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Sacrifice Pt. 01

By: Justrex



Chapter One

The village of Laketown existed as it had for centuries. Since it was both a thriving lumber and fishing center, with many fine craftsmen and artisans plying their trades, as well as a crossroads for trade both by land and by water between the great cities of the north and south, it was unassailed by either war or strife. The town grew and prospered until it covered most of the southern bank of the great lake named Duin, after the king of the age when it had first been discovered.

Life in Laketown was good.

And then the dragon came.

Reeves Minhollah was Captain of the Guard. He'd been promoted five years before when his predecessor had been accidentally slain during a wild boar hunt in the forest. Reeves took his job very seriously. Even if there wasn't much crime to speak of in Laketown, he and his men were always watching and alert. And not just in the town proper, but in the woods and fields surrounding as well.

No forest fire went unspotted. No packs of wild beasts or even wilder brigands or robbers went unhunted. In the century before large stone watch towers had been erected about the town, each manned by a small squad of runners, with at least one sharp eye constantly scanning the surroundings through a large telescope.

Not only did they alert the town to possible dangers, but they also announced the arrival of the fleets of ships and the long caravans of wagons that constantly came and went. Laketown now had the largest port of any city in the known world.

Even though as Captain he could have stayed in his well appointed office, drinking hot tea and shifting piles or papers here and there, Minhollah preferred to take at least three watches a week with his men like any other guardsman. Whether he was ensconced in a watch tower or riding patrol on horseback, the men always knew that their Captain was with them, working alongside them and caring both about the town and their welfare. In his five years as Captain Reeves had never had one of his guardsmen die while on duty and he planned on keeping that score until the day he retired.

On this particular night Reeves Minhollah was nearing the end of a shift in the central waterfront tower. It was his favorite, not only because it was close to both his home and his office but because it afforded him a wonderful view of the lake and the mountains on the other side. It was a view that the Captain never grew tired of.

The sun had just settled in the west and Reeves was sharing a last cup of tea with Andy MacMeel and Drayne Wrath. Young MacMeel was a fine redheaded lad whose ancestors had emigrated from the low hills in the north ages ago. He was turning into a fine guardsman and Reeves had high hopes for his career. Wrath was a dwarf from the Iron Mountains. Solid, steady and absolutely no nonsense. Pretty much like most dwarves. The Captain had requested both of them on this watch. Not only because he enjoyed their company, but because he was trying to decide whether to promote one or both of them to the rank of Sergeant. He wanted one more watch together before he made up his mind.

Minhollah was settled against the stone wall sipping his tea, listening Wrath tell a story he'd heard from some trader. Some new temple had popped up in one of the southern cities. Worshiping snakes or some such nonsense. Andy was leaning against the parapet watching the last rays of the sun glimmering off of the water.

Suddenly the young man blinked. He set his cup down on the stone, rubbed his eyes and blinked again. Leaning over, he set his eye to the lens of the telescope, his long nimble fingers adjusting the focus.

"Captain, sir..."

"Yes, Andy?"

"There's... something. Not exactly sure what I'm seeing, sir. There, sir." He pointed as the Captain rose to his feet. "Towards the Spire."

The Spire, as it was called was a tall thin pointed mountain some hundred leagues away or so. But it was so tall that its' point could be seen with the naked eye from Laketown on a clear day. Looking with his naked eyes, Reeves could just barely make out a small orange light near the tip of the mountain, as if someone had lighted a signal fire on that tiny peak.

"If that's a fire," thought the Captain "Then the whole peak must be ablaze!" He fitted his eye to the cool brass eyepiece of the telescope and brought it into focus. The picture jumped in his view, expanded a hundred times. His mouth fell open in consternation. The thing was moving back and forth across the top of the mountain as if circling it! What the devil?

Wraths stubby legs climbed the steps to the top of the wall and his eyes narrowed beneath craggy beetling brows. Those eyes, more suited to seeing in the dark than humans, tracked the fireball in the distance.

"What do you think it is, Captain?" Andy asked. Reeves shook his head and squinted into the eyepiece once more.

"Don't know, boy. A freak storm, perhaps. A burning tree, swept up by winds? Some sort of wizardry? It's nothing I have ever seen before." He felt a touch on the sleeve of his leather tunic and turned to see the face of the dwarf staring at him with a look of fear so uncharacteristic of the stoic guardsman that the Captain almost recoiled.

"I have seen this before, sir. Or heard tales from my sires, anyway. It's a dragon, Captain."

"And it's coming this way."

Chapter Two

Even if this was going to be the end of his men and his town that he loved and his own life, Captain Reeves Minhollah had never been more proud. The alarms had sounded out both fire and danger and his men had rallied and prepared like a crack military unit. His best archers lined the quayside while some of the auxiliary units tried their best to evacuate as many women and children into the woods as they could. The streets practically bristled with spears and pikes and axes as his men ran hither and thither, forming up wherever they thought they could defend the best.

Word had been sent out to abandon the towers, as they were too exposed to a flying beast. It could be seen with the unaided eye by now anyway as it drew closer and closer to the town. Lights and fires and torches had all been extinguished in a faint hope that the beast might pass by in the darkness without seeing them. But the fact that it was heading directly for the town made that a small hope indeed.

The Captain, his men, and the entire town clutched their weapons in the dark and waited, expecting any moment to be their last but ready to face it bravely in the defense of their homes.

As the huge monster cleared the northern edge of the lake it paused slightly in the air, those great wings tearing at the sky to keep it aloft and it sent out a bellowing roar that was so loud it made the water in the lake ripple in three foot waves that slapped against the wood and stone piers of Laketown. Stretching it's mighty head high, a stream of molten flame shot up into the sky, lighting up the countryside for a league around.

That light also gave them a good look at the monster itself. It was awe inspiring and frightening all at the same time. Lit by it's own flame, the thing was nearly a hundred yards long, from tip to tail, with a wingspan almost double that. They could all see rivulets of flaming saliva drip from the monsters jaws to fall steaming into the water below.

As they stood and quavered in fear and awe, the thing gave one more beat of its mighty wings and suddenly it was right in front of them, having crossed the entire width of the lake in a swoop! All around him in the flickering light Reeves could hear moans and cries of terror.

Spreading its wings wide, the dragons rear legs landed in the water near the quayside. Steam rose up all around it and waves lapped the shore again, making the men on the waterline beat a hasty retreat. The shallow water of the bay barely came up past the first joint of those tree trunk thick legs. Once again, that neck stretched up in the air, the great mouth opened and it trumpeted aloud, the sound making the very stones of the streets beneath their feet vibrate and shiver.

A hundred arrows lanced into the air, each one hoping for a soft spot in what appeared to be invulnerable scales and armor. Those great wings flapped with amazing speed, brushing all of the hoped for missiles away harmlessly.

That huge head, bigger than the Captains entire house, swooped down and the jaws opened. They all steeled themselves as best they could for certain death.

"STOP!!"

The roar was loud enough that it knocked the fifty closest men right onto their backs. Everyone else froze in place, their heads ringing from the noise. The jaws snapped shut and the head drew back slightly. Bright green eyes the size of shields looked at the assembled people in what appeared to be slight amusement at their effort to defend themselves.

In a slightly quieter voice, the beast spoke again.

"Bring me your king. I wish to parley."

Chapter Three

"King? We have no king! What could it want? We're all going to die, I just know it!" The quiet babble arose all around the Captain. Reeves knew that the Mayor, Brannon McCloud, was a shrewd businessman and an excellent host, but obviously not the man to be dealing with a dragon. He was also a self professed coward and was no doubt hiding in the woods with the women and children. The Mayor couldn't even kill a spider, let alone stay in the same room with one. That was, he said, the reason he had servants.

The tall captain took a deep breath and forced his body to relax itself as he slid his sword back into the scabbard with a loud snap. Similar sounds around him told him that his men were lowering their weapons. Looking to either side, Reeves saw Wrath and Andy still standing stoutly at his flanks. They looked at each other and nodded together. He turned and spoke to the rest of his men.

"Stay here. We will speak to the beast. Stay ready as best you can." He turned back and the three of them marched down the wide street to the quayside, looking up at the great beast crouched in the water and wondering why they were still alive.

"And who are you?" The head had bent down towards them, it's breath almost taking the wind from their lungs.

"I am Reeves Minhollah. Captain of the Guard. And who are you?"

That huge head jerked back a little, turning sideways to peer at them out of one eye. A small gout of flame licked against it's lips, then quickly disappeared. The jaws parted slightly and a deep rumbling chuckle echoed out from the beasts chest.

"I? Who am I? I am Grond Deucalious, Captain Reeves Minhollah. Grond Deucalious. Why? Have you heard of me?"

A little taken aback, the Captain shook his head.

"No, I have not."

"Mmmmm..." it came out as almost a growl.

"Pity. But no matter. There are places in this world, Reeves Minhollah, where people pray each night that I may never return. There are entire countries that lay barren and burned, where nothing will ever grow again because they displeased me. There are generations of people, Reeves Minhollah, who will not even speak my name in fear of my return." The head turned the other way, looking at them through the other eye, which squinted.

"Do you believe that?"

"Yes, I do, Grond Deucalious." The Captain was trying his best to keep as much control over the conversation as he could, wondering where it was going.

"Do NOT speak my name, Captain Reeves Minhollah. I have given it to you but not given leave to use it." The neck reared up in the sky again, the wings flew wide and the dragon roared, it's mouth open wide.

"I AM GROND DEUCALIOUS AND I CLAIM MASTERY OVER ALL OF THIS LAND UNTIL THE END OF TIME!!"

The sound echoed back and forth up and down the valley and across the lake until it sounded like a chorus of dragons had settled in their town.

The dragon lowered its head to the small frightened delegation and said "I give you leave to call me 'Lord Grond'. That will do for now."

Drayne Wrath was tugging at the Captains sleeve again, trying to get his attention. Wraths people had dealt with dragons for ages, albeit nothing as huge and dangerous as Grond. His great great grandsire Deepth had produced a tome on dragons and Drayne was desperately trying to whisper some advice to his leader. That great head tilted down and the eyes narrowed, as if noticing the dwarf for the very first time. One front leg reached out, the shiny razor sharp talon as long as Minhollah was tall stopping a hairs breadth from Wraths breastplate.

"I don't much care for dwarves." The dragon spoke. "If you speak again in my presence I will crush you." The dwarfs eyes went wide and his lips parted briefly and then snapped shut. He nodded, sweat freely running down his brow.

"And you..." The talon shifted over to young MacMeel. Almost delicately, the tip of the talon went 'tink tink' against the metal. Then it slowly scraped down his breastplate with a screeching sound as the huge claw scored a long furrow almost all the way through the metal. To his everlasting pride, Andy managed to stay stock still, even though he had turned so white he appeared to have become a ghost.

The dragons nose flared and he inhaled, almost sucking Andy's helmet off of his head.

"You smell... yummy. I may have to save you for later."

Those huge green eyes blinked and he leaned back a little, much to everybody's relief.

"Is there anybody here who doubts that I can turn this town to smoking rubble if I wish?" Asked the dragon, raising his voice. "Is there a single soul here who doubts that if I wished it, I could eat every single living thing within ten miles of this town; man woman and child?"

The delegation in front all shook their heads. From the dead silence behind them it seemed that there were no dissenters in the entire town.

"Hmmm... Pity. It might almost have been fun, chasing you all down one by one. Ah, well." The head lowered again and those eyes focused once again on the Captain of the guard.

"I am Grond Deucalious and I have claimed this town as my own. And therefore I demand tribute. I demand a sacrifice."

There was a slight intake of breath from all of the assembled folk.

"Despite my nature, I can be an amiable tyrant. You will send me one sacrifice a year. One of your young men or women. No more or no less than twenty summers old. They must be comely and healthy and they must come to me willingly. If they do so and they please me I may even let them live." Those great eyes flicked back towards young MacMeel.

"How old are you, boy?" The lad tried hard to control the shaking in his body without much success.

"J..just t-twenty, Lord Grond."

"Mmmm... Excellent. I would accept you, boy. A tasty morsel indeed. You could spare the lives of your townspeople, my young hero. Consider it." Those eyes returned to the rest of the town and the voice raised again.

"But if you try any tricks... If they are not what I demand... If they do not come willingly... Then, Captain Reeves Minhollah, I will come back here and eat every single living thing in this town alive. Then I will burn it to the ground and bury it so far that nothing will ever grow here again."

"Do you quite understand me?"

"Yes, Lord Grond!"

The great claw pointed back over the lake towards the mountains. "There." He said. "The Spire, as you call it. At the base of the mountain you will find a large flat stone. Dress my tribute in white and leave it there on the stone to await my pleasure. If I let you live beyond that, bring me a new sacrifice every year on this very eve."

"If you do this you will never see me again. This Grond Deucalious swears."

"PEOPLE OF LAKETOWN!" He roared. "OBEY ME OR PERISH!"

"You have one month, Captain. Use it wisely."

With that the great wings opened again and the dragon rose into the sky, jetting a great gout of flame out over the town, but setting nothing alight. He let loose another ear splitting roar and flew off into the night so swiftly eyes could not track him for long.

And then he was gone.

Chapter Four

Andy MacMeel had volunteered, of course. Knowing full well that he was most likely going to his death. And he knew that the dragon had basically given him very little choice. The Captain had tried to talk him out of it, but Andy had remained steadfast in his decision.

Once the beast had departed there was much turmoil in Laketown. More than a few families had abandoned homes and belongings and fled that very night. Debate and argument had raged for a week. A few foolhardy braggarts (after bracing their resolve with a flagon or two of ale) had demanded that they fight. Demanded that Reeves lead a party to the mountain and slay the dragon or else.

In response to that demand the Captain had given the first drunken fool a spear and told him to lead the party himself. That pretty much stopped that argument cold. A few of the other louder drunks found themselves waking up in an alleyway covered with bumps and bruises not knowing for sure what happened, but determined not to act so foolishly around a squad of angry guardsmen ever again.

The town council had closeted themselves up for a week in debate and finally announced that they would use a lottery system. All of those who fit the beasts demands were asked to volunteer. If there was more than one candidate then they would draw stones from a pot. The one who drew the black stone would be sent to the dragon. It was, after all, only fair.

All of the parents of young people in the town despaired. And more of them moved away that following week.

Andy himself had gone off into the forest while the debate raged on in the town. He spent a week arguing with himself and weighing his own options and trying as best he could to steel his nerves.

The afternoon after the council made their announcement, he got up and volunteered.

Chapter Five

A Brief Interlude

It had taken four days by boat to reach the Spire. Reeves Minhollah and twenty of his men accompanied Andy to the mountain and then to the flat stone where he was to be left. There had been many firm handshakes and declarations of hero worship before they left him there. The Captain himself departed with tears in his eyes for his young friend and compatriot. Slowly and with downcast hearts they rowed away and left him to his fate.

Clad only in a simple white robe, Andy sat down on the stone and waited, feeling the chill of the place seeping into his bones. The little dell where the stone sat was eerily quiet. Of course not many creatures dared dwell in the shadow of a dragons lair.

After a little while a soft fog began to rise from the river, leaving the young man feeling as if he were on an island suspended in the mist, unable to see more than a few yards in any direction. His eyes and ears strained against the clouded fog for any hint of the coming of the dragon.

"Ahhh... I had hoped you would come..."

There was a sudden flurry of motion and a flash of fire and Andy sank away into the darkness.

Chapter Six

He awoke, much to his surprise. Startling up into a sitting position he heard a rattling of chains and felt something heavy around his neck. Without thinking, his hands went to his throat where he found a thick metal collar with a heavy lock connected to a chain with links as thick as his fingers attached to it.

"What...? Where...?" His voice echoed in what seemed to be a vast space. Eyes finally coming into focus, Andy began looking around. He was sitting up in the middle of a huge bed piled high with fine linens and soft warm furs. The bed itself was built from large wooden timbers more suited to shipbuilding than furniture but all of the exposed wood had been burnished to a fine high gloss. At the head of the bed there was a veritable mountain of soft feather pillows.

A quick check confirmed his suspicions that he was entirely naked beneath the covers. His face flaming, he pulled the bedclothes back up around his waist.


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.




Sacrifice Pt. 01



"One thing I have learned over the centuries of dealing with men..." Grond had remarked "Is that the threat of death will lose it's potency with repetition. But pain, when applied judiciously and instantly, will make even the most recalcitrant creature quite docile after a time."

And he had indeed not spared the young mans legs and backside in the least when Andy had failed to grasp whatever lesson was presently being taught. Those first few days he always went to bed whimpering and sleeping on his stomach.

They began the lessons with simple things. Andy was taught that when his new master entered the room he was to get on his knees, hands on his thighs and eyes cast down to the floor. If he was wearing the leash that it was to be held up in the air for his masters hand. Outside of his cage he was not to wear any clothing except for his collar unless given special permission. He was to always address his master in terms of respect. His cage and his body were always to be clean. Those were the simple things.

Andy was given a simple map of the caverns. It only represented about a mile of the vast complex. At the ends of most of the tunnel drawings were big red X's to indicate the places that he must never ever venture past. Since dragons had no need of artificial light, most of the complex was kept in total darkness. The young man had to learn to navigate the parts he was allowed to go to in the dark, memorizing numbers of paces and turnings. He learned that the Dragons Tail was indeed an excellent memory enhancement tool.

Amazingly enough, the caverns contained a complete and well stocked kitchen and a vast cold room for a larder. His master explained that while he was a dragon, he preferred his food alive and wriggling, but in human form he hungered for the same type of food that ordinary men ate. Meats, cheeses, bread and fruit. Vegetables. He had a weakness for fruit pies. Andy remembered helping his Grandmother bake pies when he was younger and hoped that he would be able to produce something to make his master smile.

The food, Grond explained, came from another town north of the Spire which he also demanded tribute from. Once a month a wagon load of food was left in a certain place and he didn't bother them anymore. He'd been forced to eat their Mayor and fifteen of his bodyguards before they would stop shooting at him long enough to listen to his demands. Each time he mentioned eating somebody it always made Andy a bit sick to his stomach.

"Stop being a child, Andrew." he replied. "I am a dragon. It is what I do. I haven't even decided whether or not I am going to eat you, so quit being queasy about people you don't even know. Be more concerned about your own skin."

Even in human form Grond had a vast appetite and Andy was schooled in what his master preferred to eat and how to prepare it. Having come from a family of cooks, he thought that he would be able to accomplish the one meal a day that was demanded of him. 

He was shown Grond's private chambers. A richly appointed room, lined floor to ceiling in expensive rugs and exquisite tapestries. Statues lined the walls mixed in here and there with bizarre and frightening pieces taken from dungeons and torture rooms all over the world. Stocks and pillories, whipping posts and horses, an iron maiden, a stretching rack. Here and there on the walls hung shackles and chains, whips, flails, floggers and tools made for tearing and rending, bending and breaking. They made the young man shiver and go pale with fright.

"It amuses me..." His master had remarked "That as frightening as I am, men still find ways to frighten each other even more. You would think that the threat of being eaten alive would be enough." He snorted in disgust. "And they call me cruel..."

The bed in the middle of the room was huge, as was fitting. It had obviously been taken from some barbarian castle or ancient stronghold. Easily large enough to hold thirty people, the frame was made of thick iron pillars intricately carved and shaped in weird designs of a type Andy had never seen before. Just thinking about climbing into that huge bed with the equally huge man who had taken him made his knees go weak and his belly turn to ice water. Yet at the same time it left him flushed and almost completely erect. Grond appeared to take no notice.

Indeed, after that first night, the man had not touched him with any affection at all. He had gotten little more than the occasional pat on the head or his behind and a "Good boy." Despite his fears and misgivings, Andy burned to have Grond take him in his arms again. It seemed that once the doors of his secret desires had been opened, he was loath to have them closed again.

So much so that on the third night he couldn't take it any more. When Grond had dismissed him to his cage for the evening (the cage door no longer being locked, dependent on the young man's good behavior) Andy threw himself to his knees and begged "Wait my lord, please!!"

The big man turned and cocked an eyebrow at him expectantly. "Was there something you wanted, boy?" The kneeling man looked at him with tears glistening in the corners of his eyes.

"P-please, sire! Don't... uh...Don't you..." Grond stepped closer and towered over Andy like a mountain, those dark brows knitted.

"What is it, boy? Spit it out!" Andy couldn't bear to look at him, partly from fear and partly from a bit of shame of what he was about to ask.

"D-don't you want me, sire?" he said in a very small voice.

The great dragon stared down at the trembling man at his feet for long seconds, his face hard as stone. Finally his expression softened slightly and a small sigh escaped his lips.

"Of course I want you, Andrew. You wouldn't have lived so long, otherwise." He sighed again. "Sometimes I forget how fleeting and immediate your lives are. What are mere moments to me could be your entire lifetime."

"I wanted to make sure that you would survive my training first. It would have irritated me no end to have had to start all over with another sacrifice."

"There is one last test you must pass, Andrew. The hardest one of all." One large rough hand reached down and cupped Andrew's chin and tilted his face up. He looked down at him for a moment, then slipped his hand down and curled a finger through the ring in the boy's collar and pulled him to his feet. As Andrew rose, Grond dipped his head and kissed him hard, almost bruising his lips against his teeth.

The dragons other hand went further down and gripped the redheads prick and started stroking him while Andrew groaned deep in his throat.

When the young man was completely hard and breaking out in a sweat, Grond suddenly released both his collar and his throbbing member and pushed him roughly back a step.

"That should allay your fears, boy. Know in your heart that your master desires you. And if you survive tomorrow then you will be mine in all ways and at all times." He pointed down to Andrew's hard upstanding cock and said "You are not allowed to pleasure yourself tonight. The next time you will climax will be in my bed. Or not at all."

"Now return to your cage, boy. The morning will come early."

Chapter Ten

Andrew waited in the dark, his eyes questing around in the pitch black, wondering what was coming next while his heart hammered in his breast like a wild thing trying to escape. Almost against his will, his wrists pulled at the shackles that bound his hands over his head to the iron pole. The way the sounds echoed in what must be a vast space under the ground gave him a bit of vertigo as he tried to orient himself. It felt like he was standing on the edge of a bottomless chasm.

Without even really noticing, he was whispering "Oh god oh god oh god..." over and over again.

Morning had indeed come early. Grond had entered his cage and locked the shackles around his wrists and clipped the leash to his collar and then merely said "Come." as he led him away into the darkness.

They walked for a long time in the pitch black. Occasionally the dragon took his arm to lead him past more difficult obstacles and once he had picked him up bodily and leaped over something before setting him wobbling back on his feet. Never once in the blackness did Grond allow him to stumble or even step on anything sharp while they walked. The young man was beginning to think that they would soon emerge in the center of the earth and be consumed in the fire.

After what seemed like hours Grond guided him up some rough stone steps then turned him around and pressed him backwards until his spine came in contact with what seemed to be an iron pole or support beam. It felt like it was about as wide as one of the lads thighs and warm to the touch. Grond grasped the chain between his shackled wrists and pulled them over his head and he heard a click as they were secured to the pole above him. A large rough hand grabbed his chin, startling a small squeak from his throat. He could see a green glow in front of his face that he realized were Grond's eyes, glowing in the darkness like a cats.

"Do not speak, Andrew. Not until you are spoken to. If I ask, you must answer or forfeit all. Think before you speak and answer from your heart. Do you understand?" Wordlessly, he nodded into his master's palm.

With one last gentle pat on his cheek, those eyes blinked and were gone. Darkness and absolute silence ruled. Andrew tried to still the frantic beating of his heart to no avail. He was, if it could be believed, even more frightened than the first time he had encountered the dragon in Laketown. His heart hammering in his chest sounded like it must be echoing throughout the entire cavern.

Just when he thought he could not stand the silence a moment longer, Andy heard a noise. One that he recognized well and made the breath catch in his throat. The only way he knew how to describe it would be like hearing lava solidify back into stone. The air in the dark cavern immediately got warmer and heavier.

His master had become the dragon again.

As a man, Grond could move with catlike silence which always startled his young charge. And even when he became a multi-ton monster he could sneak up on a mouse in the darkness. Even though there wasn't even a real sound, there was the sensation of a sound. Even moving in his stealthiest mode, Grond could not overcome the amount of air his great bulk displaced as he moved about the cavern.

Then came another sound. A sliding metallic noise like an avalanche of tiny nails offset now and then with a clear bright "Ting!" of something falling against the stone. Above the sound he heard the deep ground-vibrating rumble of the dragon making a purr of pleasure. Despite his fear, Andy wondered what it was that could make the master sound so pleased. He vowed, if he could, to make the man form of his lord and master make that sound.

The air in the cavern moved again as the dragon breathed in and he heard the rustling of those great wings. Suddenly a jet of fire lanced out, making him wince and close his eyes against the light, thinking he was going to be immolated in a second. Immediately he heard the crackling of wood burning and he opened his eyes carefully. Off to his left a pyramidal stack of logs big enough to roast an entire team of oxen had burst into flame, lighting the vast space.

Again and again the fire flew, setting more bonfires alight until there was a ring of eight blazes with the dragon in the center and the pole with the trembling awed man directly facing him dangling weakly from the shackles on his wrists.

As a child and even as a man, Andrew had heard legends of the great dragon hordes. They were never first hand accounts, of course. Never had he actually encountered someone who claimed to have seen one and lived to tell abut it. Dragons themselves, especially great ones like Grond, were rare in the world these days and those who survived meeting them even rarer still.

But nothing in those legends had prepared the young redhead for the sight before him lit by the blazing bonfires. There was a great stone circle, twice the height of a man, and twice the size of the dragon itself. The circle was made of huge standing stones, some plain and some carved with strange symbols the like of which had not been spoken aloud in the world in ages. Some of the stones, on closer inspection seemed to be stone tombs, ripped entire out of the earth and carried here, their thick stone doors hanging ajar. The tombs of kings and mighty sorcerers now merely an adjunct to the dragons horde.

Around the stone circle Grond had erected wooden stands and assembled there armor and helms and weapons. It appeared as if there was an army of ten thousand soldiers protecting his treasure, their faceless helms forever standing vigil against would-be thieves.

And inside the circle, piled almost to overflowing the great standing stones, was the main part of his treasure. Heaps and mounds of gold and silver and mithril and precious gems. Coins and crowns and cups, swords and shields and here and there great oaken chests tipped over and spilling their precious contents into the rest of the vast heap.

Atop all of this sat the dragon. If you could say that a dragons face could have an expression, Grond's face looked extremely pleased. One of his front claws raked slowly through the heap of coins and gems almost tenderly, as if caressing a lover. Then those green eyes glinted, as if remembering the young man's presence for the first time, and narrowed. The dragon rose up on his hind legs, wings spread wide and raised his head towards the ceiling of the cavern and let out a bellow so loud that it smote Andy's ears and he cringed in pain. The whole mountain shook and small bits of stone rained down from the ceiling.

"I AM GROND DUECALIOUS!!"That proclamation seemed to echo for long moments throughout the caves and caverns of the mountain. Once again it was loud enough to make Andy cringe in pain and he wondered if they could hear the echoes all the way down in Laketown.

When he opened his eyes again he gasped. The dragon had leaned forward and the tip of his nose was only feet away from Andy's face, those bright green eyes looking at him closely. A nimbus of blue fire played around the edges of its mouth until that long snakelike tongue played around the edges of his jaws and extinguished the flames. He could feel the creatures breath against his body.

"Not once in ten times ten thousand years has a mortal laid living eyes on my treasure." That great head pulled back a bit and he glanced to the side at the assembled suits of armor.

"A few have tried, of course. Tried and died. And now they guard my horde for eternity." Andy gulped and shivered where he hung from the chains.

"Tell me boy. What do you think of my treasure? Is it not magnificent?"

Andy remembered what Grond had told him as he chained him to the post. "It is greater than I ever imagined in my wildest dreams, O Lord Grond. I'm sure there has never been a greater treasure anywhere in the world." Those green eyes narrowed and the dragon snorted, rings of blue fire and smoke coming out of his nostrils to fade away in the darkness.

"Flattery. Humph. Like that has never been tried before." Those eyes narrowed again. "Did you come here hoping to steal my treasure, little manling?" Andy shook his head.

"No, Lord Grond, I did not."

"THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE, BOY?"

"To please you, my lord. And to save my town and my people."

"So you say."

"It is the truth, my lord. I live only to serve and please you."

"And to save your precious Captain." The young man sighed and shivered.

"And him too. Yes."

"You... Love him. You desire to be his."

"Yes, my lord. I do."

"Hmmm..." The rumble in the dragons throat was so deep it vibrated the entire cavern, sending small avalanches of coins sliding down the pile.

"Tell me, manling. Can you say you can look upon my treasure and swear that you do not desire it? That you don't wish in your heart you could slay me and take what is mine?"

"Yes and no, lord."

"Explain yourself. How can you say yes and no?"

"It is true I desire your treasure, O Grond. How could any man look upon it and not? Even the smallest share... the amount I could carry away in one armload, would make me a rich man and comfortable to the end of my days. If I had a small wagon load I could buy all of Laketown and be it's master."

"But...?"

"But... I do not wish for you to be slain, master. Not even for all of your treasure."

"And why is that, boy?"

"Even though you have been cruel to me and marked me with that awful tawse... Even though you have kept me chained and caged, making me your servant and little more than a slave to your whims... You have given me much pleasure and given me hope for more. You have helped me voice and realize my deepest dreams. Those that I have never until now spoken of aloud. Not even to myself."

"You have made me give myself to you, Lord Grond. And I am now yours until the end of my days."

"Hmmmm..." A giant claw arced through the air and with a casual flick, parted the chains between the young mans shackles. The sudden release of tension made him teeter for just a second before that huge paw wrapped tightly but gently about his body and lifted him high into the air.

"One last test, then." Andrew was lifted across the room and over the bonfires and placed gently on his feet atop the pile of massed gold and silver. He could see now that the center of the pile had been mashed flat by the dragons immense weight while he slept, curled up on his fortune like a cat by a hearth. The center was now an almost completely solid mass of gold and precious gems in roughly the shape of a dragon.

"Choose, boy."

"Your pardon, sire?"

"Choose what you want. And... boy?"

"Yes, my lord?"

"Choose wisely."

The young man looked down at his feet. Gold coins slithered between his toes and there atop his foot sat an emerald the size of his fist. Widening his gaze he saw coins and ingots and bars of precious metals. Crowns and jewels and finely wrought delicate things obviously crafted by the finest dwarfish or elven smiths. Things the like of have not been seen in this world in an age or more, the secrets to their making having been long lost. Finely crafted swords and jeweled breastplates, rings and necklaces fit for only the highest kings and queens of old. The glitter and shine of the horde reflected back the light of the bonfires and made him squint.

For a moment he was struck dumb and immobile by the vast wealth at his fingertips. Then he took in a sudden breath an shook himself, wresting his eyes away from the treasure.

With careful steps to keep his footing, Andy walked across the heaps of treasure, no longer paying any heed to the promise of riches. He walked up to the dragons foreleg, stepped between those huge razor sharp claws and wrapped his arms around the dragons leg, pressing his cheek and as much of his body tightly against that rough warm scaly hide as he could.

"What is this?" The dragon sounded slightly astonished.

"I have chosen what I want, my lord. I have chosen you."

There was a moment frozen in time for a heartbeat, then Andrew felt that scaly hide shift under his touch. The part he had his arms wrapped around shrunk and softened and cooled just slightly until he found that his master had once again become a man. Those intense green eyes stared down at him and the corners of Grond's mouth twitched and widened until he actually smiled for the first time since their initial meeting. Grond's arms opened and folded the smaller man tightly into his chest.

"Thank you, my pet."

Chapter Eleven

Andrew lay on his back, staring up into his masters face as they lay together in that huge bed. After kissing him until they were both sweating and hard in the horde chamber, Grond had picked him up in his arms like a child and strode quickly back to his chambers. He of course knew all of the secret ways and passages of his underground warren and felt no need to retrace the circuitous route they had taken to get there.




Sacrifice Pt. 01



He lay his young pet down in the center of that huge bed and climbed in next to him, one hand laying gently on Andy's chest, feeling his heart hammering against his ribs as if it would escape. He bent to kiss him again and Andy put his fingers gently against Grond's lips.

"Wait master, I beg you!" Those eyebrows raised and Grond drew back a little.

"What is it, Andrew?"

"Let me please you, sire."

"You have already pleased me, my pet. More than you may know." Andy put his hand on the big mans chest and slowly pressed him over until he was laying on his back, propped up against the pillows. He rolled over and flipped his leg over those narrow hips until he straddled his master, placing both hands on those broad shoulders and stared into the man's eyes. His hands slowly slid up the shoulders and his neck until he cupped Grond's face in his palms.

"I want to thank you, master. For... forcing me to realize what was in my heart. For making me say out loud what I yearned for. For making me give myself to you. I want to show you what I will do for you without any force. What I will do for my lord and master willingly and joyously. Please let me please you, master."

One huge hand grabbed the young man by the jaw as Grond stared back into those lighter pale green eyes of his servant.

"I am a dragon, Andrew. An Emperor Dragon and the last and greatest of my kind. As you are well aware. My life is combat and conquest and fear and destruction. Never in my extremely long life have I ever had such a willing sacrifice. I am used to demanding and taking what I want with no regard for the wants or desires of any other creature, elf or dwarf or man or even god." He smiled and eased his grip and patted the freckled cheek gently.

"But for now, because it amuses me and because you have begged so politely, I will allow this." One finger slipped through the ring attached to Andrews collar and pulled him closer. "And just so you know... When the time comes I will bind you and climb atop you and take your body as mine long and hard and repeatedly. It is my way."

The young redheads eyes closed and his mouth came open, a moan escaping his lips as goose bumps appeared up and down his flesh. His whole body shivered.

"Oooohhh... God...And when that time comes, my lord..." He husked. "I will cross my wrists for you to bind me and I will beg you for mercy, even though I know you will give me none. And while my mouth is begging for mercy my body will be begging for you to take me and make me yours." His arms crossed behind the dragons neck and he brought his lips down and kissed his lord and master with all of the passion and fire and desire for submission that he had in his soul. Grond's thick muscled arms closed around his back, at first so tightly it was hard for him to breathe. Then they relented and wandered up and down the slim back over that pale skin, chasing away the goose bumps with the warmth of his palms. When those rough warm hands settled on the smooth pillows of his bottom Andy moaned deep in his throat and sucked his master's tongue into his mouth.

Reluctantly, the redhead pulled away from those lips and slid down a little, kissing the side of Grond's neck and onto his shoulders, marveling at the corded muscle of his master's body. Even though the man seemed to be carved from stone from the very center of the earth itself, his skin was smooth and soft and extremely warm like fresh baked rolls just come from the oven.

Glancing down, Andy saw something glisten and he realized that his own prick had left a small trail of precum across Grond's belly as he had moved. He thought that it would be a nice distraction to clean that mess off of his master's skin with his lips and tongue. But as he slid further down and bent his head to do so something broke his train of thought.

When he slid down he felt something besides those wonderful hands between his thighs, blocking his downward travel. He reached behind his body and discovered with a start that it was his master's huge upstanding cock. His hand closed on the shaft and the action pressed it between his soft ass cheeks. At the touch Grond made a satisfied rumble deep in his chest and Andy shuddered.

Lifting himself over that pole, he settled on Grond's smooth hard thighs and his hand and gaze returned to that huge member. His fingers wouldn't reach all the way around the shaft and the huge purple head of it looked to be as big as Andy's fist. He was fascinated and horrified at the same time by the sight.

"Oh my god!" he breathed. "It's so big! I-I... I don't think it would even fit in my mouth, let alone..." He shuddered again. The dragon reached down and took his other hand, placing it on his member. Slowly, gently, he started stroking up and down without really thinking about what he was doing. The smooth soft skin slid up and down that mighty member under his touch. The big man's other hand reached up and his fingertips gently touched his eyelids, drawing them down.

"Close your eyes Andrew. Stroke my flesh. Feel how hard and hot my body is for you. Imagine my fire inside of you, spreading and glowing like molten stone. If you were a weak man, it would consume you. But you are strong, Andrew. That is why I have chosen you."

"I am frightened, master." The young man whispered. A brief smile went unseen as it flitted across Grond's lips.

"Of course you are, boy. I am a dragon. It is preferable that my prey is frightened. It pleases me. But what you have to decide is whether or not you will master your fear or whether it will master you." One finger pressed into the center of Andrew's chest.

"You have to decide if you will give yourself to me and live as a trusted and cherished pet or whether I will merely take you and do as I will and you will live your life as nothing more than a slave."

Those small but strong fingers tightened convulsively around the firm flesh between them as the young man shivered again. Glancing up into those luminescent green eyes once more, he whispered "I know what I will choose, my Master."

Sliding further down, Andrew lowered his head and his lips pursed to kiss the tip of his Masters huge prick gently. Tightening his grip, his fingers pulled the foreskin back, exposing the head which glistened in the torchlight.

"That which I have always dreamed of..." Thought Andrew. "The tool of another man right here in my hands. All for me to worship and adore and which will soon master my body in all ways. My very first time to touch another mans prick and it had to be one as magnificent and as frightening as this one..." He shivered again as his tongue snaked from between his lips. "I hope I survive this..."

As his fingers tugged even more, exposing the large purple head, Andrew's tongue laved it all over, spreading his saliva all over his Masters cock and bringing the taste into his mouth. A warm sensation spread from his lips and mouth and down into his throat and the young man found his whole body getting warmer by the second. A fine sheen of sweat formed on his brow and beads cropped up on his chest and back.

Taking a deep breath, the small mortal opened his jaws wide and the head of the dragons cock slipped into his mouth. A groan deep from his bowels forced it's way past his lips as he sucked on his very first cock. He had to calm himself from panicking as the huge head filled his entire mouth. Luckily his Captain had taught him some calming techniques to use in battle and he used every bit of it as he stilled his tremors and sucked air in greedily though his nose. Silencing his inner terror, Andrew reveled in the feel of the hot slick head filling his mouth. As often as he had dreamed of this very act, worshiping a strong man and signaling his total surrender by taking him into his mouth, this was better than they young man had ever even dreamed of in his wildest imagination. While he was still frightened both by the dragon and by that magnificent tool of his and what either might do to him, a peace and utter stillness settled into Andrews heart and soul as he surrendered himself totally to serving his Master.

"This..." The one word echoed through his mind like the mantra of the most devout priest in prayer. His head moved slowly up and down in time with his hands slipping along the mighty shaft, the head of his Masters prick sliding around on his tongue.

"This..." He felt those hips move slightly between his parted thighs where he straddled them.

"This..." From far away he heard a satisfied groan and he increased his efforts, hollowing his cheeks and moving his fingers and tongue faster.

"This..." As Grond's thick fingers wrapped gently but firmly in the short brush of his hair, urging him ever onward. The dragon murmured "Yes, boy."

"This..." Those hips rose, trying to force more and more of that huge cock into his mouth and an inarticulate growl erupted from his Masters lips.

The first flaming hot drop of Grond's seed hit the back of his throat and for a split moment that froze time and seemed to last an eternity Andrew thought "This... This is what I was born in this world to do. This is the why and who and what and where of my existence. This is where the Gods planned for me to be. And afterward... when he takes me and makes me his completely... my life will be complete. It won't matter if I am consumed or torn apart. My fate has been written and sealed. This..."

With time-bending disregard for gravity, that first drop slid inexorably yet slowly down his throat, each mere instant lasting an epoch.

"This is who I am."

Dimly, as if from miles away, Andrew was slightly startled to feel an intense orgasm wrack his body and was aware of his own come jetting from the end of his cock to spatter all over the bedclothes.

A white hot light burst inside of Andrews brain and it seemed as in an instant he were immolated by the dragons flames. All of his mind and body floated away until he was nothing more than a spark... the tiniest ember whirling above the caldera of a volcano while the flames and liquid rock whirled him around and around. The maelstrom tried to extinguish him while the flames kept his body alight and the young mans mind struggled between the peaceful oblivion of winking out of existence and his fierce hunger for life and the vow he had made to serve that great man he called his Master for as long as he was able.

Andrew struggled and fought though he had no body, desiring with all of his will to stay with Grond and serve him until there was no longer any strength left in him. Right before he faded completely away the flames and the lava reached up and cradled that dying little spark, pulling it back down inside and the winds gently puffed life back into his soul.

From somewhere on the other side of the universe he heard Grond's voice whispering gently. "Good boy, Andrew. Sleep now. Let my seed burn and grow inside your belly. Let it nourish you. Be the first mortal to taste the seed of an Emperor Dragon and live..."

"Sleep..."

Chapter Twelve

Amazingly enough, Andrew was becoming accustomed to waking up and being startled that he was still alive. Not in the downtrodden hopeless way in which prisoners of particularly sadistic captors were. More in the way a man with a terminal illness might relish each new sunrise with a smile on his lips that he has cheated death one more time.

As he lay there beneath the covers of his Masters bed slowly blinking Andrew marveled at exactly how alive he felt. It was like all of his senses were heightened to a razor sharpness in a way that they had never been before. He swore that he could count every thread in the fine sheets where they touched his skin and even feel the tiny flaws in the warp and woof as the weaver had missed one thread in a hundred. He was amazed at the way he could feel his blood coursing through his veins and the beating of his heart even in it's lazy "lub-dub" was as loud as a tribal drum. He was aware of his entire body as if he had just been born into it this morning, not twenty summers before. As he lay there stunned, he swore to himself he could even feel his hair growing and his skin renewing itself.

Just as he could hear his own breath and heartbeat, the young man was suddenly aware of another heartbeat in the room and the faint sound of breath being drawn in and out. Turning over and leaning up on one elbow, he spied Grond sitting across the room in one of his many thrones, watching him quietly.

"Master! I... Oooohhh..." The sudden motion had made his head swim and he fell back against the pillow dizzily.

"Don't try to move, lad. It hasn't run it's course, yet. Lay back and relax."

"What... What is wrong with me, Master? Am I ill? I... remember you saying something about wanting me to live... Master, am I going to die?" Grond shook his head.

"That I cannot tell you, Andrew. I guess it depends on the strength of your will. But I can tell you this... You have so far outlived any of those who have ever taken me inside of their body before." Those green eyes widened just slightly as the dragon leaned closer. "I knew there was strength in you, boy. Strength enough to hopefully survive taking my seed." He leaned back again and steepled his fingers in front of him.

"Since time began powerful wizards and sorceresses have sought to steal the strength of dragons. A very few have succeeded but only in the most limited extent. And even then only from the smaller dragons who are no more than lizards. They have taken our fire and our skin and our blood and found it all to be potently magical in ways they never imagined. But there was one thing, Andrew... One thing that they never even imagined that was the most potent of all. Can you guess what that might be, lad?"

Andrews eyes widened.

"That, Lord?"

"Exactly that, boy. The seed of a dragon is the most powerfully magical thing in the world. And that of an Emperor Dragon has never been tested by any of those so-called magic users." His lips curled in a wry grin. "Not that they would have survived concocting such a potion anyway. They would have been immediately blown to bits." Grond pointed a thick finger at the recumbent man in his bed. "Right now Andrew, you have more magic flowing through your veins than any witch or wizard in the entire history of this world."

His head already swimming, Andrew lay back on the pillow and let that statement whirl around in his brain. He had encountered a few witches and wizards in the course of his duties as a member of the Laketown watch. Many of those, he knew, were simple conjurors or charlatans hoping to dupe the crowds out of pennies as they made their way from one town to the next, always staying one step ahead of the law. Captain Minhollah had always had his men keep a watchful eye on those, ensuring they didn't overstep their bounds or their stay in his town.

But there were a few that the young man had met in his duties that fairly buzzed with magic. Old Mabel the herb seller, who was old when Andrew's family first moved to Laketown, always had an aura around her that he could almost feel with his fingertips. She had a way of looking at him that made him feel as if she were peering straight into his soul. More than once she had given him a sly wink and a leer that made the young guardsman turn away with his cheeks flaming.

Wintermere, who titled himself "Court Magician" even though Laketown had no court, was a powerful sorcerer skilled in many things. He invented and kept up many of the wards and charms that aided in the towns defense. Of course he had known right away that his powers would have been useless against Grond and had wisely stayed away. What some had labeled cowardice (though not to the magicians face), Andrew now realized to be simple pragmatism.

His Masters voice broke through Andrew's reverie. "Be thankful that you don't have any magical training, boy. Otherwise you might be tempted to use this magic running through your veins. I assure you that would prove to be fatal. You would be almost instantly consumed by the power if you tried to channel it."

"Yes, Master. I understand... I think. I... Master, if I may be so bold as to ask... I take it this means you have done this before. With... with mortals, I mean." Grond nodded slowly.

"Of course I have, lad. Many times throughout the ages. Though not for several of your generations." His mighty brow furrowed and his eyes darkened. "It is somewhat... disconcerting... to have a bedmate suddenly expire in the middle of the act." That statement and the matter of fact way it was made sent a shiver through the young mans bones even beneath the mound of blankets.

The dragon rose from his seat and made as if to leave. "You should sleep, Andrew. Preserve your strength. Rest your body and your mind. I will check in on you later." The young man wrestled himself up on one elbow and stretched out his hand.

"Please, Lord! Please don't... leave me alone here. I... Your words hint that I may die. And while I am more than willing to perish pleasing you I... don't want to be alone. I..." He squeezed his eyes shut and a blush spread across his cheeks as a single tear made it's way slowly down one cheek. "I... I love you, Master. And if this is to be my final hour I want to spend it in your arms."

That face that was always so hard and unrelenting as if it were carved from the densest stone softened just slightly and Grond turned away. Those wide shoulders dropped a fraction of a millimeter. Andrew imagined he might have heard that mighty heart skip a beat, but he wasn't quite sure. It gave him the slightest hope that perhaps he had reached his Masters heart after all.

"Of course, boy. I can at least grant you that."

Grond strode to the other side of the bed and flung off his robe as he slid beneath the covers. As always, the young man looked at his Masters superb body whenever he could, even if it was just the briefest glimpse. Just seeing him naked made Andrew quiver deep inside. He fervently hoped that he survived to experience making love to that body again.

As Grond slid over, Andrew turned and slipped beneath one of his arms and laid his head against that muscled chest in a motion that was so smooth it was as if they had been lovers for ages. The young mortal lay one palm across his Masters taut belly as one of the dragons arms settled across his shoulders. Andrew placed a small soft kiss on the warm flesh by his face. The heat from Grond's body always made Andrew feel as if he were sleeping too close to the campfire and the difference in the temperatures between his front and his back made goosebumps appear on his lower back and thighs. Grond reached down and pulled the covers higher, tucking his young pet in snugly.

Andrew could still feel the strange energy rushing through his body as if he were being struck repeatedly with little tiny lightning bolts and it occasionally made him twitch and little squeaks erupted from his lips. But being held by that majestic strength and warmth helped calm his mind and relax his body as the dragons magic flowed through his tissues. Through slitted eyes, he gazed at his hand as it lay on his Master's belly. There was a small scar on the back of his thumb, between the knuckles. A memento of his childhood days and his first encounter with a knife that carried a good edge. His eyes widened and he blinked repeatedly. As he gazed at it, the scar slowly faded away...

It gave him hope.

The dragon too, was a bit preoccupied inside of his own mind. Being in such close contact with his little sacrifice allowed him to be even more aware of what was going on inside his mind and body. From the very first time they had met there on the waterfront in Laketown, Grond had been attuned to the redheaded guardsman and his needs. And how they might play into Grond's own desires. If Andrew had not volunteered himself, Grond had determined that he would have been taken anyway, one way or another. Even if he had to hunt down and eat every single living creature in the town to accomplish that goal.




Sacrifice Pt. 01



Dragons, especially Emperor Dragons, employed senses way beyond the five used by mortals. Tied as he was to the world's magic, Grond could listen to the breeze rustling through the grass all the way across the world. So sensing what was going on in his little pet's body as it lay next to him was nothing. He could feel Andrew's body repairing itself, even undoing the damage that the dragon's magic had done to him, and making him stronger with each passing breath. He could also feel the peace and contentment and love that the lad felt for him as his mind skirted the edges of sleep.

Grond was pleased, in a way he hadn't been for ages, that this little foray into the world of mortals was turning out well. And though he would never admit out loud that he was feeling love for his fragile ephemeral little captive, he would admit to himself a growing fondness for the boy.

"Master?"

"Eh? Yes, boy? You should be sleeping, lad." Andrew stretched sleepily and hugged himself to the warm body next to him.

"My mind is whirling, Sire. I need your voice to soothe my mind. Would you favor me with a tale of your life?" Grond shook his head.

"A dragon's tales are not meant to soothe, boy. We reckon things worth remembering in a different way than you mortals." The boys pale soft lips touched against the dragons ribs.

"I want to know everything about you, my Lord. Even if it takes me to the end of my days. Tell me, if it is your wish, of one of your greatest battles. And one of your greatest triumphs." Grond sighed heavily.

"Even my greatest battle isn't a pleasant story, lad. But, if it will help you rest and cease your prattle... very well." With his face down on his Master's belly, Andrew let a little smile play across his lips at the gentle chiding.

Chapter Thirteen- A Dragons Tale

"About ten thousand years ago the elves reached the height of their power. Some of them had it in their minds that with just a little push, they could hold all of the world under their dominion. They had forgotten that there were things in this world even greater than they imagined. That great hubris and the folly of their memories led to their downfall." Idly, Grond's fingertips played over the freckled skin of the boys back.

"They had, by their reckoning, two obstacles to overcome to assume their rule over the world. Number one was the dwarves, with all of their cunning ways and the fierce way with which they fought to keep a grip on anything they assumed was theirs. Which of course included all of the metals and gems which formed deep in the earth."

"The second impediment was me and my few remaining kin who still remained above ground. Most of the lesser dragons had been slain or driven deep to the south by then. And the remainder of my kin were more interested in sleeping than plundering by that time, having grown weary of this world."

"What about the men, Master? Didn't they count?" Grond patted the boy absently.

"At that time men had not come into the power they enjoy today, lad. They were little more than scattered tribes and no real adversary for the elves. At any rate, the elves gathered a great army. The largest ever seen in the history of the world. And they split it into divisions, each to handle a certain part of their campaign. One quarter of them were dispatched to 'handle' the dwarves. The other three divisions headed for the lairs of the dragons they could find."

"But there was a fatal flaw in their plans. One thing that they had not counted on nor planned for."

"You, Master?" The thick fingers tousled the lads red hair fondly.

"Me exactly, boy. I had just moved into a new lair with my horde and, having fed, had been sleeping for over a hundred years. I'd moved in quietly... for a dragon, anyway... expecting a long nap to watch my dreams and amuse myself." He snorted derisively.

"The stupid elves marched two divisions around either side of my horde mountain, never suspecting I was there. I, of course, had awakened when they were several leagues away and crouched, waiting for them to attack. When they marched on past I was dumbfounded. At first I was insulted. As if they dared to imagine I wasn't a foe worth encountering. When I realized their true folly I was amused."

"But when I peered out to watch the fools march right past my cavern I spied two things that raised my anger and sealed their fate. One... in the forefront of their caravan there was a large wagon carrying the head of one of my lesser brethren. They were bearing it like a standard of their victory, as if seeing that would make any true dragon despair. And two... in the rear among the baggage was the plundered horde. They had it sealed away in casks and chests but I could smell the gold and riches as if they were in plain sight."

The young man shivered a little and hugged the warmth of his Master to him. "Did... did you take it from them, Master?" Grond chuckled, deep in his chest.

"Most certainly I did, little pet. Looking ahead, I saw that their forces were marching through a narrow pass between two mountains not far away. A stupid tactical mistake on their part. I waited until the majority of their force was on the other side and then I sprung. Striking one mountain and then the other, I threw great chunks of the cliffs down on them, crushing many of their soldiers and sealing the gap with tons of stone. Falling then on their rear guard, I slew them by the hundreds and carried away not only their stolen treasure but all of their supplies as well. That great elven army could do naught but clash their shields in fury at how they had been played the fool. Summoning my greatest and hottest fire, I melted the rockfall blocking the pass until it was as smooth as glass so not even the nimblest elf could climb it, even if he could have taken the heat. That mass of stone glowed red for five nights. I knew from the lay of the land it would take them weeks at best to circumvent the mountains and return to a place where they could track me again."

"I returned to my cavern with my treasure and a small handful of captives that I had left alive. Once inside I proceeded to question them about their campaign. As you can imagine, it didn't take me long to convince them to talk freely."

Andrew shivered hard again. Even though he was a stout hearted and stalwart guardsman and well trained, he was discovering that learning the ways of dragons was not at all easy on the nerves. "I don't think... that I will ask about your... methods, my Lord." Grond chuckled again and tousled the boys hair lightly.

"A wise choice, lad."

"I had learned that a powerful king and queen had united the elves and begun this war to meet their own dreams of dominance. They had three daughters who were powerful sorceresses. With their great magics powering their designs, they thought they could easily control the world in short order. The only conclusion that I could arrive at from this was that the ruling family must be insane."

"Why do you say that, Master?" Grond chuckled, a sound deep in his chest like slabs of granite grinding together.

"You know so little about the world, little pet. Elven kind as a rule do not seek dominion. True, they will defend what is theirs fiercely and to the death, but they rarely if ever seek to expand their borders. No, boy... Elves fight only to defend. It is their way. So for them to be attempting to defeat both the dwarves and the dragons at the same time surely had to be a sign of insanity on their part."

"Anyway, I decided that it was up to me to end this madness once and for all. Whether they won or lost it would have upset the equilibrium of the world and disrupted my occasional supplies of food and riches. This could not be allowed to continue." Grond's face hardened into an inscrutable mask, clouding his thoughts.

"Once I had wrung all of the information from my captives as possible, I... dispatched them.." He shot a look at his pet as the lad cuddled next to his body, well aware that he didn't need to burden the boy with too much information. "Then I sealed my lair and flew at once to the elven stronghold, determined to end this folly once and for all."

"Approaching from on high, I could see the keep surrounded by a small army of their finest warriors there to protect the royal household. A thousand warriors or so. I was neither impressed, nor worried. I am Grond, after all. The mightiest of the Emperor dragons! Scourge of the earth! A thousand elves would fill my belly nicely."

"Summoning my fire, I dove on the battlements as a thick blanket of arrows flew upwards."

"What I did not reckon in my plans was the power and cunning of the witch daughters of the king. They had set about the keep what they referred to as a 'lesser form' spell. One of many incantations they had ringing the walls. Once I had breached it, the spell locked me in my human form. Bereft of my wings, I plummeted to the earth with a mighty crash." Andrew let out a small gasp.

"Did they capture you, my Lord?" The dragon looked askance at the smaller man, one eyebrow raised and snorted in disgust.

"Certainly not. The fall fazed me only a little and I leapt up and entered the fray immediately." Grond sighed almost wistfully. "Although you have been trained in combat boy, you have never experienced a battle as took place that day. Naked I fell to earth and that was how I met them. At first I slew them with rocks and my bare hands as they swarmed at me. Then I grabbed up weapons and shields from their own ranks. Even though their largest swords were puny in my hands I broke dozens of them as I waded into the slaughter."

"They never stood a chance before me, even though I was just a man."

"Did you kill all of them, my Lord?"

"All except one, lad. One young elf I left lamed and wounded but alive on the battlements as I fought my way inside. I battled with them all through the night. Their archers fired arrows and I brushed them aside. Their infantry rushed me and I broke them again and again. They hurled magics at me and I caught them and threw them back, laughing as I scattering their ranks. As we fought further and further into the keep they got more desperate. The elves threw up defenses and I threw them down. Each of their ambushes failed, leaving behind more scattered dead and dying." The little redheaded mans eyes were wide at the tale.

"Then, as the dawn broke over the horizon, I slew the final vanguard left to protect the royal family and smashed open the doors to the throne room. The elven king, his eyes glazed in madness and terror, rushed at me with some ancient sword which bristled with magic. I snapped it on my forearm and tore the stub from his grasp. With his own sword I hewed his head from his shoulders and tossed it blinking back up onto his empty throne."

"Now all that were left were the Queen Mother and her witch daughters, clustered in a corner and trapped. Though they tried to look haughty and aloof in the way that elves are want to do, I could see the same madness and terror in their eyes."

"Looming before them I roared. 'Break the spell!' And they stood mute. 'Break the spell and bring your armies home and I may yet allow your race to continue.' But they were adamant. The queen flew at me, shrieking 'We will destroy you and all of your kind, monster!' With one hand I grasped her by the throat and crushed it, feeling the bones shatter in my fingers. I tossed her twitching body aside and advanced on the sorceresses who were the root of all of this madness."

"In their pride they thought their magic was stronger than mine. With a wave of my hand, I rooted them in place, barely allowing them to breathe. Another wave tore the clothes from their bodies, leaving them naked before me. Now..." Grond chuckled softly and patted the smaller man on the back. "I am sure you are quite aware of the effect of naked flesh on me, lad. In one form it merely makes me hungry. In another form it makes me hungry in... quite another way."

Andrew shivered but did not speak.

"Even though they were my enemy, I could admit they were quite comely. As their eyes widened in horror I grew hard before them. Elves place a high regard on abstinence when it comes to sorcery even though in the long run it does not matter one bit. These elven princesses were virgins all. None of them had even seen a man naked, let alone one as large as I. I was determined to further their education before they died."

"Without a word I grabbed the eldest daughter, the one with the haughtiest expression on her lips, and threw her onto the throne next to her fathers head. I grabbed her ankles, spread her legs wide and took her. She shrieked as I entered her and kept screaming as I took her. It amused me to imagine those dead eyes of her father were still watching. As I climaxed inside of her she immediately burst into flames. My magic clashed with hers and she lost the battle immediately. The fire claimed her and the throne and his head, all gone in seconds."

"The other two stood transfixed, mouths open in horror. 'Break the spell!' I roared again. 'Break the spell and give up this madness and you may live!' But they said nothing."

"I grabbed the middle daughter and threw her face down to the floor over her mothers body. 'Break the spell.' She screamed 'Never, demon!' One hand wrapped in her hair, I took her that way as if she were a man. I barely even had time to enjoy it before another shrieking elf princess was consumed by the fire, leaving naught of her and her mother but a pile of ash."

"And then there was one. The youngest and comeliest of them all. Under other circumstances I would have considered keeping her. But... no. Those pale silver elven eyes rolled with madness. As I approached she fell to her knees and screamed 'Give me your magic, monster! Give it to me and we can rule the world together!' As if I needed her help with that." Grond snorted.

"You would not survive my magic, child" I said as I stepped closer. But she grasped me and pulled me in chanting 'Give it to me! Give it to me! Give it to me!' over and over again. Clearly she was beyond all reason. It was with just a hint of regret and a small measure of mercy that I allowed her to take me in her mouth, trying her inexperienced best to suck the magic from my flesh like a vampire. As the first drop of my seed hit the back of her throat, the princess's eyes lit up like lanterns from the inside. In the moments before she was consumed I could see that she understood at least part of the enormity of what she had just done. Then she was gone."

The dragon was silent for along moment, lost in reverie. The young man huddled at his side was also lost in thought. It startled and puzzled him some he had survived at least part of what had instantly destroyed those who were so powerful. Elves! And powerful magic users, at that. Those who lived so long they were almost immortal. Gone in a blink. Yet he still lived.

It took a sigh from his master to bring Andrew back to the tale.

"Sire? What of the other elf? The one you left alive? And what of the spell?"

"The spell was broken the instant the last daughter expired, lad. I could feel it deep in my bones. I was once again able to become what I am. Perched high on the smoking ruin of their fortress, I bellowed in triumph, a roar that was heard for hundreds of leagues. I considered briefly melting the keep down into a pile of slag as a monument to their folly. Instead I burrowed down deep inside their lowest strongrooms and gathered all of the treasure I could find, heaping it up before the castle walls. It was more than just compensation for the trouble they had given me."

"Returning to my less frightening form, I rescued the young elf I had left intact and bound his wounds, treating him more tenderly than I wished or he expected. Patiently I counseled him on the folly he and his brethren had wrought both upon me and upon the land. Long we spoke until finally he understood and agreed on what must be done. And what must be undone. Then I placed him on horseback and told him to ride out, find their armies, and return them home once more. That order he complied with and within a month all of the elves had returned home and were rebuilding their fortress anew. But this time with an eye towards defense, rather than conquest. As a matter of fact..." A chuckle deep inside Grond's chest that echoed like slabs of granite rubbing together resounded off the walls of the room. "That same young elf quickly became first a commander and then a king, establishing a new line that continues today. Hmmm..." His free hand rubbed his jaw. "Faranir, I believe his name was..."

"Faranir!" thought Andrew. "The greatest and wisest elven king in all of the tales!" As his mind drifted off into sleep he idly wondered how much wisdom could be gleaned from a dragons words... And if he'd live long enough to benefit from that wisdom. 

Chapter Fourteen

Andrew woke, missing the now familiar heat of his masters body. The huge bed was now strangely vacant and it left him feeling a little forlorn. As the young captive realized that he missed Grond being around it startled him a bit. "Imagine that..." he chuckled lightly. "I'm sad because there isn't a dragon in this cavern!"

Wondering where his master might be he came to another startling revelation. He could feel that Grond was nowhere in the cavern labyrinth or even on the mountain at all! He could sense it as if looking in the same room. Closing his eyes, Andrew stretches his senses, questing outward to seek the man he wanted. There was a brief flash of brightest blue clarity before there was a rush like a great wind in his ears. His mind whirled, his stomach rolled and Andrew sat down on the smooth stone floor with a sudden thump, bringing him back to reality. It took just a moment for his mind to process what he had just experienced.

Grond was flying! And just for the briefest of moments their senses had been linked. The glimpsed vista of the earth so very far below him had scared him in ways he didn't even want to think about just then.

It seemed that his latest infusion of the dragon's magical elixir was still changing him. In ways that he had never even considered.

Shaking his head to stabilize his ears and settle his nerves, he got up and headed for the larder to prepare some breakfast. The greatest of all dragons always returned home hungry and his loyal and willing captive wanted to see Grond's smile upon his return.

"So you did survive."

After all this time Andrew MacMeel was used to the big man's silent ways and even though he was startled once again, he kept from dropping the skillet. With only a slight twitch he resumed scooping eggs and sausages onto the platter that his master ate from. Part of his mind wondered if Grond snuck up on him merely for his own amusement. The barest hint of a smile on that normally stony face bore credence to his idling. Was he smiling because I survived or because he managed to startle me again? 

Or both?

"Yes Master. I did indeed. And... the strangest thing..."

"You were in my mind." Stone-faced once again, Grond stood and stared from the depths of his hood. He sounded displeased. Instantly, Andrew stopped and lowered his eyes to the floor, his heart sinking.

"I... I am sorry, Master! I didn't mean to! It just... happened..."

There were long seconds of silence in the room. Andrew's heart sank even lower. Then in an eye-blink of motion, Grond was before him, hood swept back. Those huge strong hands cupped each side of the young redheads cheeks and tipped his head back to gaze into his face. The great greenish gold orbs of the dragons eyes seemed for a moment to swell in size until they encompassed all existence. That gaze quested inside of him, laying his entire mind bare before the great monster who now owned his life and heart and soul.




Sacrifice Pt. 02: Willing



4-8-15

Willing

One

Jenny Gardener was no stranger to the mysteries of childbirth. As the oldest of five daughters and sister to four younger brothers she had assisted in bringing all but the oldest of her siblings into the world. When she was small she had done little more than hold Mama's hand and helped keep her calm and steady while Old Mabel or one of the other women had done the actual delivery. But when baby Sybil was born during the great storm of '003 nobody had been able to get to the Gardener home in time and Jenny had brought her sister into the world all on her own.

Well, with a little help from Mama, of course.

So this time shouldn't have been any different, right?

Old Mabel was here and she knew everything there was to know about birthing a baby. She had been delivering babies, along with potions and salves and charms and the like, since way before Jenny was born. Probably even before Mama and Papa were born, too. Nobody was really sure exactly how old Old Mabel was.

But she was here and everything was going to be all right.

Wasn't it?

She raised her head and looked down past her own distended belly at the ancient woman kneeling between her thighs giving her directions. Jenny could feel the baby making it's way down her canal and she wanted to scream. She wanted to cry. She wanted to weep with happiness and nervousness and a million other emotions which raced around and around in her mind like leaves caught in a whirlwind.

Speaking of a whirlwind, from the entrance to the tunnel came a great rushing of wind outside. It carried a roar of it's own and there was another deeper roaring over the top which echoed through the deep long tunnels as it came and went.

Master was restless and impatient and he circled the mountain like a thing possessed, giving voice to his unease and trumpeting to the sky. Folk for leagues around must be hiding in their cellars and whispering prayers he wasn't headed their way.

Jenny wished he would calm down. She was nervous enough for all of them and his throwing a tantrum wasn't helping any. This was her first child and she was told they were always the hardest.

This was very hard.

Hard to stay still.

Hard not to cry out with the ache, though she was no stranger to pain.

Hard to listen and obey the directions she was being told.

Oooohhhh god... this was hard.

And it hurt.

A squeeze on her sweaty fingers shifted her focus. A strong firm hand held hers. The hand was attached to a long nicely muscled brawny arm and that arm was likewise attached to the body of a tall handsome trained Guardsman of the Watch. She looked up at his face and saw the concern and love in his eyes and she could feel all of the strength he was giving her through this simple act of being there and holding her hand.

Andrew MacMeel, the love of her life.

Well, the second love of her life.

Master was still outside.

Her life was... complicated.

And getting more so by the second.

"Another 'un, dearie! Poosh ye now! 'Most done I says! Poosh gell! Poosh!" Old Mabel only had one tooth left in her head and at times she was a bit hard to understand.

But her directions were clear enough.

Bracing herself against Andrews grip, she bore down with all of her might, trying not to succumb to the pain and push the baby on through.

Push push push push push! Aaaaaahhhhh...!

Then there it was. She felt the awful pressure in her belly release. The absence was almost a different kind of pain in itself and she did weep this time, more in relief than anything else. So distracted she missed several of the next few moments while the old woman crouched between her sweaty legs and did things to the baby.

Her baby... wasn't crying.

They always cried.

"My... my baby?"

The wizened old woman held up the newborn in her hands wrapped in a blanket, the old gray rheumy eyes wide as she stared at the child.

"Oooohhhh, my..." Was all she had to say.

Two

Back To The Beginning

She had awoken, much to her surprise.

Her heart was beating hard and fast, as if she had awakened from a nightmare and she felt sweat cooling on her brow. If she had been dreaming, the last vestiges of it faded away by the light as her eyes opened and she surveyed her surroundings.

Half surprised it didn't look like the inside of a dragon's belly.

One just never knew with dragons.

As a child Jenny Gardener had been fascinated with dragons. She had gone to see all of the plays which dealt with them and sought out the storytellers as they sat on the corners begging for pennies and dunned them for tales of the great beasts. Once or twice when she was older she had actually been able to see books... real bound books with color drawings, some of which actually fit the pictures in her active imagination.

The little tin chest in the corner of her room which held her clothes also contained dozens of fanciful drawings she had done herself on any scrap of paper or parchment or skin she was able to get her hands on. Her childhood dreams usually had two favorite themes... herself as the mighty hero slaying a great beast or as a powerful princess with a fierce dragon as a pet.

So strong had her desires been she ran and played and climbed and fought as hard and as rough as any of the boys. Young Jenny learned how to fight with staves like swords and how to shoot a bow and use a knife, even if it was just a stick because Mama wouldn't let her have a real knife yet.

Whatever her future held for her, she was going to be ready for it.

As the years progressed Jenny grew into a beautiful strong young woman. Life on the Gardener farm was hard but not difficult and the work she had to do each day between the fields and the animals and helping Mama in the kitchen kept her body strong but also gave her mind time to wander.

Those wanderings almost always took her back to familiar ground.

Most nights she dreamed of dragons.

Then, in her nineteenth year, everything changed.

Including her dreams.

It was in that year a real dragon came.

Though she had been evacuated to the woods against her will with the rest of the women and children, Jenny had climbed high into a tree and watched as the magnificent beast approached and landed in the harbor.

She didn't dare even blink. Her pale green eyes shone with the dragons fire.

Or breathe.

It felt as if even her heart had stopped beating in her chest.

A God had come to Laketown.

His name was Grond Deucalious.

"That boy is dead, I tell you! Dead! The dragon et him seconds after he was left there, mark my words." Papa waved a half eaten chicken leg to emphasize his claim which made Jenny a little queasy at the picture it put in her mind.

"More's the pity, though. A fine young man from all accounts. The Captain himself was all set to promote the boy on the day that monster came. Now he is nothing more than a dead hero, Gods bless his soul." He paused and shook his head. "Though I hate to say it, better him than all of us."

"What if it didn't kill him, Papa? What if he is still alive as the dragon promised?" Papa snorted and shook his head.

"Dragon promises..." He shook his head again. "He lied, Jennygirl. It's what they do. All they care about is gold and eating. Dragons have no honor. No, girl. As sure as there's rock in the ground, that boy is dead."

As much as Jenny loved her Papa and valued his wisdom, she really hoped he was wrong this time.

Three

Mama had screamed of course when Jenny had been selected. Wept and hid her face in her apron, shoulders wracked with her sobbing.

Papa had shouted and threatened and beat up two of the guardsmen who tried to stop him when he tried to pull his daughter away forcibly.

Captain Minhollah stepped in and spoke to both of them softly. Jenny couldn't hear what he said to them, but whatever it was they both dropped their shoulders and nodded after long minutes. At one point he even took hold of Mama and Papa's hands, went to one knee and bowed his head to them. They both looked a little shocked such a great and important man as Reeves Minhollah would bow his head to them in such a way.

She was allowed five minutes to say goodbye to her family. There were more tears and more hugs and then she was taken away. A small deportation of older women from the village stripped her and bathed her and slipped a clean white robe over her head then she was taken to the boat and rowed upriver.

Jenny was going to meet a dragon.

To be completely accurate, she was going to be sacrificed to a dragon to save her town.

She was more excited and more terrified than she had ever been in her life.

The Captain held her hand the entire way. He spoke about her bravery and how proud of her he was and how she was sparing the lives of thousands of the citizens of Laketown with her brave sacrifice.

In some ways he wasn't really helping.

But she took his words in the spirit they were offered.

As he led her to the flat stone she was startled to feel his big strong hands tremble just a little. His craggy face was damp with tears which he allowed to flow unimpeded down his cheeks. He hugged her tight and whispered in her ear.

"If... if you happen to meet a certain redheaded young man... please give him my love and greatest regards."

Then he was gone and Jenny was left all alone.

The mist rose around her as the boat rapidly disappeared.

"So beautiful..."

A flash of fire and the girls mind whirled away into darkness.

She awoke, much to her surprise.

Four

"Don't be frightened..." The voice filtered through the fog in her mind as she struggled awake. Something had hold of her hand and something heavy was around her neck choking her.

She jerked her hand free and sat up with a cry and a gasp, hands going to her throat. Whatever it was around her neck was hard and heavy and she banged her knuckles on it.

"Please miss! Please! I won't hurt you! Just try to relax... you are safe.. for now."

Eyes blinking, she tried to bring her surroundings into focus. She seemed to be sitting in a very large bed piled with pillows and soft blankets. Whatever it was around her neck seemed to be an iron collar with a thick heavy chain running off out of her view.

Perched on the side of the bed next to her was a young redheaded man in a short white linen robe. His face was almost as red as his hair and he seemed to be studying the ceiling of the room rather pointedly. Jenny realized with a start she had pushed the bedclothes away from her body when she sat up and that she seemed to be totally naked at the moment. A little shriek passed her lips and she snatched the sheet up to her neck.

"Go away! Who... who are you? What do you want?"

"Where is the dragon?"

Once she had covered herself with the sheet, the man seemed to regain the ability to look at her once more. He held both palms out to her in supplication.

"Try to take it easy, miss. I will answer as many of your questions as I am able. That is why I am here." One hand went to his chest.

"As to who I am... I am Andrew MacMeel, former guardsman of Laketown." His fingers came up to touch the soft leather collar around his own neck. "Now I am property of and companion and servant to Lord Grond Deucalious, as are you."

"The great dragon?"

"The very same." Her eyes darted around rather frightened. She could see the large cage they were in but her gaze could not pierce the darkness beyond.

"Where is he?" One of his soft but strong hands laid on her arm, trying to be comforting.

"Not far away, miss. He will come soon. Right now he is content to listen. One thing you must realize about your new Master. He is an Emperor Dragon. The last and strongest of his kind." Andrew's eyes stared into hers earnestly. "From this moment forward he will always know where you are and what you are doing. He will hear the breath in your body and feel the blood in your veins and... if you survive... he will know the very thoughts in your mind. You cannot run from him. You cannot hide from him. And you cannot... must not ever ever lie to him."

"Do you understand?"

"Yes! No! Maybe... I don't know. I'm... confused. What do you mean if I survive? And... why am I naked? Did you do that?" Andrew rolled his eyes.

"You are naked because that is the way Master brought you here. The same way he brought me here. I am really trying to make this easier..." He shook his head. "But I'm afraid I'm just making a mess of it, after all."

Suddenly the young man cocked his head, as if listening. He nodded then climbed down from the bed and knelt on the stone floor, eyes down and hands on his thighs.

"What? What are you doing?" Andrews eyes flicked up at her, then back to the floor.

"He is here."

"Who..." A green light flooded the room, making everything glow in an odd way. Jenny raised her eyes from the kneeling man to look directly into the eyes of the dragon. Those eyes were the size of wagon wheels and they glowed with a heat she could feel on her skin. Little balls and drips of bluish green flame played around the snout and in between teeth big enough to tear apart a whole team of oxen. A tongue longer than her body flicked out and extinguished the flames.

When he spoke she could feel his voice all the way into the marrow of her bones.

"I... AM... GROND..."

Moments later he entered the cage, much smaller but still a man of impressive size. Andrew peeked from the corners of his eyes at his master's muscled body and felt his own responding. As a dragon, Grond knew no equal in size or strength. Nor as a man. His body was muscled and corded and immense, capable of legendary feats of strength.

The smaller man's gaze was also on that impressive tool which swung low between his masters thighs. It too was capable of legendary things, as Andrew could well attest. One of the many reasons he was such a willing slave to the dragon.

Grond shrugged himself into the long black robe which his accommodating pet had left on the huge black onyx throne in one corner of the cage. Turning to the bed, he pulled back the blankets and looked down on the lush pale body of the unconscious girl as she lay in a faint.

She was indeed quite comely. Firm ripe young breasts lay somewhat flattened against her chest with tiny pink little nipples. A slim waist and wide hips and a thick tangle of bright copper red fur at the juncture of firm strong thighs.

A rumble of pleasure came from his chest as his eyes swept up and down her body. Hunger of several types went through his mind.

She looked strong.

He hoped she was strong enough to live.

Grond turned away and spoke to his pet kneeling still, awaiting his instructions.

"Feed her and give her a robe, boy. I will give you until sundown to train her your way. In the morning I will train her mine. In the meantime..." He shot the boy a glance. "When the sun sets you will come to my bed, Andrew. Your master has needs." 

The young man felt his whole body shiver and he grew instantly erect.

"Yes, my Lord! I will await you and your pleasure joyously." A low chuckle echoed in the chamber.

"Good boy."

Five

Strong fingers.

Strong enough to break the hardest steel or crush stone to powder. The merest flick from one finger could have torn the man's body in two, as fragile as a butterfly's wings.

Strong fingers indeed.

They were also capable of surprising tenderness.

The tips of those fingers played down the pale skin of the man's back as he shuddered and panted, leaning against the dragon's broad chest. Occasional shivers and moans came from his mouth as he pressed his lips to his master's heated flesh.

Through his fingertips Grond could feel the muscles moving under the boys skin. He could also feel as well as sense the blood coursing through his veins, the pattering beat of his heart, the firing of his synapses and the electric jolts of pleasure running up and down his pet's nervous system. Sending his awareness deeper, he could also feel the combination of his potent magic flowing through the boy, carried by the copious amount of seed he had injected into him, and his body attempting to repair the damage their lovemaking had caused.

Even though he tried to be careful, he always damaged his pet one way or another in satisfying his lust.

Grond was not used to moral dilemmas. He was an Emperor Dragon, after all. After all these long millennia finally the last of his kind. Now the strongest thing in existence in the world. Nothing could stand against him. Not kings nor vast armies or other great beasts nor even the Gods themselves. He reveled in lust and combat and causing terror among the lesser beings.

If he desired something, he took it. No matter if it were locked being the stoutest strongroom doors and bolstered with cunning magics or around the neck of a legendary king.

If he hungered, he ate. No matter if it were a flock of sheep or a battalion of warriors.

And if he hungered in... another way... he took that as well. And if the object of his desire was screaming and begging for mercy... so much the better.

Fuel for his fire.

Never needing to think about the consequences of his actions. There was nothing on this earth which could effect Grond or his life in any way.

Ages it had been since Grond laid with a willing partner. Many generations since he had one who could survive his lovemaking at all. The seed of an Emperor Dragon was the most magically potent thing in this world since the beginning of time. So imbued with powerful magic there was never a sorcerer or wizard born who could use the slightest amount without being consumed by it immediately. Time after time he had watched his bed partner immolated at the moment of his release.

It was often quite vexing.

Then came Andrew.

His willing young sacrifice.

From the moment he had first encountered the young redheaded guardsman Grond had sensed his strength. An inner power which Andrew himself did not even suspect. Perhaps one who could withstand both the dragon's physical demands as well as one able to survive the touch of his seed.

He had sensed something else as well.

Something which had stirred the dragon in ways not felt in ages.

He had sensed Andrews innermost desires. Yearnings of which he had never spoken aloud. His own inner secret fire.

The young guardsman had ached to be taken.

Dominated and enslaved by another man.

At the time of their first encounter Andrew MacMeel had been secretly hopelessly in love with Reeves Minhollah, the Captain of the Laketown Guard. A deep aching love which he knew would never be reciprocated. He desired for his Captain to take and enslave him for his own sexual use. To bind him and take him in any way and every way he wished.

Then he had met Grond.

And his life forever changed.

Now the proud strong trained soldier was the ecstatically happy slave of the most powerful being on the planet. Slave and servant, sex toy and property, lover, companion and friend.

As an adjunct of being the regular recipient of the dragons charged fluid, he was now the most magically powerful human to ever live. The magic made his body's ability to repair itself quite amazing in ways that quite pleased his master. Though Andrew wasn't aware of it, his ability to withstand damage and survive it had surpassed even that of the mightiest elves and he was well on the way to becoming if not immortal, than longer lived than any other being besides Grond himself.

To keep him forever.

To have this sweet body to take as his whenever and however he wished.

To be pleased with those strong knowing hands and that sweet sucking mouth and that tight snug little ass and to wring cries of pleasure from his pet's lips over and over again...

To keep him forever.

Grond was well pleased indeed.




Sacrifice Pt. 02: Willing



One hand slipped in between their bodies and a finger stroked the head of the lad's softening cock, making him shiver and moan into the dragon's chest. The finger came back out covered with the sticky fluid spattered all over his belly and he put it between his own lips, savoring the salty taste of his joy. He could also taste his own flavor of wild magic in the seed.

It was a good thing the boy would never leave this place. With his new strength and stamina and level of potency he'd be spawning a new race and this part of the world would become overrun with powerful magic users.

That kind of thing could turn into an annoyance quickly. No...

Best to keep him here and away from the rest of the world.

Besides, even if he didn't want to admit it out loud, Grond would be lonely without Andrew in his bed. His fondness of his pet grew each day.

When his cock finally softened enough to slip from the boy's tortured ass, Andrew roused himself and lowered his head to clean his own sticky mess from his master's belly with his own lips and tongue. Not only did it please his master but it gave him another chance to be in contact with the dragon's body. And it gave him a way to show his subservience to the huge man.

The submission which so drove Andrew's fantasies and desires.

Under the stinging hot spray of the water in Grond's shower he showed his devotion and his submission to his master yet again as he knelt before him and took that great long prick back between his lips. Jaws aching with the effort to keep them open so wide, Andrew stroked and sucked and licked the thick pole and the huge glossy purple head until his master groaned and shot his seed down his throat.

As the perfect willing slave he was, the young guardsman savored and swallowed every single drop of the big man's come, filling his belly as his master had filled his ass.

"Do you think the girl will do, Andrew?"

They were in their favorite position. Grond reclined against his mountain of pillows and his willing pet man lay snuggled under his arm with his head resting against that powerful chest. One small pale hand played softly against the darker skin of the dragon's belly. Being held thus helped Andrew deal with the after effects of master's lovemaking. Both the physical and the magical. Even after a year his body still sparked and twitched for an hour or so as if he were being repeatedly struck by tiny bolts of lightning. And even though his body now healed at a phenomenal rate being so invaded by that massive tool made him ache deep inside for a long time after.

"I do hope so, my lord. She has many fine... attributes. She seems strong and very bright with a keen quick mind. Something you don't find often in a mere farmers daughter." Grond glanced down at his pet from the corner of his eye.

"I'm sure it also helps she is quite pretty." The red hair brushed against the massive chest as he nodded.

"Quite true, Sire. I find her... pleasant to look at, indeed." A low chuckle rumbled through the room.

"Just remember your place, boy. That new sweetmeat is off limits without my word." Andrew shivered slightly at his tone. A fast learner, he hadn't been "punished" by his master in many months. The terrible fast sting of the whip aptly named "The Dragons Tail" was still fresh in his memory as well as the long nights he had spent sleeping on his tummy to keep the angry red stripes on his butt and thighs from being rubbed raw by the sheets.

Although pain was a constant part of his life with the dragon, Andrew worked hard to keep it to a minimum. He much preferred the ache he received from a happy master to the agony from an unhappy one.

"Of... of course, my lord. Your word is my life." Hands pulled the covers up around the smaller man's shoulders, tucking him in and ruffling through his hair rather fondly.

"Get some sleep, boy. Come the dawn we will test this new one in many ways."

Six

Naked.

She was not used to being naked.

Not in front of men, anyway.

Especially not two of them.

And even more importantly not when one of those was equally uncovered.

In the Gardner farmstead when it was time for the girls to bathe a curtain was pulled across their side of the room and the boys were completely excluded until their chore was complete. Bare skin among those of the same sex was unremarkable but never in view of the boys. Even Mama was never completely naked in bed with Papa. Once in her younger years she had gotten curious about the occasional moans and sighs which came from their corner of the room and had peeked through the thin curtain which granted them only a shred of privacy.

Her wide eyes had glimpsed Mama with her nightgown pulled up to her neck laying beneath Papa whose nightshirt was gathered around his waist as he knelt between her parted thighs and thrust into her, his skinny butt pistoning over and over again. Her face had burned as she rushed back under the covers and the sight had left her with a tingly feeling between her legs.

Now as a young woman she "knew all about" sex, having learned what little tidbits Mama would tell her though she had yet to experience the actual thing for herself. She had been looking forward to learning more one day when she married.

It seemed the day might come sooner than she expected.

Having the handsome young guardsman... Andrew... kneeling next to her in front of... him... She fought to keep her eyes from darting back and forth. Not only was she intensely intrigued with this creature she had sacrificed herself to, but the naked man next to her kept drawing her eyes. Andrew was quite easy to look at, generally.

Plus he was giving Jenny her first real look at an erect penis. It was long and hard as it stood up proud from his lap and the tip glistened as if a tiny bit of fluid was constantly forming.

She found herself torn. And distracted. Aroused and intrigued.

And frightened on top of that.

He sat on the immense onyx throne, those huge green eyes studying her, gaze sweeping up and down her naked body. His own body was covered in a deep black robe which hid all but his face and his hands as they rested on the arms of the throne.

Lord Grond Deucalious himself. The great dragon as a man. Albeit a huge one.

She shivered under his gaze and pondered her fate.

Andrew had spent several hours with her the first night, relating his experiences since he had been sacrificed himself the year before. He hadn't spared her any of the details in describing her duties in service of her new master, both the mundane chores and the more... intimate duties.

The talk had left her shaken and alarmed and also more than slightly aroused. Twice after he left her to tend to his own duties Jenny found her fingers wandering down between her thighs under the covers as she bit her lips to stifle her moans and stroked and thrashed and came.

Since she had shared a bed with her sisters from her birth Jenny had become accustomed to pleasuring herself silently. Her new fate now had such an effect she'd had to fight to keep from moaning aloud.

Even Andrew's dire warning she might very well die in service to the dragon did little to dampen the fire between her legs. It was as if the monster she knelt before had awakened a monster inside her as well.

"Come here, child. Stand before me and let me see all of you."

"Y-yes, my lord." Trembling, she climbed to her feet. It took a second for her to remember Andrew's lessons from the night before. Fighting against the urge to cover her body with her hands, she straightened her spine and crossed her forearms in the small of her back with her feet slightly spread.

She felt his eyes on her skin like a warm heat, traveling up and down. Everything about him was heat and fire. Though he had yet to actually touch her, Jenny could feel his skin and body was hot to the touch and could almost see the waves of his inner fire radiating around his body. She could feel little prickles of sweat forming on her skin just from being so close to this magnificent man.

The girl could also feel herself growing increasingly damp somewhere else as well. Her lips parted slightly under his gaze and she fervently hoped she could close her legs before she began dripping down the insides of her thighs with her excitement.

"You pleasured yourself last night, girl. Twice." She started in shock, green eyes widening and a deep flush spread over her face, making her feel stiflingly hot.

"Y-yes, Master. I did. H-how..." He waved a hand, bringing her stammering to a halt.

"It will not happen again." The statement was flat, allowing for no discussion.

"N-no, my lord." Jenny lowered her eyes with shame, feeling as if she had just been spanked and stood in the corner like a misbehaving child.

He hadn't moved, yet instantly he towered before her. So close and so suddenly she tried to flinch back in alarm but one huge hand captured her chin, turning her face up to his. Her hands flew up to grip his arm. The hand felt as if he could crush her skull with a blink. A cry of distress leaked from her lips.

"P-please...!"

"Do not beg for mercy, child. I am a dragon and mercy is not in my nature." Bright hot tears of fright and shame burned in the corners of her eyes, running freely down her face.

"You were sacrificed to me." It was not a question.

"Y-yes, my lord..."

"Willingly."

"Y-yes... w-willingly, Master."

"Now you are mine."

"Yes, Master. Y-yours." Those eyes bored into her skull as if he were burning a hole through the back of her skull with his gaze. She could feel him inside her mind, searching.

"Body and soul. Heart and mind, child. Everything you are now belongs to me." Barely a whisper passed her lips.

"Yours... Master." The dragon's other hand, over half the size of her chest, settled on one small breast. A thick finger traced softly around one erect nipple, making her shiver.

"You will experience no pleasure without my leave."

"Oooohhhh... no, Master." The heated touch was almost to bring her over the edge. Then two fingers closed on her sensitive flesh almost hard enough to tear it from her breast. A scream tore from her throat then the pain was gone, leaving only a lingering agony.

"You will experience no pain without my having caused it."

"Oooohhh gods... yes, Master!" Once again his heated touch on her breast and the pain vanished, only a memory. She shivered so hard only his grip on her chin seemed to be keeping her on her feet.

"My lord, please!" Grond looked sideways at the kneeling man.

"Was there something, Andrew?" The man's face was a little pale.

"Please do not break her, Sire. She is not yet as... sturdy as I am." A deep rumbling chuckle like two slabs of granite rubbing together echoed from the dragons chest. He took her by the shoulders and turned her body until her back was pressed against his chest and they both faced the naked man kneeling on the floor. 

One hand lay in the center of her chest and the other across her belly. Those massive hands could crush her in an eye blink and she felt heat wafting over her body as if she might burst into flames, yet at the same time she had never felt quite so safe as in the monster's arms. It was like she was the treasure he was protecting and nothing nothing nothing in this world could touch her.

A childhood fantasy come to life.

A long low rumbling growl issued from the dragons throat and echoed around the room as if Grond was in his great scaled form. With her back pressed into that massive chest, Jenny felt the sound vibrate throughout her whole body. When Grond spoke his voice was dripping with menace and Andrew could almost hear those blue flames playing around his masters lips.

"Do you... desire... this... morsel, boy?"

Andrew was no fool. Neither had he spent the year in the service of this great terrible cruel beast whom he had grown to love with his eyes closed.

Coveting something which belonged to a dragon was an almost instant death sentence.

"I desire nothing more than your pleasure, Sire. Your boy loves you more than life itself and Masters happiness is my only reason for living." Another deep chuckle very nearly vibrated the teeth from the girls skull.

"Well played." Suddenly those lips were a scant hair's breadth from her ear.

"What about you, little snack?" One finger pointed. "Look at my fine boy there. My handsome guardsman. Look at his strong sweet body and his beautiful face. See how his big sturdy prick stands tall with his desire. My boy is well trained and would please you in so many ways." Grond's wide palms caressed her body.

"Do you want him?"

Even though her mind was a-whirl with emotions and her body was a maelstrom of need, Jenny was no fool either. Most of the lore about dragons she had learned had been the purest fantasy and folklore and nonsense.

But the mind games... the tricks and traps and puzzles... they had always intrigued her.

Now it seemed she was playing for her life. She struggled a little to find the right words.

"He is indeed... handsome, my Lord. A fine and fitting treasure for your horde." One small delicate hand played across the back of the dragon's fingers as they lay across her belly. "In the years before he was... taken... I did see him a time or two and admire him." Andrew raised an eyebrow. He hadn't noticed her interest but, allowing as how women were only an affectation and not the root of his true desires, it wasn't really surprising.

The girl turned as best she was able in the big mans grip, craning her neck to look up into Grond's face. Her pale fingers played against the darker skin of his cheek, running idly through the coarse wiry hair of his neatly trimmed beard.

"But then..."

"Then what, child?" Jenny smiled softly and turned further into him until she pressed her small body into his warmth, one arm around his waist.

"Then I met you, Master. And you are magnificent. No mortal man could ever tempt me again, compared to you. While it does frighten me that I may die in your service, I am and always will be your willing sacrifice. If I must die, let me die in your arms... my Master."

Andrew noticed a flicker of a pleased smile on his master's face as he bent and kissed the girl.

Seven

There was pain, too.

Of course.

One more thing she was going to have to endure.

"There is always pain, child. As long as you are alive, there is always pain." Grond had lifted her from the floor and laid her face down on the softness of the bed while she wept. The angry red stripes of that evil weapon known as "The Dragons Tail" were bright against the pale flesh of her back and thighs and buttocks. As a mere human, she did not possess the dragons ability to navigate in the dark and learning the number of paces and turnings in the darkened tunnels of his horde warren proved to be a difficult task for the girl.

The dragon knew quite well that judiciously applied pain was an excellent tool to improve the memory and despite the evidence on her skin, she had shown much improvement.

Strong fingers caressed her fiery red hair.

"The only time the pain stops is when my fires consume you. Until then, child... it lets you know you are alive." He leaned in closer and whispered into her ear.

"You have done well, girl. Your Master is proud."

His first pet knelt by the open doorway, waiting as was his duty, his master's pleasure. Those strong fingers reached down and ran through his short red hair with equal tenderness.

"Tend to her, boy. Ease her and feed her and let her rest."

"Yes, my Master."

"Tonight will be her first test." Andrew felt his heart skip a beat.

"Yes, Master."

He hoped she would survive...

While most of the sources of water in Grond's horde mountain ran almost uncomfortably hot, one spring fed into a small pool which was so clear and cold it was almost icy. The water in which they bathed came from the world's heart, reflecting it's fire. The water from the pool seemed to come from the world's soul, reflecting it's peace. To drink of it allowed a calm soothing cool to settle over your mind and your body. It also seemed to have remarkable healing powers.

When he had witnessed the first crack of the leather whip against Jenny's flesh, Andrew had gone and drawn a large pitcher of the water from the spring, knowing it would be needed. Now he poured a small cup of the water and held it to the girls lips.

"Drink this. It will ease your pain." Her sobs had calmed to small gasps by this time and she raised the cup to her lips. While she drank Andrew dipped a cloth in the pitcher and began gently patting the cool liquid over the reddened patches. The girl squeaked and wiggled at his touch but he could see her body begin to visibly relax under his ministrations and the effect of the spring water. Red quickly faded to pink as her skin returned to it's normal color.

While women as a whole had never been Andy's flavor of choice, he had known a few in his life and had learned to appreciate them in many ways. Co-workers, acquaintances, friends... even a few as lovers. Sitting on the side of the bed tending to Jenny's naked body as she lay next to him and hearing her small sighs of relief as he touched her made places in his body stir. She didn't arouse him in the way his master did, but arouse him she did, albeit in a gentler, softer more... romantic fashion.

Lying with Grond was all fire and heat and naked lust and the deep submission which drove Andrew's desires. Those times when Master bound him and took him were almost too much for him to bear. Being bound and helpless... forced to serve such a man as his Master... those were the things which lit a fire in his soul. A fire the dragon knew so very well and always kept burning bright.

But this girl...

She was just the opposite.

While Master's body was hard and hot to the touch, she was soft and smooth and cool, as if he were bathing in the water's of the healing spring. Sure, she was strong for a human. The girl was raised on a farm and worked her entire life, giving her both physical and mental strength. But compared to the dragon or even Andrew now... she was as soft as a down comforter. A fragile flower. He imagined lying with her would be soft and gentle and... enjoyable.

If Master would ever allow such a thing.

As the thought ran through his mind Andrew was suddenly aware of Master in his head, peering through his eyes. He felt heat and fire and crushing strength but also the love and desire the dragon held for his willing captive. In the year since his sacrifice their mental bond had grown to allow this melding of their thoughts now and then when the dragon allowed it.

Glittering gold and silver and precious jewels sparked in Andrew's eyes. He felt heat and comfort and the sense of great contentment as those razor sharp claws idly raked through mounds of treasure.

Master was in his favorite place.

Curled up atop his mountain of plundered riches.

It made Andrew proud his Master was thinking of him.

He could also sense the dragon's growing arousal.

"Touch her, boy..." Came the thought into his mind. "Arouse and pleasure her. Use your fingers and that sweet mouth on her body. Let me hear her cries of joy."

"Oooohhh... yes, my lord." The girl glanced up at him as the words left his lips. She too was hearing the echoes of the mighty beasts thoughts in her mind. At first she thought she was crazy until Andrew began answering.

"Remember your limitations, boy. That little cleft between her thighs is mine and mine alone. As well as the tighter one behind. Those you may not take." The girls thighs and buttock tightened up and she shivered. A vision flashed into her mind. The huge man lying atop her body and taking her over and over again while she writhed in ecstasy. Unbidden, a moan of mixed pleasure and terror came from her throat.




Sacrifice Pt. 02: Willing



She felt the dragon's gaze shift to her, baring her soul, peeling her mind like an onion until he stared at all the innermost thoughts and dreams and desires.

"You want me, child."

"Oooohhh... yes, Master."

"You want me inside you." She shivered hard.

"Oh G-gods... yes, my Lord."

"Show me your desires, girl. Touch my boy. Please him with your fingers and your mouth. Taste his seed and let it give you strength. Pleasure him and be pleasured."

"Tonight you will be Mine."

"Yes, Master!" They chorused.

Just as suddenly he was gone from their minds if not their thoughts, leaving them both pink and panting and highly aroused. Jenny rolled onto her back to look up at Andrew.

"Did... that just..." The young man nodded.

"It did."

"B-but... how...?" One of his hands touched the center of her chest. He could feel her heart hammering against her ribs. He was also exquisitely aware of her soft firm breasts and her nipples crinkled up hard and wanting only inches away. He could feel the desire his Master had awakened in her body and it made the wanting in his own heart and loins flare up as well.

Even though this was their first real touch it seemed the dragon's magic flowing through his body was already forming a bond between them, linking them through Grond's mind.

"Master is an Emperor Dragon, the last of his kind. They were formed when the world was, leaping from the fires. His magic is tied to everything in this world and if he wishes it he can feel the grass growing half a world away." Andrew sighed softly and traced the edge of one rib bone with his fingertip.

"He sensed my heart when he first came to Laketown. My innermost needs and desires. He made it quite clear I must be the one. As he did you. Whether you were aware of it or not, he pushed your mind. Made you volunteer to be his."

"But... why? Why me?" Andrew smiled.

"Because he wanted you."

"And you, Andrew? Do... do you want me, too?"

"Oh, yes..."

Eight

Jenny Gardener had been raised as a good girl.

Even though her family were mere farmers and not wealthy by any stretch, they lived comfortably enough and made up for any lack in material things by living a full and rich life. Jenny had been a bit wild when she was young it was merely a way to keep up with her brothers. She had been raised with the thought of family first and that home and hearth meant everything.

A few young men had courted her from time to time and while she had enjoyed their attentions, she had never let any of them get past her boundaries nor had she any patience with unwanted advances. Sex was not considered a sin, but her Mama had instilled in her the desire to keep herself for her husband when the time came and Jenny guarded what treasure she could give to her future husband jealously.

She had been kissed her share of times.

She had even allowed a few of her suitors to touch her in a few sensitive places, but always with a protective layer or two of clothing between.

Never ever had she lain naked with a man before now.

Nor even seen one naked before she was sacrificed to the dragon.

Never ever in her entire twenty summers had she ever wanted someone to touch her so badly as she did at that very moment. When she first volunteered to be sacrificed to the dragon she feared she was going to her death by fire. The beasts brief foray into her mind had kindled a fire of a different sort that grew in her belly and spread to her thighs and her chest and up into her brain, making her feel overly warm.

She felt so warm she expected Andrew to feel cool in comparison, like her Mama's hand on her brow when she was running a fever. Instead when he lay down next to her and pulled her into his arms he was even warmer than she was... warmer than a human being should be. Their combined heat made the sweat come prickling from her pores, making her almost as damp all over as she was between her legs.

Her lips opened immediately to his, their tongues dancing together inside her mouth and she clutched his body as if she were falling and only he could save her. One of his legs slipped between hers and she closed her thighs on his muscular limb, unabashedly rubbing her pussy against his skin. She could feel his hard member pressing into her hip, hard and hot and insistent, almost burning her like a branding iron with it's heat.

Andrew kissed his way down her throat and along her collar bone, lips and tongue sampling her flesh.

"Master is in my mind..." He husked. "Watching. Listening. Feeling. Tasting your body." One hand closed on a small firm breast and a fingertip traced her areola while she shivered. "He can feel the blood in your veins and the pulse hammering in your throat." Andrew's hips thrust lazily against her, the tip of his member leaving a sticky trail of fluid across her skin.

The voice which came next from the redheaded guardsman's mouth was deeper and much older than his throat was actually capable of. Through slitted eyes, Jenny saw a green glow under his lids.

"I... can... taste... your... desire... child..."

"Oooohhh gods... Yes, my Lord." Mama's stern but loving voice in the back of her mind told Jenny she was being a wanton and wicked girl, but she couldn't help herself as she ground her dripping pussy against the young man's leg, gasping as the waves of an orgasm washed over her body. Her first time ever without her own fingers between her legs.

It felt good.

A sudden light pressure against her chest as the man pushed himself away, sitting up on the deep soft mattress and leaving her feeling abandoned and forlorn. The sudden loss of his extra warmth caused goose bumps to rise up on her skin.

"A-Andrew?" She clutched at his arm, trying to pull him back down. He closed his eyes briefly and took a long slow deep breath.

"You heard Masters words as well as I did, Jenny. There are things... we must not do." His own eyes gazed into hers. "Things which Master keeps for himself. To disobey would mean our lives... and the lives of all we hold dear would be forfeit." One hand traced over her belly gently. "Though it seems strange to me to think it, I do hope one day he will allow us to be together in that... in those ways..."

She did indeed remember the words which had flooded her thoughts and the moan of deep desire which had come from her lips.

"That little cleft between her thighs is mine and mine alone. As well as the tighter one behind. Those you may not take."

One she had guarded for her future husband. The other had not even entered her mind until the dragon put the thought there. It filled her mind with both terror and wanton desire.

Andrew shifted his body, turning onto his other hip. Leaning down, he pressed his lips to the smooth skin of her belly, once again filling her with his warmth. His tongue lapped against her flesh, tasting the salt of her sweat as he kissed her here and there, working his way slowly downwards.

"There are other things, however..." He murmured. His body shifted again and he lay down beside her with his feet up towards her head while his lips peppered her skin with kisses and licks and even little nibbles with his teeth.

Something else which brought a little gasp of surprise to her lips. While she assumed she "knew all about" sex it had never really occurred to her someone would want to... kiss her... down there... but the closer and closer Andrew got to her secret place with his lips the more she wanted him to and she could feel her legs spreading of their own accord and her hips pressed forward, trying silently to urge him onward.

Oh Gods...

One strong hand slid over her hip, fingers clutching the smooth firm skin of her butt as he rolled her gently towards him. She felt his head laying against the inside of her thigh as his lips played in the thick tangle of fiery red hair between her legs. He was so close to her little pussy it made Jenny want to scream. Now she had discovered this new thing she wanted nothing more than to lose herself in the sensations of it and it felt as if her insides would dissolve in liquid fire.

Then a movement in the corner of her vision distracted her.

Oh my...

Even as she had knelt in front of the imposing form of her Master had kept her nerves on edge the sight of Andrew kneeling naked and fully erect beside her made her thoughts flit back and forth, torn between terror and wonder and desire.

Now there it was... only inches from her face. And once again the dragon's thoughts echoed through her mind. She wasn't sure if it was a memory of his words or if the great best was speaking to her again.

"Show me your desires, girl. Touch my boy. Please him with your fingers and your mouth. Taste his seed and let it give you strength. Pleasure him and be pleasured."

"Oooohhh Gods... yes, my lord..." Slim fingers reached out and closed around the shaft of his prick, marveling in how he felt so soft and yet so hard at the same time. Then her fingers clutched him convulsively as Andrew's tongue swirled around the hard little pleasure button between her legs. Her hips bucked hard and she exploded into ecstasy, moaning aloud. From between her legs she heard him give a muffled moan in response to her touch and before she even knew what she was doing she found herself peppering his hard flesh with kisses up and down as her body writhed in pleasure.

Jenny marveled at how his member felt in her hand and against her lips. His flesh was so hot it felt as if she were making love to a live ember straight from the hearth. The way his skin slid up and down over the steel hard interior, hiding and exposing the purple bulbous head fascinated her. As she watched a single drop of clear fluid formed at the tip of Andrew's prick and before she even thought her tongue snaked out and caught it before it could fall.

That single drop...

And time seemed to stop.

From the tip of her tongue spread out a warm golden glow which washed over her body, leaving Jenny feeling refreshed and energized as if she had awakened from a long dark night to find a beautiful spring morning.

Then time started up again as Andrew buried his tongue between her pussy lips, the tip questing for her entrance. Jenny felt another wave of pleasure sweep over her and she moaned aloud. The girl opened her jaws wide and pulled the large purple head of his cock into her mouth and suckled on it as if she were once more a babe at Mama's teat. Her hands gripped and stroked him and his moans between her thighs drove her on and on.

Nearly a mile further underground, Grond lay atop his treasure with a smile playing across his scaled lips. One claw idly raked through the amassed wealth and the tinkling of jewels and precious metals rang in his ears while the moans, gasps, sighs and cries of his captives echoed through his mind. The yards long tongue snaked out as if he could taste their sweat and passion in the air.

"What good pets..."

Nine

Master's horde cavern.

The largest and by far the deadliest room in the entire complex of tunnels deep beneath the mountain known as the Spire. Not being good with numbers, Andrew could not even hazard a guess at the sheer tonnage of fine jewels and precious metals and other fine things the dragon had amassed here during his long long reign.

In the center of the stone floor of the cavern the dragon had assembled a large circle of stones. Obelisks and monoliths and menhirs and even large stone tombs ripped entire from the earth, many of the stones at least twice as tall as Andrew himself. Many of the stones were carved with strange symbols of languages long forgotten on this world. Grond had arranged these in a circle as long as his body from tip to tail and into this great bowl he had poured his treasures.

It was here the beast slept.

Or had slept, until the past year.

As a rule, dragons only slept when they were bored. Following a great battle with his belly full of slain enemies, Grond would drop into a contented slumber of a hundred years or more, dreaming his dragon dreams of fire and battle and conquest.

And treasure, of course.

Dragons valued their treasure above all else in the world.

With his life in the balance, Andrew MacMeel was trying to change his master's priorities. Andrew had come to love the great beast in ways he had never even imagined and vowed to continue to serve his master in any way and every way he was able. While the young redheaded guardsman fully believed he had found a place in the great dragon's heart, Grond's soul resided here amongst the mountain of treasure and it was in this place Andrew had faced his most deadly challenge.

Of course for him it had been relatively easy. Though he came from a relatively poor family, riches were never high on his list of dreams. His deepest desires came from... other things. Things which his master and lover and... dare he say friend? ...had shown him over and over again. 

To be taken... by another man. Bound and enslaved and used as a tool for pleasure.

Those were the dreams which drove his heart.

Grond had given him those and more.

For Andrew MacMeel, eschewing the lure of untold riches and throwing himself to the feet of the man who would become his Master was accomplished without a thought. Looking down outside of the circle he gazed at the wooden racks Grond had placed in ranks. Each simple wooden cross bore armor and helms and spears and weapons from thousands of mighty warriors. More than a few sets of armor bore scorch marks and great rents from the dragons fire and teeth.

Each one of those represented a warrior who tried to enter the horde cavern of Grond Deucalious over the ages. Tried and failed and died. Horribly.

According to his master, Andrew was the first living being to ever set eyes on his treasure and survive.

He hoped and fervently prayed very soon young miss Jenny Gardener would join his ranks, not those of the amassed and failed dead.

Being left bound and gagged as he was however, all he could was watch and wait and hope.

In the center of the vast cavern rose a spire of stone overlooking the master's favorite resting place and the ranks of the dead which guard over it. At the top of the spire a thick metal pole was set deep into the rock. A hook in the pole was attached to some thick chains which were likewise attached to shackles.

The shackles were around the wrists of the redheaded girl who was even now getting her first real look at the dragon in all of his glory. Flames from bonfires large enough to roast a team of oxen illuminated the entire cavern bringing an orange glow to the amassed treasures and the flickering almost made it seem as if the standing sets of armor were animated and on the move.

The great dragon reared up on his hind legs and spread his wings wide enough to almost touch the walls of the immense hall on either side. Occasional bursts of flame shot from his mouth and nostrils as he reared his head towards the ceiling and bellowed loud enough to shake the mountain and cause bits of rock to shake loose and fall.

"I AM GROND DEUCALIOUS!!" It was loud enough it made the ears of his two captives ring and ache with the sound and anything living within miles of the mountain would have been hurriedly moving quite further away.

Bound naked to the pole hanging from the chains, Jenny had flinched and turned her face away, fearing her death was imminent. When she wasn't immediately consumed by flames she faced forward to look again and gasped and flinched once more, a small cry of alarm leaping from her lips. The head of the dragon was so close it covered her entire field of view.

She was frightened, almost beyond reason, but at the same time entranced by his being so close. She was closer than anyone besides Andrew had ever gotten to an Emperor dragon and lived, as far as she knew. The vast mounds of wealth glimpsed far below were quickly forgotten as she swallowed her fear and used what may have been her last few moments to look upon her master closely.

Her first glimpse of the dragon had only shown her his coloring and all she had seen was green over all. Now on closer inspection she observed each scale was a different hue and all of them were shot through with tiny golden veins. Those huge green eyes as well seemed to swim with tiny golden flakes. The heat from Grond being so close was almost as if he were slowly baking her yet it also felt as a comforting warmth like she were in Mama's arms.

"Oooh... Master..." She murmured.

"What is it, child?"

"Y-you... you're... beautiful..." The great head withdrew slightly and cocked to the side, nonplussed. Though the facial features of the dragon in this form were barely capable of anything which might be considered comparable to human expressions, there seemed to be a fleeting glimpse of a smile cross his lips. It was there and gone in the briefest of moments, then he withdrew further and those lantern eyes narrowed.

"Who are you, girl? Why are you here?"

She had been coached by the young guardsman about this test. And being a fast study she was acutely aware of the perils of playing word games with a dragon. Her mind in a whirl, she stumbled over her words.

"I... I am yours, Master. Your s-sacrifice. I... I exist to serve you, Sire. M-my life is naught but for your pleasure."

"To save your people." She nodded.

"Yes, Master."

"Your family. Your parents. James and Lily Gardener." An icy fist closed around her heart. How... how did he know...?

"Y-yes, Master. To save them."

"To save your sisters. Sif, Anna, Sybil and Abigail. Your brothers Ron and Harry and the twins, Fred and George." The fact he knew all of their names frightened her more than the notion of her imminent demise. A desperate tear tracked down her cheek. 

"Y-yes, Master! P-please! I beg you! Anything is yours, Master! M-my b-body... m-my heart.. my s-soul... my life. All is yours to... to save them."

The thick armored brows furrowed over those honey golden green orbs.

"Do not beg me for mercy, child. Such thoughts do not exist in my mind. I live to dominate lesser things and all things on this world are lesser to me!" The small pointed ears swiveled back and almost lay flat along the sides of his head. When he spoke again it was from so deep in his cavernous chest it sounded as if the world itself were speaking, getting louder with each word until they reached the level of an earthquake.

"I...!"

"Am...!!"

"GROND...!!"

"DEUCALIOUS!!" The last came out as a roar punctuated with small jets of flame which came very close to Jenny's body. She cowered back as well as she could against the iron pole and cried out as she felt some of her hair shriveling in the heat. 

"Look at me, human." When she found herself brave enough to open her eyes, Jenny saw the dragon had retracted his long sinuous neck and was now coiled up possessively atop his more than substantial repository of wealth. Grond had taken a defensive posture with his head low, back arched and wings spread wide as if he were facing an army of warriors rather than a fragile human girl.

One massive foreleg scooped deep into the pile of riches and turned up, coins and gems and various richly appointed things falling back between the razor sharp talons.

"Is this what you seek, girl? Are you foolish enough to covet my treasure? Or is it this instead?" The other leg descended and scooped the bound and gagged body of the guardsman up and held him caged between his talons. "Do you want my... toy? Did he so enrapture you with his human love you would steal him from my grasp?"

She knew she had to be very careful at this point and shook her head.

"N-no, Master. I desire none of those things. I... I only want..." She faltered to a stop and those great eyes narrowed once more.

"You want what, child?"

"I only want you... Master. To take me and make me yours."




Sacrifice Pt. 02: Willing



"Hmpf... So you say." She shook her head again.

"It is as true as I can speak it, Sire. When I was a girl I did dream of treasure. But my dreams were never as magnificent as this. Your wealth easily outstrips anything I could have imagined. Just the smallest part of it would make me and my family wealthy beyond our dreams."

"But I do not desire it, Master. Not for myself nor my family. We were never rich in matters of wealth but we were always happy and their happiness means more to me than gold."

"Hmmm..."

"And while Andrew is indeed a handsome and strong and sweet man and a gentle and surprisingly talented lover, he pales to your magnificence, my lord. Lying with him was tantalizing and eye opening, but he only made me want you all the more, Master."

"Mere flattery."

"Truth, Lord. Andrew was the first man to touch me in those ways. I was saving myself for the man I would spend the rest of my life with. The man I would raise a family of my own with. And now..." She looked the great beast in the eyes.

"Now I know the man I will spend the rest of my life with. The man I will give myself heart, mind, body and soul to. I give myself to you, Master. All I am is yours."

"Mmmm..." Grond rumbled. "We shall see what you choose, girl." A ringing, jingling scattering of coins and jewels rained back down on the pile as he upended his foreleg then it flicked out, one long razor sharp talon slicing through the chain which held her upright. The sudden release of tension made the girl teeter and almost fall from the tall spire of rock. Before she could slip, the dragons great paw wrapped around her body holding her firmly but tenderly enough and lifted her from her perch, transporting her the length of the room to set her on her feet once again atop the glittering mound of treasure. Coins and things slithered beneath her bare feet and she almost fell once again but the dragon held her upright until she regained her balance.

Moments later the bound form of the beasts other sacrifice was laid down nearby. Though his mouth was gagged, Andrew conveyed through his eyes and his body both a desire for her and a desire she survive this encounter and a desperate hope as well.

"Choose, girl. And choose wisely." Her mind raced to order itself, knowing full well this was the most dangerous and important challenge of her young life.

"Is... is it permitted for me to look, my Lord?" Grond snorted and twin rings of smoke shot from his nostrils.

"By all means... take your time."

Her green eyes were wide with wonder as she took in the vast wealth at her feet and piled in heaps all around her. Everywhere she looked there seemed to be a new wonder. Crowns and diadems and necklaces. Swords and armor and scepters and bracers and fine statues and many many things she could not even identify all made from or covered with gold or silver or mithril and precious stones of every color of the rainbow.

"Oh my Master..." She breathed. "This is... magnificent. Never, ever in my wildest dreams..." Her voice trailed off, then came back a little louder. "Never, ever in any of the tales of dragons was such a horde even imagined, my Lord! They always spoke of the great dragons and their hordes but nothing has ever compared to this!" One small hand waved to encompass the vast chamber. "This is magnificent beyond the words of mortals, Sire." Turning slightly, she waved a hand towards the ranks of empty armor. "I can see why they tried. The rumor of such wealth would be difficult if not impossible to resist." Neck stretching back, Jenny looked upwards to gaze into the eyes of the dragon. "You... you must be so proud, Master."

Two more rings of smoke snorted out into the room but at the same time a hint of a smile played around the dragon's mouth. He was indeed fiercely proud of his treasure and had discovered in the past year the somewhat egotistical pleasure in having a living audience to appreciate it.

Grond was not completely resistant to flattery but neither was he going to be swayed by it.

"And...?"

The girl lowered her gaze and looked down at Andrew lying a few feet away.

"This man of yours, too. He is also quite magnificent, Master. He is handsome and strong and smart and sweet and gentle. If I were going to choose a human man to spend the rest of my days with, I would happily choose him every time. No mortal woman could choose a mortal man any finer than this one of yours, Sire. A fitting treasure, indeed."

"But..."

"But??" She craned her neck upwards once more.

"But then there is you yourself, Master. You are the most amazing and magnificent creature I have ever laid eyes on or even imagined in all of my days. To simply gaze upon you is to be struck with wonder. You are the greatest treasure of all." She held her arms up, palms upward.

"Please my Lord, may I kiss you?"

The great head lowered and the girl felt herself enveloped with his all pervasive warmth. Soft tiny little hands played along the smooth scales on the edge of his jaw. Just touching him made her insides turn to water. Closing her eyes, she parted her lips slightly and kissed the dragon's mouth. Just the smallest part of the tip of Grond's yards-long tongue slipped between her lips and the girl felt her body awash with a warm feeling as if she were made of molten gold herself and glowing from the inside. The sensation started at her lips and spread through her mouth and down her throat and into her belly. It was the same reaction she had felt a few hours earlier when Andrew's prick had erupted between her lips and sent his salty fluid racing down her throat.

So lost she was in the kiss and the sensations Jenny scarcely noticed her Master changing against her. Growing smaller and softer. It wasn't until his strong arms wrapped around her body did she realized he had become a man again. She moaned softly into his mouth as his hands cupped the cheeks of her ass. Her arms wrapped around his neck and his hands gripped her ass as he lifted her from the ground. The redheaded girl parted her legs wide and held onto the sides of Grond's body with her knees as he ravished her mouth with his.

Finally forced to wrest her mouth away in an attempt to catch her breath, Jenny peppered the cords of his neck with kisses while she gasped and whispered "Master! I choose you..."

Ten

Traveling afoot, the journey from the horde chamber to Master's room was several miles through pitch black twisting tunnels and Grond had never taken the same route there or back twice. After a year of belonging to the dragon, Andrew had never learned, nor even tried to learn, the route to the treasure room.

He knew better.

If they had been forced to walk, the trip would have taken them a couple of hours at best even if they had light to navigate by.

Luckily Master was too pleased and in too much of a hurry to make them walk. After he had freed his pet boy from his bonds, Grond had scooped him up in one arm while he carried the pretty redheaded girl in the other and strode off through the darkness while they wrapped their arms around his neck and laid their heads against the broad strong chest. Jenny and Andrew's arms were tangled together and while they couldn't see each other in the darkness, their faces were only inches apart.

The dragon could see in total darkness as if it were the brightest daylight and had the strength to leap effortlessly over hidden chasms the humans would have had to wander miles out of their way to circumvent.

What would have taken them hours only seemingly took moments. They had traveled from the dragon's favorite place to Andrew's.

Master's bed.

The great bed with large iron pillars which the dragon had "liberated" from the royal bedroom of some King or Emperor unlucky enough to attract the dragon's attention. The mattress was thick and deep and comfortable and more than twice as wide and long as the tall guardsman was tall. Large enough to hold dozens of people in sybaritic pleasure.

More than enough for the three of them.

Striding into the room carrying his two naked sacrifices, Grond merely stepped up onto the bed and turned, laying down against the mountain of pillows with a pet ensconced under each arm as they landed.

For the duration of their journey from the horde cavern, Jenny had concentrated on the feel of being so close to the huge man and the exciting sparkling glow which seemed to be racing up and down her spine. Master was so... big... and so... warm. The muscles beneath his skin flowed like molten stone, soft and flexible, yet hard as steel. The heat radiated from deep inside his body and being in close contact with him was just bordering between safely and comfortably warm and breaking into a sweat uncomfortably hot. His skin was soft and smooth and there was a scent which came from him along with the heat she couldn't quite put her finger on. A musk like the larger beasts of the forest but a little more acrid as if he were a poisonous snake. Underlying the scent was another... something cool and slightly metallic which left a slight tang in the back of her mouth.

It took a few long slow breaths through her nose to identify it.

Master smelled like gold.

Which made perfect sense, once you stopped to think about it.

Aside from the fine time she was having in contact with the huge man and the smaller one, Jenny was trying to come to grips with the sensations which were spinning like a small whirlwind through her belly. It was kind of like the time Papa had given her a small drink of the strong whiskey he always kept in a wooden cask in the spring house. But this didn't give her a headache or upset her stomach. Instead it made her feel more alive and... healthier... and slightly... green and verdant, as if she were lying in a field of cool green grass and heather on a spring morning.

It was quite amazing.

She'd gotten a small dose the first time Grond had kissed her. She had been kissed by men before and it had never happened from them, so she knew it was something inherent in the dragon. The kiss had left her warm and flushed and slightly dizzy and tingling on the inside. Jenny had chalked it up to the overwhelming emotions she had been feeling at the time.

It had happened again, stronger, when she was lying with Andrew and suckling on his long hard prick. Once again, an act she hadn't considered before. She was somewhat discomfited at her naivete. When his hot sticky fluid had erupted into her mouth she was startled and had swallowed without thinking. Immediately a warm glow had infused her body, spreading from her mouth down into her belly and spreading outwards. The most apparent effect it had on her was Jenny had reached multiple peaks, one after another, while the redheaded man lapped at her pussy. She had bucked and gasped and squealed around the mouthful of his wonderful tool more times in a row than ever before in her life.

"This.." She thought "is what magic must feel like."

The third time had been just minutes ago, down in the treasure chamber. The tip of the immense dragon's tongue had slipped into her mouth when she kissed him and once more she had felt the golden glow suffuse her entire body. Though she had already been quite on edge from the experience of being chained to the pole and questioned, when his tongue passed her lips Jenny had grown immediately and quite unabashedly wet between her thighs. So much she was afraid she might start dripping down her legs. When Grond's hands had gripped her bottom and her lifted her into the air, she had spread her legs wide to hold him and when her wet little pussy came into contact with his warm skin she quickly reached another small peak and moaned with her lips pressed into his.

The small chuckle which had come from his throat let her know it hadn't gone unnoticed, which made her face burn a little with chagrin. But of all of the things she might die from being sacrificed to a dragon, embarrassment was the least of her worries. 

Now for the second time in her life she was naked in bed with an equally naked man.

Two of them.

Something else she had never even considered before.

At least one of whom had avowed to take her body in all of the ways a man might take a woman. A great beast of a man who demanded she give herself to him in all of those ways and more, each equally exciting and terrifying when she thought about them. The dragon was demanding she become his slave. His plaything and sexual toy. His servant for each and every whim.

The first evening over a year ago when the dragon had first alit in the harbor of Laketown, Jenny Gardener thought she might die. Still, she was excited enough to overcome her fears.

When she was selected to be his annual sacrifice, those fears resurfaced and she thought she was going headlong to her death. But to be able to see an actual dragon in the flesh helped put her terror aside.

Then on her first night in captivity when Andrew tried to both calm her while making it quite clear the numerous ways her life could end in service to their master and then again in the horde chamber when her every word held her life in the balance, Jenny had come to believe any fear of her sudden demise was well past her.

Until, lying in bed curled up next to her Master's body her gaze swept down over his belly to see the massive tool which lay between his thighs. Her insides turned to ice water.

Gods...!

***gulp***

...and it wasn't even hard... yet...

Though she tried hard to suppress it, a small worried noise like a rabbit caught in a trap escaped from her throat. It was her first real view of Master's entire body. Just a handful of hours ago she had seen her first male member poking up from Andrew's lap. Not too long after it had been in her face and then in her hands and shortly after in her mouth. Jenny had assumed, from her limited experience, Andrew represented about the largest of male members.

She'd been mistaken. Even in it's only partially tumescent state, Grond's prick was easily twice as large as the smaller man's, both in length and girth.

She couldn't...

It would never...

There was no way...

A soft touch on her face distracted her racing thoughts and she saw Andrew gazing at her, his face only inches away.

"Relax." He said. "Take a deep breath." She inhaled and tried to will her hands to stop shaking. "Another." With each breath she grew slightly calmer. Andrew shifted his eyes to look up at the reclining dragon. "Master? Perhaps if we..." Grond nodded.

"Yes. Do it." Andrew rolled off the bed on the opposite side and at the same time a strong hand wrapped in the back of Jenny's hair. "Sit up, girl. Look at me." She wiggled into a sitting position guided by his grip on her hair. He wasn't holding her hard enough to pull or hurt her, but most definitely strong enough to allow her no illusion of freedom. She was absolutely going to move the way he wanted her to or else. When she sat up his other hand wrapped around her chin, holding her firmly in place. A little whimper came from her lips and her hands came up reflexively to clutch his arm. Once again she was lost and mesmerized gazing into the huge deep green eyes of her Master.

"Do you want to live, little human?"

"Y-yes, Master!"

"Will you spend the rest of your days serving and pleasing me?"

"Yes, my lord! I will! I swear!" Grond smiled and his fingers patted her cheek fondly.

"Good girl. This will be your ultimate test, then. To see of you can survive being my pet." He shook his head slightly. "I do not know if you will live, girl. Only time will tell. In a few minutes we will know. So if it is to be the last time, come here and kiss your Master, child."

"Oooohhh... yes, Sir." His grip released her and she leaned upwards, parting her lips to his as she kiss him long and deeply. Once more as his tongue slipped into her mouth she felt the golden glow spreading through her body. The peace and contentment and vitality which accompanied it. And the vibrations which ran from her brain straight down to her pussy, making it too vibrate in a most pleasurable way. His kiss alone was almost enough to bring her right to the edge.

While she was so engaged she felt the bed move behind her and there was a soft touch on her shoulder. Jenny's eyes were already closed and she felt a soft cloth pulled across her eyes and tied behind her head.

A blindfold. Now even if she wanted to see, she was unable. The removal of even the small choice made her shiver deep inside. She clutched herself against the dragon's side and trembled while she laid her head back down against his ribs. His strong arm lay across her back.

Another smaller, cooler hand touched her shoulder and squeezed it softly. She felt Andrew's breath against her ear as he spoke to her.

"Jenny, do you trust me? Do you trust I only want what is best for you and I want you to survive and be with us to the end of your days? Do you trust I am your friend?"

"Y-yes, Andrew. I do." When the words left her lips she realized it sounded an awful lot like the "I do" of a new bride promising her heart to her betrothed. She also realized with a start she meant it in just such a way.

Despite her dire consequences and the turmoil in her mind and her heart Jenny realized she was deeply in love with the young guardsman who was her only human companion. Though she had promised her heart and soul and body to the dragon, part of her she realized would always be in love with Andrew.

Turning her head slightly she repeated her words.

"Yes, Andrew. I do." The import and inflection wasn't lost on anybody in the room. With her ear pressed to her master's chest she heard an amused rumbling and though she couldn't see it Jenny could sense the flush and blush of desire and pride spread across the young man's face and down into his chest. He kissed her ear softly.

"Good girl. Let me help you." He pressed up behind her body and the girl could feel his prick lying hot and hard against her bottom. Andrew's fingers trailed down her arm and took her hand. At his direction they explored Grond's hard body. Down across his chest and belly. Down into the thick wiry patch of hair until her fingers came in contact with the shaft of his cock. Andrew laid her hand on the thick member and Jenny could feel the prominent veins and the blood coursing through them at her touch. Another rumble in the massive chest at her touch. This one of happiness.

"Mmmm..." Grond murmured. "So very... soft..."

He sounded quite pleased.

Of course in comparison anything short of a battle axe or war hammer would have felt like the touch of a feather to Grond. He was, after all, a creature of fear and battle and lust and destruction and appetite, aside from being nearly indestructible. A touch as soft and cool and gentle as hers was something he had not felt in ages. One on hand he enjoyed the feeling. On the other he realized he was going to need to control himself with this fragile little creature even more than with the boy. If he wanted to keep her alive and healthy enough to play with, anyway.

It was a bit frustrating.

But then he had nothing better to do with his time, after all.

If she managed to survive first contact with his seed, then he would see what he would see.

In the mean time... Mmmm... 

The girl's soft little hands did feel nice.

His collared male pet was undergoing some conflicting emotions at the same time. Andrew had gently lifted the blindfolded girl to a sitting position so she could use first one hand then two on master's rapidly stiffening prick. Up and down the shaft as well as down to cup his large balls in her palm and roll them around. He realized with a start he was a little bit jealous seeing the girl touching and pleasing his lord and master in such a way. He'd been the only one to please the dragon for the past year and even though he was a slave to the beast, he found within himself a sense of pride at his ability to survive.




Sacrifice Pt. 02: Willing



Despite the twinges of envy, Andrew was also wrestling with a growing fondness and desire for the girl and a fervent hope she would survive to stay by his side. Her whispered words earlier had touched his heart in a way no woman had ever done before and the vast difference between her and his master and lover was such it stirred him in soft and romantic ways.

The realization he was in love with Jenny Gardener made him blink in confusion.

But... he had a task to accomplish and he snapped his mind back to the present.

He put one hand atop hers and gently guided her in pulling back the foreskin of Grond's massive prick, exposing the glossy purple head, glistening in the torchlight of the room. His other hand lay against the back of her neck and guided her lips downward until she was a fraction of an inch away.

"Stick your tongue out, love. Taste Master's desire."

He watched as her little pink tongue slipped out and touched the tip of the large organ tentatively. It withdrew and then slipped out again to return to her lips trailing little strings of the dragon's precome. Pressed up against her from behind, he could feel her shiver and grow warmer against him as the magical fluid invaded her body. The young guardsman knew full well how both wonderful and frightening the sensation could be. A low moan came from the girl's mouth and she began softly laving the purple head with her tongue, greedily lapping up all she could reach.

"Mmmm... good girl." The dragon put one hand in the middle of the young man's back and the other atop both of their hands wrapped around the shaft of his prick as they slipped up and down.

"I will take that sweet mouth of yours and make it mine. An instrument for my pleasure."

"Oooohhh yes, Master." She moaned with her lips pressed against his flesh. "My... my mouth is yours, my Lord..."

"Then I will throw you on your back in my bed, spread your legs wide and listen to you scream out my name as I fill your womb with my seed. That little virgin slit between your legs will belong to no one but me."

"Oooohhh... g... mmmm... aaahhh..." Andrew felt her whole body clench up and shiver hard and through the three-way connection between their minds, he got to experience the waves of orgasm which rushed through her bones. As the girl gasped in pleasure her mouth opened wider than she thought possible and the plum like head of her master's prick slipped into her mouth. She gasped and tried to breathe through her nose as she though the huge member might choke or suffocate her.

Master's prick was so huge Jenny was surprised when it fit between her jaws which ached with the effort. The thought of that tool splitting open her pussy terrified her beyond reason. Somewhat desperately she licked at the head, trying to please him as she had Andrew a few hours earlier in an attempt to forestall the act which she was sure would tear her open inside. Her grip on his shaft went up and down faster and faster.

Perhaps if she could satisfy him with her mouth he would forget about...

But no...

Grond's fingers curled into her hair, gripping the knot of the blindfold as his hips rolled. A wave of panic gripped her as she thought he was going to push himself further into her throat, making her fingers dig in to his shaft and push down as she struggled. While the dragon didn't push her further down he did enjoy the moments of terror and panic which were rushing through her mind.

Frightened prey did please him so... and brought him even closer to the edge.

"Aaahhhh... mmmm..." He growled. "What a good little pet... mmmm... And when I desire... further entertainment... I'll turn you face down and take you like a boy. That tightest hole will be mine as well, child... Haaahhhh... Mmmm..."

He hadn't forgotten, after all.

Oooohhh... gods... The dread which threatened to overwhelm her senses made her shiver and moan deep in her chest. All of which finally brought Grond to his peak. He let out a guttural roar and began spewing his molten hot seed into her mouth, a flood which again tried to choke or drown the struggling girl.

"Take it child... take my seed into your body... swallow every drop..."

"Take it and live..." were the last words she remembered hearing as her mind flew away in a maelstrom. The universe dissolved in flames then dwindled to a fine point of light and was gone.

Eleven

A gasp and a cry and she sat bolt upright in the bed, reflexively throwing the covers away from her overheated body. A distinct feeling of being roasted alive on a spit faded as the cool air of the room washed over her flesh to be replaced with goose bumps.

Jenny Gardener swore to herself then and there if she lived to be... if she lived... she would stop being startled at her continued survival. Instead she would treat each awakening as a new adventure. She was, after all, now living with a dragon. The greatest dragon in the world. A dream come true.

Then she remembered masters words and the effect they had on her and she shivered again.

It wasn't... quite how she had dreamed it, but...

A touch on her arm and a voice almost made her scream.

"You live."

The handsome young redhead was lying next to her in the bed, smiling.

"Andrew!!" She threw herself into his arms and hugged herself hard against him.

Another little gasp. "Oh gods..." He held her and patted her softly.

"Relax and don't let it overwhelm you."

Her senses were flooded. She could feel the texture of his skin against her fingertips. The beating of his heart as she pressed her ear into his neck. Each callous on his hands touching her back. The crackling of the feathers in the pillow he lay against. The crackle and hiss of the wicks burning in the candles and the torches in the sconces along the walls.

And the smells...

The scent of Master was everywhere in the huge room. The place where he had lain in the bed between them. She swore she could almost track his movements about the room and out into the maze of tunnels and caverns when he had left.

Even when he wasn't there, his scent reminded her of who she belonged to now.

The smell of the wax and the oil as they burned cloyed at the back of her throat. But the scent of Andrew as he held her made the others worthwhile. He smelled just a little of sweat and the musk of desire and sex and so decidedly... male. Underneath his natural scent was something else which almost sizzled against her sinuses. Something strong and wild and alive.

Gods... he smelled amazing. Add all of that to his handsome face and his strength and intelligence and tenderness and that warm loving heart if his...

Jenny had never wanted anything or anybody as badly as she wanted Andrew at that very moment. The distant memory of seeing Mama and Papa together flashed through her mind and she wanted him in that way. His big strong body laying on top of hers with her legs wrapped around his back while he thrust into her over and over again.

And thought it made her feel a bit wicked, she thought if he were on his back and her above, she could be a little more in control and take him inside her body just as hard and as fast as she wanted.

She wanted... she wanted... she wanted...

"A-Andrew... I..."

"NO, LITTLE PET." Both of them flinched as Grond's voice echoed through their minds.

"THAT IS MINE." The two had started to pull away from each other then clutched tighter and reeled as visions of a star filled night rushed behind their eyes. Barely seen rock faces flashed by as the dragon flew sideways through a narrow craggy canyon turning this way and that so fast it made their hearts skip.

"BIND HER HANDS, BOY. MAKE HER READY."

One last vision through their master's eyes allowed them to see the tall pointed outline of the Spire in the distance, rushing ever closer.

"I AM COMING."

Twelve

"Andrew... I'm frightened." Her hands writhed behind her back, unconsciously pulling at the cords which bound her wrists. She couldn't keep her body still. Whether it was apprehension of what was about to happen or an overwhelming desire or a combination of the two, she couldn't have really said.

His lips pressed gently against her temple as she reclined back into his chest. Strong arms wrapped around her. One hand rested on her belly and the other cupped a firm little tit in his palm. Her nipples were so hard even his passive touch was making little jolts of pleasure resonate from the rock hard little tip.

"Sssshhhh... relax, love. Master can be surprisingly gentle when he wants to be. He... wants you. And he wants you alive for a very long time. He isn't very good at saying what is in his heart, but Master has grown quite fond of you." He kissed her again and she stirred in his arms. Jenny looked over her shoulder at him out of the corner of her eye and he could see a blush on her pale cheeks.

"It's... my first time."

"I know. We both know, love." She blushed even deeper.

"I wanted... I wanted you to be my first, Andrew. Even before I came here. I wanted you to be my first. And only." He felt a blush equal to hers and a swelling of pride in his chest.

"I would have been proud, Jenny. Proud and happy to be your first. And your only."

The girl lowered her eyes and took a deep breath then looked back up at him.

"I love you, Andrew MacMeel." It startled him a little bit and he was even more startled by his reply.

"I love you, Jenny Gardener. Now and forever." Straining just a little, they moved together and kissed.

"And what about me, child?" The voice seemingly came out of nowhere and they both jumped, a little cry erupting from the girls lips.

Grond stood only a few feet away, shrouded in his long black robe, hands tucked inside the sleeves. The only thing visible was the greenish glow from his eyes, deep beneath the cowl.

How the huge man moved so quietly when he wished was startling and maddening and mysterious. Andrew had long suspected he did such things for his own amusement.

"Is there only room in your heart for one?" The girl shook her head vehemently.

"N-no, Master! Please! I... meant no disrespect! I... I..." He held up a hand.

"Stop." The tone gave no room for leeway, as if it meant to stop everything in the world all at the same time. They froze in place.

"Take a deep breath." Both of the dragon's pets breathed deeply in unison.

"Now tell me, child." She took another breath as she ordered her mind.

"It is true that I love him, Master. As I said before, Andrew is the most wonderful human I know. He is strong and smart and sweet and beautiful. I... I do love him, Sire. If.. we had met... elsewhere... he would have had all of my heart." Andrew felt himself blushing again.

"But then I met you. And you are the master of my heart. My heart and my mind and my body and my soul. No human could ever compare to you, Master. You are the greatest most astounding creature in this world and I will never love anyone or anything the way I love you." Her eyes searched inside the deep cowl for any sign from the dragon.

In an eye-blink he moved to the edge of the bed, standing between her knees as they hung over the edge. One large hand came down and rested on her chest. Jenny could feel the pull as if her heart were trying to beat it's way past her ribs and into his hand.

"This heart is mine."

"Y-yes, Master. Yours."

"And his as well."

"Y-yes, my Lord. If... If you allow it."

The idea of sharing anything was an alien concept to the dragon. His world was eat or be eaten. Take or be taken from. Win or lose. He'd already thought he would allow the boy to play with his newest toy now and then because it would please them both. He'd come to appreciate the fact a happy pet made life easier and more diverting.

He didn't "need" their human love to make his life complete. He was Grond Deucalious! The greatest of all dragons, after all.

On the other hand he was becoming quite... fond... of the willingness and adoration from his ephemeral little pets. It was... comforting.

Grond nodded slowly. His hand slowly traced down her body, over her belly and stopping just above the little thatch of red hair between her legs. The radiant heat from his touch made her want even more than she thought possible. Her hips writhed of their own accord, trying to urge him to touch her lower.

"This body is mine." She shivered hard.

"Oooohhh yes... All yours, Master."

"To take as I wish."

"Yes...!"

"I want your body, pet."

"And I you, my Lord..."

"Open yourself to me, child."

"Oh gods... yes, Master." Trembling even harder, Jenny spread her legs wide, lifting her knees. Crouched behind her, Andrew hugged her body tight then reached forward and slipped a hand behind each knee, helping to hold her while cradling her in his lap.

"I'm right here, love." He whispered. "I'll always be right here."

Strong fingers gripped his chin and the dragon's face was only inches away, a mighty frown between his brows.

"Who does your heart belong to, boy?" The expression on Grond's face almost made him panic.

"To... T-to you, m-my Lord! M-my heart is yours!" The gaze pierced his mind and he could feel the overpowering presence of his master searching his thoughts. Those eyes were steady for long moments before the huge man spoke again.

"And hers as well." It wasn't a question. Not for an instant did it cross his mind to lie.

"Yes, Master."

"Good enough." The grip went from his chin to the back of his head and Grond leaned closer and kissed him hard and deep. Andrew moaned deep in his chest and his mouth opened immediately to allow that great slick tongue between his lips. He could feel both in his mind and his master's touch the dragon was pleased with him, despite his fierce demeanor. The young willing pet of the dragon was also acutely aware of his prick trapped between his own belly and the girl's soft back growing harder by the moment.

Andrew desperately wanted to take Jenny's place. Hands bound behind his back with his legs wide and held high awaiting the painful pleasure of master's mighty cock. Those were the dreams in his heart which burned comparable to the dragon's fire. A low chuckled sounded in the chest of the dragon as he pulled back.

"Patience, boy. This little snack will not fill my belly. You will be called to sacrifice yourself to me again soon." Grond shot him a knowing look. "With hands bound and legs held high."

"Oooohhh... gods..." Andrew shivered hard. "Yes, my Lord."

"But first I must possess this little treasure." He stepped back and there was a sudden rustling noise. The two humans barely saw him move yet his robe suddenly fluttered to the ground and he stood before them naked. The flickering light of the torches and candles made each muscle on his hard body seem to dance beneath his skin. His prick was as hard as the rest of his body, jutting out like a mighty pillar of marble.

Even before the bubbling shriek of fear rose to her throat, Grond stepped forward, his hips pressing into the underneath of her raised thighs and laid his hard member on her belly.

"Gods...!" Her mind whirled in terror. "It reaches almost all the way to my ribs! He'll tear me apart!" As he had done to Andrew, he gripped her chin, tilting her green eyes up to his as he looked all the way into her soul.

"I will take you as mine, child."

"Oooohhh I am afraid, Master... You will kill me!"

"It might happen, yes."

"You will tear me apart..."

"You are stronger than you know, girl."

"Oh please Master..." Grond rocked his hips back and forth slowly, moving his tool up and down her belly. With her legs held high the way they were it made the shaft of his prick rub between her slick little pussy lips, causing waves of pleasure to break against the mountains of her fear, slowly breaking them down.

"Do not beg me for mercy, human. I am a dragon and there is none in my heart." He slowly began dragging his prick backwards, down towards the entrance to her pussy.

"Then I will beg..." She was mesmerized watching him get closer and closer.

"I will beg you..." The massive purple head slipped down between her lips and settled at her opening. She could feel her inner muscles spasming in fear even as her juices flowed. A little whine of incoherent fear dribbled from her lips.

"For what, child?"

"I... I will beg... for your love, Master."

His hard expression faltered and softened for just a fleeting instant. Through the haze of fear and lust rampaging through her mind, Jenny could feel the great dragon did feel love for her.

In his own way.

"Of course, girl." He said softly. "Always." Then his voice hardened once more.

"And now you will be mine." 

Slowly the bulbous head of his cock began pressing at her opening, spreading her open wider and wider. There was a sharp sting as the last vestiges of her maidenhead surrendered to the pressure. She cried out in pain as her body surrendered and he sank further and further inside of her. Jenny wanted to close her eyes and give herself over awaiting her death when he tore her open but she could not tear her gaze away from the sight of Grond's massive cock disappearing inside her as he pressed deeper and deeper. She swore she could could see her lower abdomen bulging slightly as he displaced her organs and thought surely she would burst inside and die right then and there.

"Breathe, love..." Her human lover whispered into her ear. "Deep breaths... breathe for me, Jenny." She gasped, half strangling as if her lungs would come out of her mouth.

"Gods... Andrew... it hurts... Oooohhh..." He pressed his lips to her temple and held her tight.

"I know, love. It always does. Get past the pain and let Master show you the pleasure..." Another deep groan grated from her chest as the head of his prick pressed into her womb.

Master's large warm palm settled lightly across her forehead, radiating heat. Jenny felt the warmth spread through her body, chasing the pain to the back of her mind to replace it with the satisfying feeling of being so comfortably full of his cock. It still hurt and ached, but from a distance. She found she could breathe again.

"Oooohhh... gods..."

So this was what it was all about. Even through the pain she felt as the mighty weapon stretched her further open than ever intended, Jenny experienced the feeling of another being inside of her body and the complete meaning of the word intimacy. Grond was inside her body and inside her mind as well. Not only could she feel the shape and every vein on that massive tool and the beating of his heart as they pulsed but through his connection with her mind she could also feel her her inner muscles gripped him and the slick velvety sensation of the inside of her sex against his flesh.

If human sex was anything like this at all... it was a wonder anything ever got done.

Her master had paused his movement, allowing her body and mind a moment to adjust to this new feeling. The pain was receding to the back of her mind, being replaced rapidly by pleasure. At the same time her senses were being overwhelmed with input. First and foremost of course was the wonderful and awful fullness in her lower half. Stretching and making her ache and hurt and she could even feel little tears in her flesh as he passed her limits. But simultaneously she felt fulfilled and proud she could take her master inside of her body without dying from the experience and the warm peppery tingling she could sense was her body trying to repair itself from the invasion.

That great tool pulsed with the beating of his heart inside her and she could feel her own heart slowing to match his beat for beat. And with Andrew's chest pressed into her back she could feel his own heart matching theirs as the three of them connected and became one. A mental sigh came from all three of them.