The screech of a flight of scarlet macaws joined the cacophony of sound that the midday jungle regularly enjoyed. Buzzing insects of all sizes, calling birds and the trickle of a nearby river, the rustle of leaves as animals passed through them, the howl of monkeys and the occasional feline roar, all were like music to Ixchel’s ears. Her sensitive hearing, which extended to the world of spirits and magic, could even make out the cries of the rare awakened creatures that prowled the jungles of Amazonia; the massive, whooping, apelike Embracers, high-pitched Pricuricu birds and creatures even more esoteric that man had yet to name. The feathered serpent soared through the warm, humid air, the abundant thermals allowing her colorful wings to glide with ease. Hot sunlight reflected off her scales, warming the reptilian creature, the conditions causing her mood to shift into a blissful state of glee. Ixchel’s bright yellow body, with blue feathered wings and a plumed tail of the same color, her head and hind legs a pearly white, was like a swift rainbow that raced through the jungle sky. The other creatures of the air; parrots and eagles, hummingbirds and songbirds, intelligent awakened flies and the rare Harpies and Griffons gave her a wide berth, several miles in fact. They all knew on an instinctual level a dragoness was to be feared. As she neared her lair; a many-stepped pyramid built in the style of the old Maya by her bound spirits, Ixchel cast a cautious detection spell, sparks of green light arcing from her mouth and eyes. The feathered serpent’s astral sight saw the spell as a wave of translucent eyes and fingers, probing and searching the area for anything out of the ordinary, prodding and scanning every inch of a two-acre area in a matter of moments. It caused her a bit of fatigue, but it was a necessity for beings such as she. All dragons were paranoid by nature, but Ixchel was suspicious even by the wyrm’s standards. The dragons of Amazonia had many enemies, from the corrupt, monstrous serpents of northern Aztlan to the many wild and hostile spirits that prowled the endless jungles. Needless to mention were the metahumans; many of her kin employed them as their agents, though she had never trusted them enough to entrust her will to one. They showed up everywhere, carrying strange metal devices and weapons that spout deadly showers of lead and fire, often heralded by soulless drones that were just as inquisitive and annoying as a dozen watcher spirits. Her spell revealed no present dangers, but to Ixchel that meant only that any intruders had hidden behind protective spells. Alighting with serpentine grace and avian lightness on the upper tier of the pyramid, Ixchel scanned every corner of her lair and every step and terrace leading up to it, her sharp eyes picking up signatures thermal, visual, ultraviolet and astral. A third, membranous eyelid flicked over her eyes as she scanned the trees, looking for any thing that could pose even the slightest threat to her. This paranoia was why she had joined the Amazonian cause, and why she had chosen such an isolated lair. To be away from metahumanity and dragonkind alike, to have time and space to herself, was worth decades of effort. Not only for the serenity it offered, the uninterrupted peacefulness that isolation offered, but also the additional protection. Dragons are not social animals, and proximity to one another, or to those that would vie for the same things they coveted, namely magical power and influence, was the source of much of their ire. Ixchel had circumvented this by removing herself from it all, retreating to the furthest depths of the jungle she could, accompanied only by the wild animals and spirits of her own conjuring. Seeing no danger, she slinked back into the pyramid, coiling her muscular, flexible length around a tall column. Ixchel exhaled, a plume of smoke spiraling from her nostrils. Just as a precaution, Ixchel worked her vast magical powers, her spirit reaching into the astral world spirits like a great clawed hand. With a sigh of effort, her spiritual fingers tightened around something, drawing it from the depths of the worlds beyond and into the material. With a burst of displaced air, something appeared in the pyramid beside Ixchel. The already hot jungle suddenly became many degrees warmer, and a light like a dozen torches illuminated the interior of the pyramid. A great black cloud joined the curls of smoke already escaping Ixchel’s nostrils, and the spirit took form. Nearly as long as Ixchel herself, and composed of smoldering ash and coals, it appeared not unlike a great serpent, though one of terrestrial origin rather than an aerial one like it’s summoner. It’s head was strangely human, though covered by a skull-faced onyx mask decorated with charred black feathers and eyes made of great rubies. “Gukumatz,” hummed Ixchel, her plumed tail flopping back and forth on the tiled ground. “Again I call you from Xibalba, the underworld, though not to destroy like the time before. “ “Then what do you call me for?” Said the spirit in its own strange tongue. Its voice was the crackle of a bonfire and the rumble of a tumbling building lost to flames. “Though I love the world of the sun, there are dances and feasts in Xibalba I am missing for this task, and the great festival of Ah Puch, lord of Death, is to begin in the House of Bats soon. What would you have me do so that I may return to the world beneath?” “Xibalba can wait Gukumatz, here I am your master, and I will keep your from Ah Puch as long as I desire. If you wish to make yourself useful, I want you to search the surrounding five miles for any that would do me harm. Do not harm them, merely bring me information of their nature and location and I will do with them what I will.” “Hunting? Is that not a task for one from the House of Jaguars or the House of Snakes? You call Gukumatz the ashen, Gukumatz the disastrous, burner of cities and scorcher of forests, he who was there when Teotihuacan burned and he who watched when the Mexica’s town suffered the same fate, to look for miscreants!?” Ixchel yawned and ruffled her great feathered wings, shifting her coils to better catch the sun’s rays. “Yes you prideful coal, you inferior cousin of Ah Kin, the sun, you feeble spark who would struggle to light a single mangrove tree, you pathetic worm for whom boiling a pot of water is a great feat, I have called you to search for my foes. Go and do my bidding and I will return you to where your talents have meaning, where my flames do not outshine yours like the sun outshines the stars.” Gukumatz exhaled a great cloud of smoke, his body growing brighter and hotter from his anger, but by the magic used to summon him he could do no more than seethe at the abrasive wyrm. Leaving a trail of angry sparks and the smell of burnt meat, he flew from the pyramid into the jungle, leaving his physical form for his astral one to cover the ground quicker. Ixchel smiled to herself, baring her sharp fangs and stretching her long sinuous muscles in pride. Her self-imposed exile had brought with it some amount of loneliness, for though they were not social, dragons were sentient, and without company even the most stoic of minds can get bored. Her few amusements were tormenting the spirits she held sway over; binding them to the material world only to embarrass them with demeaning tasks, calling and banishing the same spirit over and over to it’s rage, calling the greatest of the spirits to do battle for her amusement. All dragons enjoyed exerting their power over others, and Ixchel was no exception. Her subjects were those of the astral worlds, hers to torment and play against each other. When she left her draconic body and sent her spirit roaming astral space and the infinities of the metaplanes she was no different; behaving in the scheming, tyrannical method of all dragons, though her capacity for schadenfreude was greater than many. Still, the joys of dominating and controlling the many gods and demons of the astral world had it’s limits, and Ixchel still wanted for things sometimes. She scratched her underside against the pillar, groaning and hissing as she tried to itch something she just couldn’t find. Still seeking that special something, she wrapped the lower half of her snakelike body around the pillar and tightened her coils, squeezing the stone so tight it began to crack. She tried to shift her coils up and down, but the cold stone of the pillar provided no respite from her need. In fact it increased it, driving her to find another cure for her itch. Ixchel rolled on the floor, tried to stroke her underbelly with her wings, though they were nowhere near as maneuverable as she required. Roaring in frustration as her efforts only made matters worse she breathed a gout of fire over her body, hoping to annihilate whatever pest had troubled her. Instead, the intense heat only spurred it, the flames bathing her transferring their warmth inside her. A totally different heat was building inside the lonely dragoness, and she wracked her great reptilian mind to find what it was. She knew of every disease the pests of the jungle carried, along with those awakened maladies that harmed the soul as well. But this persistent, internal itch confounded her, perplexed her, enraged her, and Ixchel thrashed her serpentine body around in rage. It must have been some trick by Gukumatz or the lords of Xibalba for abusing him, that was it! It was the spirit to blame! The dragoness gnashed her great maw, each tooth like a sword and just as deadly, thinking of how she would repay the spirits for their treachery, and tied her tail in knots as she though about how they had evaded her endless paranoid precautions. A set of seedpods exploded as Gukumatz burst back into reality, the heat of his physical form searing the plant life around him and sending a roosting parrot into a flustered panic. The spirit bellowed and snapped at the bird, lobbing an arc of fire that shriveled the lush greenery around it. His errand had been completely uneventful; in his search he had found nothing, not a soul that threatened Ixchel. The spirit longed to roast something on it’s flames, but in the area around the pyramid he found only animals and parafauna. All the spirits of the jungle had learned to avoid the dragon’s lair, as had the intelligent awakened animals. Gukumatz grumbled as he slinked through the air, burning through creeper vines and fat wet bromeliads, throwing showers of sparks and embers at raucous birds and irritating insects in impotent rage. Steam rose from his body as he emerged from the canopy, snaking his way back to the pyramid. Summoned to be sent on a pointless search, how humiliating! Upon her spirit’s return, Ixchel broke from her angry trance and glared at Gukumatz, fixing the fiery snake with her cold, reptilian gaze. “What have you done you rancid piece of dirt?” She roared, smoke and sparks escaping her fanged maw. “What curse have you afflicted me with, what, what, what inflammation of my body did you invoke?” Gukumatz wormed its way through the air, utilizing the telepathic bond summoner and spirit shared. The flaming snake took time to pick it’s words, enjoying watching it’s imperious summoner writhe and squirm. “You’re in heat,” said the fire spirit. Ixchel shrieked and spread wide her great feathery wings, throwing her jaw back and unleashing a gout of white hot fire that blew over Gukumatz, his own fiery form becoming obscured in the torrent of flame. When it subsided, the spirit wormed it’s way closer to it’s master, emboldened by the realization that her dreaded fire breath could do him no harm. “You’re in heat,” it repeated, it’s skull-like visage locked on her snarling maw. “Breeding season. Like the animals and the birds, and even the peoples of Xibalba, it is time for you to make children.” “I do not make children!” Roared Ixchel. “I would not endanger my self by bringing new rivals into the world, or weak wyrmlings that my innumerable enemies could use against me! I am above those animalistic urges you profess to know so much about!” “Well, you can endure whatever mysterious malady this is without me; I searched the forest, and it’s clear of dangers. Nothing, not even an angry elf with a sharpened stick, so please let me return to the underworld.” “Wait! There are still further favors you owe me! Remove this curse and you will return to your feasts and revels, and not a moment before!” Gukumatz groaned as he slid through the air closer to his master, burning with repressed anger. “You give me permission to use all of my powers to aid you?” “Of course, anything, just do it now!” With a sardonic grumble Gukumatz wormed his sinuous flaming body around Ixchel’s, wrapping his smaller, hot body around the lower third of hers. Ixchel barely registered the intense heat of her spirit, so inured to fire was she. Still, she squirmed as the smaller serpent tightened it’s coils around her, her clawed feet pawing at the ground in irritation. “This part is necessary?” She growled. “Believe me, if it weren’t I’d stay leagues away,” replied Gukumatz. The spirit’s skull-masked head rested just between her wings, and his lower body reached between the dragon’s legs, the tip of his tail coiled around one of her knees. Ixchel groaned as something thick, and warm in a way unlike the rest of Gukumatz’s body slid between her legs, a strong pressure against her inner walls causing the dragon to twist and writhe. The reluctant spirit pressed in and out, and to her bewilderment Ixchel found her irritation begin to fade. Gukumatz continued his even pace, ash and sparks flying from where his member penetrated the dragon’s loins, and the massive monster squirmed and writhed under his attention. Licking her lips, Ixchel pushed back against the spirit, trying to accommodate more of him and add force to his thrusts, but she found despite her prompting his pace would not increase. With a sadistic growl, she flapped her wings and leapt from the pyramid, carrying her mate into the jungle sky as she flew upwards in tight spirals. “What in the world or the five before it are you doing?” Cried Gukumatz, not daring to stop thrusting into Ixchel. When she didn’t respond, but instead flew faster and higher, every muscle in her long body working at once, Gukumatz grew afraid. Ixchel’s powerful feathered tail twisted and writhed, until it held his whole body against her crotch, Gukumatz’s head now dangling below Ixchel’s belly. Then she stopped flapping. For a brief moment Gukumatz’ panicked. The monster was going to kill him! Destroy him and force him to return to Xibalba a beaten wreck! He stopped thrusting into her and only thought of the fall. Held as he was, he could not fly, nor could he escape Ixchel’s coils. The great dragon and her prey began to tumble from the sky, the serpentine dragon twisting to stare her mate in the face. Her sinuous lower body began to work, pulling and drawing on Gukumatz and forcing him into a rapid, frantic pace, pounding in and out of Ixchel with fear for his immortality. He knew of the things dragons could do, even to spirits like him, and was in no mood to experience any of them. “Finally, this curse is lifting!” Bellowed Ixchel as they fell from the sky, her roars all but drowned out in the rush of the wind. The green of the jungle raced to meet them, growing closer with every hot, steam-emitting thrust of Gukumatz’s. As they neared the forest canopy, the dragon’s wings still folded, her eyes glazed over in pleasure and self-satisfaction, Gukumatz threw the last of his energy into his actions. Six mighty thrusts, each strong enough to break human bones or dent a vehicle slammed into Ixchel, causing her scaly flesh to ripple as the dragon climaxed. Her roars were deafening, and flights of birds and other animals for miles panicked and routed. Ixchel squirmed in joy, and unfurled her feathers at the last moment, gliding clumsily and sloppily over the treetops back to her home. She tried to land with grace, but in her haze of post coital bliss she let her left wing drag, and came tumbling into the surface of the pyramid, crashing in a heap on the third-highest tier of the towering structure. As the two serpents uncoiled their bodies, tiny grey cinders falling from between the legs of Ixchel, Gukumatz’s smoking body curled itself into a small ball. “You did decently you feeble spark,” said Ixchel, rearing up over him and bearing her fangs. “You can return to your home, but you’d best tell your kin of how Ixchel likes to be pleasured. I think I’d like to have a go with some of them, maybe Ah Kin himself if im feeling up to it.” “But I thought you said you were above this?” Groaned Gukumatz as his body discorporate into smoke and steam, starting from his tail and moving its way up to his eternally grinning head. “I did, but when I saw how much it pained you, and how much you suffered when I took control I decided that maybe it’d make a nice hobby. Oh, and Gukumatz?” The spirit gulped and nodded. “If I don’t enjoy any of your fellow spirits, maybe I’ll bring you back here, just to see if you were a fluke.” As his skull faded to ashes Gukumatz groaned. The afterlife was going to get a lot less enjoyable if she kept this up.