.
"Aeklir. That's enough. We're heading back to breathe." His servant covering their mouth was what he'd been waiting for. He was somewhat glad; he himself was finally beginning to strain, and he disliked that feeling, despite loving the sight of others struggling with it.
"Th-thank you, THANK YOU!" Going on nearly 20 minutes without a breath, Aeklir was eager to finally have a chance to breathe. Him and his master left the library, soon returning to the room with the giant crystal. They started into the hall leading to the exit, grabbing the coins they'd left here, and Aeklir started to run, wanting to satisfy his beginning-to-burn lungs as soon as possible. One of the floor tiles he stepped on, however, pressed down some, and happened to trip him, making him lightly gasp in surprise. Fear overtook him and he braced himself for whatever the gas was about to do, but nothing seemed to happen. Pahlok-thur had noticed this moment, and paused. "Damn it... We can only hope you're not poisoned."
Just after Aeklir got up, they both heard a distant slam of stone, somewhere down the hall, though its exact source wasn't currently visible. They only had to turn a corner to see what it was: The path back to the entrance had been blocked by a large slab of stone! Aeklir ran up and started banging on it. "No, NO! LET-MM!" In his panic, he briefly spoke aloud, before Pahlok-thur covered his mouth. "Stay calm. We can figure this out."
Despite his master's attempts to reassure him, Aeklir promptly doubled over and pressed both hands to his mouth, starting to lose the fight to keep holding his breath, while also gaining an erection, seemingly from being almost out of breath. During the downtime of this expedition, the dragon had been thinking about what could be done if his servant desperately needed air, and he had something planned. "Suck your cheeks in, if you can. I have an idea." Aeklir glanced up at him and partly managed it, cheeks deflating to a more reasonable size, though still somewhat puffed. "Th-that's all I c-can do..."
"That should be enough. Now, hold still for a moment." Pahlok-thur then moved his head close to Aeklir's, then carefully pressed his lips to their head, and briefly opened his mouth to get their head inside! "M-master!?"
"Breathe. It should be fine." With a moment of hesitation, the kobold did as he was told, and took a breath of the air inside his master's mouth. It didn't smell the best, and was partly used already, but it was safe, with only a minimal amount of the temple's gas inside. Recovering took some time, but he was eventually ready, and held his breath again. "Um... Let me out, please." Again, Pahlok-thur momentarily opened his mouth, drawing back and releasing Aeklir from the strange hold, then starting back down the hall. "Right, come on. There must be another exit, whoever lived here wouldn't risk trapping themselves."
Back in the main room once again, they both ignored the coins at the threshold - as much as it pained the dragon to do so - and went into the middle hall. They walked alongside each other this time, Aeklir trying not to look too much at his master's erection. He himself, though, continued to slowly grow horny for whatever reason, and eventually couldn't resist jacking off, which Pahlok-thur quickly noticed. "This isn't the time for that, Aeklir. Focus."
"I'm sorry, I... Can't seem to resist..."
The ambient gas grew thicker as they progressed, soon finally becoming visible to Aeklir and putting a slight pink tint to everything. It seemed they were getting close to its source, and before much longer, they'd found it. Another shrine room with a large statue, similar to the one above ground, though this one had the strange pink gas visibly pouring from it. Pahlok-thur looked down at his servant. "Well, this confirms more gas is being made. Any idea how to turn it off?"
"Not sure it would help, we'd still have...t-to..." Aeklir, still masturbating, had his thoughts interrupted as his arousal reached the tipping point. A few more strokes, and he came, moaning into his cheeks as cum splattered on the floor. As his pleasure faded, embarrassment took its place, and he nervously looked at Pahlok-thur, blushing heavily. "...I, um... D-don't know why..."
"You inhaled some of the gas earlier, maybe that had something to do with it."
"That still doesn't make me feel better!"
Despite Aeklir not having finished his sentence before being interrupted by an orgasm, his master had gotten the gist of it. Indeed, shutting off the gas generation would be pointless unless they had a way to then clear it out, which would still take longer than either of them could hold their breath. With that out of the question, they simply left the room for another.
Aeklir was already starting to struggle again, and with Pahlok-thur's own air having gone stale enough to start his chest heaving, he wasn't sure another one of those awkward air transfers would have any meaningful effect. Both of them were still erect, and while neither of them knew why, it wasn't really a bother. Regardless, once they were back to the main chamber again, they went for the next hall. Not too far into it, however, was a collapsed section, blocking off whatever might be beyond. "Ohh, I hope this didn't lead out..." Aeklir worried.
"Surely an escape route would be more durable than this. We're fine."
For hopefully the last time, they doubled back and went for the only hall they hadn't yet explored. This one led to a training room of sorts, with a variety of partly-rotted wooden practice weapons set on racks near some dummies that weren't looking so good either. Still hopeful, the kobold and dragon checked around the room like always... And again, found nothing. Pahlok-thur stamped the floor in frustration. "Damn it! I'm sick of this, I don't want to frickin' backtrack!"
"H-how are we g-gonna find this... B-before..." Aeklir was back to covering his mouth again, cheeks having returned to the size of his head.
"Hold it. I'm not giving you more air, what I have left I need for myself."
"...O-okay..." With that, there was yet another return to the crystal room, and the dragon decided they'd be going through the halls in the same order as before, making the living area the first section to revisit. By the time they'd gotten there, Aeklir's blush had turned purple again, and Pahlok-thur was strained enough to now be puffing his cheeks. With no relief in sight for either of them, they simply held on as long as they could.
The minutes dragged on, and Aeklir was beginning to truly suffocate. He kept one hand on his mouth as he inspected his surroundings, starting to shiver from how desperately he needed to breathe, cheeks slowly getting even bigger. Eventually, with his lungs burning and a blue blush, he collapsed to his knees out in the hall, now with both hands covering his mouth. "M-mmaster, help!"
Pahlok-thur poked his head out from the room he was checking, the last of the bigger ones. "Get up. The sooner we find a way out, the sooner you'll get air."
Just after that, Aeklir finally couldn't hold his breath any more. His oversized cheeks deflated as he sharply exhaled, and he heavily gasped almost immediately after. The gas, again, had no obvious effect, even as he panted to catch his breath... Except, relief never came. The gas had no oxygen, and the burning in his chest was just continuing to grow, leading him to pant even harder. At the same time, he rapidly grew aroused again, and as his cock began to ache and visibly throb, the effect of the gas finally became clear: It was an aphrodisiac, and seemingly a powerful one.
At first, his master wasn't certain of whether to help or just take in the view of his suffocating servant. Any other kobold in his service would likely be left to die in this situation, but with Aeklir being his favorite, he couldn't just let that happen. There wasn't much the dragon could really do, but... "...Get... Get on my back." As much as it hurt his pride, he crouched down to let the kobold climb onto him, although they didn't seem to notice, now masturbating with their eyes tightly shut. "Aeklir! Get on!" Pahlok-thur mentally called out, but again, to no effect. It seemed that Aeklir's telepathy spell had faded, and even his chest lacked the soft internal glow it had before. "Get onto me!" He shouted aloud this time, accepting that he would lose some air by doing so. This finally got their attention, and after some hesitation and a bit of a struggle, Aeklir managed to clamber onto his master's back.
It was strange for both of them; Pahlok-thur had never had anyone atop him before, and Aeklir had never ridden a living thing. As the dragon started to turn, Aeklir looked for something to hold onto, settling on wrapping his arms around their neck, and, still unbearably horny, started humping at their back. Then, Pahlok-thur took off running, going far faster than the two had been going before, returning to the central room in a fraction of the normal time and sharply turning to go back down the library hall.
Aeklir wasn't very aware of the situation, both from his lack of oxygen and extreme arousal, continuing to hump and loudly gasp as he came hard, spreading cum across Pahlok-thur's back, who blushed heavily as he felt its warmth. This orgasm lasted quite a while thanks to the gas, and even when it finally ended, Aeklir was still incredibly horny, and just continued his humping.
Now back in the library, Pahlok-thur went to town on it; he toppled bookcases, tossed the furniture around, and punched against the walls as well as a quadruped could. Only once the room had been trashed did something finally occur to him: They hadn't actually searched the statue room. He growled in frustration, then whined as he felt a slight burning in his chest.
While Aeklir was still doing surprisingly well, as it seemed the gas had some oxygen in it after all, his whole face had turned blue and the rest of him was a deeper purple than normal. While what oxygen the gas had definitely wasn't enough to live off of, it was at least slowing his suffocation by quite a bit. If he were coherent enough to notice that, he'd be grateful for it, but he was simply lost in a haze of hormones as he came again, coating Pahlok-thur's back with even more cum.
The dragon bolted from the library, through the hall, turning at the crystal room again to head back to the statue room. As they approached and the gas grew thicker, its aphrodisiac effect grew stronger, sending Aeklir into yet another orgasm, noticeably stronger than the others. This one continued for far longer as well, and showed no sign of stopping even after Pahlok-thur spent a minute to look through the room.
Finally, finally, something was discovered: A section of the back wall was loose, and the dragon fairly easily tore it down to reveal a tunnel! This had to be a way outside, and it was about time; Pahlok-thur's blush had turned purple by now, and Aeklir's gasping had turned to panting as he slowly weakened, still cumming heavily, some of which was now dripping off the dragon's back. They started down the tunnel, hoping it wouldn't be very long...
Another minute passed, with no exit in sight. The tunnel was less refined than the rest of the area, thankfully still lit with similar glowing crystals. The gas was here as well, though thinning back to its more average density. Aeklir's minutes-long orgasm finally ended, and as much as he wanted more, he lacked the strength to move at this point, lying limp against the back of Pahlok-thur's neck and only shallowly breathing. The dragon himself was approaching his limit, cheeks about half the size of his head and his eyes watering. However, holding his breath for so long was hot to him in a way he didn't expect; he finally knew just what his servants would go through when he'd keep them from breathing, and, as much as he disliked the feeling before, it was beginning to grow on him. He just wished he had a mirror with him, to get a good view of his own desperate struggle to not inhale.
Not too long after the dragon started to enjoy holding his breath so long, as his blush began to turn blue and his cock throbbed heavily, he lowered his head and awkwardly covered his muzzle, rebreathing in his cheeks. He was just seconds away from running out of breath, while at the same time, an orgasm was quickly building up. Both reached their peak at the same time; he came hard just from holding his breath, arching his back in pleasure, and loudly exhaled and gasped, the aphrodisiac gas immediately filling his lungs and intensifying his orgasm. For a few seconds, he panted heavily, more and more cum patterning the floor, before he managed to focus and force himself to keep moving. As much as he wanted to just give into his intense arousal, he knew that he and Aeklir would be done for if he did that.
Despite slowly growing more lightheaded, Pahlok-thur continued on for some time, eventually having another hands-free orgasm that he tried his best to ignore. Aeklir wasn't doing well at all, now; his whole body was tinted blue, especially his face, and while by some miracle he was somehow still conscious, he wouldn't be for much longer. Thankfully, it didn't take all that long for them to make the best discovery yet: A staircase upward! The dragon rushed up it without hesitation, but was soon blocked by a wooden trapdoor. Completely sick of all the doors in whatever this place was, he just barrelled into it, trying to smash through. As it turned out, it had rotted to the point that it came loose from its hinges, and was launched away from the opening it was covering, which led into the forest.
The dragon gasped and gasped, finally free from the weird temple he and his servant had been stuck in for so long, slowly catching his breath. Aeklir, too, began to recover, gradually returning to awareness and soon repeatedly gasping. A couple minutes passed, and the two's breathing calmed, their blushes and Aeklir's body returning to their normal colors, before Pahlok-thur finally spoke. "You okay?"
"...I think so..."
"Good. I... Sort of regret pushing you so far."
Aeklir realized where exactly he was, having been mostly distracted before. "Oh! I should, um..." He quickly hopped off his master's back.
Pahlok-thur smiled a bit, then attemped to crane his neck to look at his back. "...You really did a number on me, back there."
"I-I, um... S-sorry, I c-couldn't help it..." Aeklir stammered.
"It's fine, shouldn't be too hard to clean it off."
There was a pause. "...Could we go get my clothes back, please?"
The dragon laughed. "Of course, of course. I wish we'd actually gotten something from all this other than what little we found outside the underground bit, but it was at least interesting."
They returned to the ruined temple, and Aeklir grabbed his loincloth back, but hesitated to put his robe back on. "Man, I've got cum all over my legs. Should probably get cleaned up first."
"I agree. I saw a stream nearby, we could probably wash ourselves in that."
As the two walked away from the temple, Pahlok-thur thought about the ordeal him and Aeklir had been through. While it was definitely a shame that there was barely any treasure to be had, him helping Aeklir was the first time he'd really cared about any of his servants. He had to admit, it felt good, and it got him thinking about showing more respect to the others. His relations with them needed to change, and the first thing he planned on doing upon returning home would be to abolish the minimum breath holding ability he'd always been so concerned with.
And, as strange as it still felt, Pahlok-thur decided he'd let Aeklir ride him on the way back.