Fourteen
Nick was told Claudia in his personal tent. She had taken her pack and gone there and remained there. She had sent a missive to him that she was finishing her mission appropriately and wasn’t going ot neglect the end of it.
Which Nick translated in his head to, ‘This is so much money that I’m paranoid. Please come get this bag from me before I lose my mind with anxiety’.
Roughly translated.
The beautiful priestess stood with his original spatial backpack at her feet.
She was wearing an odd gauzy and white robe. It looked terribly thin and didn’t cover much of her. She also had more than a few gold accessories that held up those strips of cloth in odd ways. She even had a short white veil at the top of her head.
It was definitely a highly sexualized outfit and it made the woman stunning to behold.
Given that she’d matured rapidly and she looked her true age now, it was hard to not stare at the woman and give her his full attention. The robe she was holding in her hands looked rather thick and full and he imagined she’d worn it for the trip over.
Her pale brown hair had been trimmed and only reached her shoulders now.
The soft waves of her hair was mostly pulled back, but it had more than enough volume that it made the veil seem much smaller than it was. Her brown eyes were somewhat wide and she immediately turned red when his eyes found her.
“I know,” Claudia said, her lips pressing together tightly. “I know. I look… somewhat… ridiculous. I know. I can’t help it. This is literally the best equipment I’ve found for my class, ever.
“It was in Grandfather Lucian’s hoard and it’s… the stats are amazing. I know what I look like, I know it really has no shame, but I cannot… it’s just… the stats are amazing. That’s my only defense.
“I suppose I should be thankful that my pregnancy isn’t showing yet or this would be even more awkward.”
Claudia stated the last with an odd smile that seemed almost grumpy.
“I saw my father when he went by in the other direction, along with the other Dukes,” she continued while Nick closed the curtain to his tent and then walked over to her. “The healers did great work on all of them. It’ll just take time for them to recover. I think it was a type of Divine curse. A big one. It probably cost the religious faction a great deal to use it.
“Oh, speaking of religion, I’ve started a new one! I’m the head priestess of the religion of Dolphen. We worship the land directly! It’s a bit odd with it’s responses, but it’s clearly learning. It’s quite excited. I get the impression it’s using that faith to empower you and… and…”
Her words trailed off when Nick came to a stop directly in front of her.
“You’re hurt,” she whispered and then reached up to put both hands to his face. “You’re burned. I can feel healing magic in you and even a potion and you’re still burnt.”
The priestess of Dolphen’s face clouded and she bit her lower lip.
In the next moment, Nick suddenly felt a lot better.
Perfectly fine, in fact. As if nothing had been wrong at all.
“Oh, good. Your eyebrows grew back,” Claudia said with a soft laugh and reached up to pat above his eyes with her fingertips. “I asked Dolphen to help me with a prayer to speed up your hair growth. I didn’t ask about the beard as I didn’t really like it. I’ve… always seen you with no facial hair. You’re scratchy when you kiss me with a beard.”
Grinning now, Nick realized he’d missed Claudia. She was a quiet and warm bit of care that never asked for much and always felt more like a close friend.
Where Jessie was intense energy, Sara was attempting to get his attention, Julie was someone he could joke and tease with, Cordelia was warm somewhat ditzy and a scaredy cat, Delaney was something all together different, and Harlowe was often attempting to manage her predatory nature, Claudia was just Claudia.
“Sounds like an invitation,” he murmured, staring into Claudia’s upturned face.
“I mean, I’m carrying your child, Dominic. If you’re not comfortable kissing me at will, we spent that week attempting to start in on a royal heir entirely wrong,” answered Claudia with a wide smile. The words sounding teasing, but her smile, face, and demeanor, were all welcoming.
So he kissed her.
When he broke away, he sighed.
“I need to get the money, pay the ledger off, and then rush off. I want to go try and hire a semi-intellient species,” Nick explained. “Jessie’s finally pregnant so she’s going back to the capital. You should go with her.”
“I… yes, I probably should,” Claudia said with a pout, watching him. “I need to make sure she keeps that pregnancy and now that she is pregnant, I can actually help.
“I’ll… just…uh… do we have fifteen minutes you think?”
The question caught him off guard when it was paired with the way Claudia was looking at him.
“We have more like thirty,” countered Nick.
“Oh good,” whispered Claudia, who reached up, took Nick’s face in her hands, and pulled him down to kiss him.
***
Nick pulled on Ronnie’s reins and caused him to begin diving out of the sky. Nick feathered his spurs to keep him on target.
“Yes!” shrieked Ronnie as he moved with the direction. Seemingly thrilled to be the one hosting him today.
“Pull us up when you feel it Ronnie,” ordered Nick. He wouldn’t dare to think he could direct the Dragon at that point. That was their own forte. All he wanted was to point the Dragon downward.
Because the Drake’s were down there.
“I will!” Ronnie responded and dove even faster.
Faster than Nick had ever gone with Lucian or Glorious.
In fact, looking at the way Ronnie held their body, their wings, and their head, he got the impression they were tearing through the sky at a speed he’d never hit before.
On top of that, Ronnie clearly had a grasp of basic wind magic as Nick wasn’t being buffeted about.
He felt his entire body trying to raise up out of the saddle and only his harness kept him in.
Unfortunately he was actually getting a bit light-headed.
Then Ronnie pulled up a second before they hit the ground like a tomato dropped from a cliff. Ripping across the ground floor of the crags and ridges that the Drakes lived in at high speed.
Dipping between large rocky outcroppings as if they weren’t something that’d kill them if Ronnie hit them. Delicately weaving between them with ease.
“Just need to find the Drakes!” Nick called out to Ronnie.
Who pulled upward suddenly, bleeding of speed, struck their wings out, and just about came to a full stop.
Fluttering their wings once, Ronnie landed on the ground and then turned to look at Nick with one large eye.
“Then we’re here!” Ronnie crowed with a laugh. “They are all around here, just hiding. It’s spring. They’re all keeping their young safe. In fact, they’re coming right now!”
Cal slammed into the ground next to them and then gave himself a shake. Sending bits of dirt and rock in every direction.
Apparently he’d slammed into something and took a part of it with him.
“I think I hit something,” he provided helpfully, confirming Nick’s thoughts.
Nodding his head, Nick sat there atop Ronnie.
In his mind, he was going over how to deal with the Drakes.
They were only semi-intellient, not actually intelligent.
They could speak, barely. Understand some complex things. Generally get an idea of what you were telling them.
Yet that’s where it ended for them.
The rest of what made the Drakes, Drakes, was animal instinct and their build being like a Gryphon sized Dragon. They were dangerously lethal.
They didn’t actually follow one leader either, or one pack-leader, or anything like that. It was a communal jumble of families and flocks.
“You. You again,” yelled a voice from the craggy mountainside to Nick’s left.
“Yes. Me again. I come for you. I want Drakes. I want Drake family. Come. I give you home. Food. Protection. Be Dragon to you. I am a Dragon,” Nick said. Last time he’d spoken about higher-minded things.
This time, he was going to be at their level.
“If you don’t come, I hunt, kill, eat you all,” Nick finished. “This is my territory now. I bring Dragons to hunt, kill, eat. Or you come be family. Hunt with me. Kill with me. Eat with me. All of you.”
Nick activated Dragon’s Might, then used Fire Breath, on top of Wind Form spell that didn’t do anything other than rush air to his Fire Breath.
When he’d asked Cal about his attack on the enemy, he’d said that all he did was add air to the fire that was there and it made it hotter. Something his father had taught him.
Unfortunately Nick hadn’t tested this, so when he activated the spell, and Fire Breath, he let loose such a torrent of flame that Nick could see nothing but fire and heat waves.
Cutting it off sooner than he expected Nick looked to where the voice had spoken.
There were twenty to thirty Drakes all watching him. They’d come out from the rocks and crags to watch and talk to him.
“See? I’m Dragon. I feed you. You’re all family to me now. Come. We’re leaving. We find new home, then I take those who want to hunt, kill, eat, with me. Those with young, shouldn’t come. Protect the young,” Nick stated. “Go tell all to come. We’re leaving.”
“We’re leaing!” Cal shouted out at the top of his lungs in a booming roar.
“Come to the Dragon King! We’re leaving!” roared Ronnie in an imitation of what Cal did. “Ah man, my shout wasn’t as big.”
“I mean, come on Ronnie, what’d you expect?” Cal answered, turning his big head to look at the other.
“Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah,” Ronnie grumbled, then huffed.
Nick reached ahead and thumped his hand several times into Ronnie’s shoulder joint.
“We all have our jobs,” he soothed him. “Yours is to be my aerial mount and who I need for when I need speed. Cal is my brick-shithouse. He’ll lead me straight into harms way so I can kill people.
“You’ll help me move amongst the clouds and in the air to knock people out of the sky. Different jobs.”
“Haha, yeah,” Cal said nodding his head. “Or you should just give up on and have a clutch, Ronnie. Jobs and all.”
Nick snorted at that. If he had the option to just go be a dad and let the world handle itself, he might’ve taken that route. It wasn’t available to him.
“A clutch? I’m too young. You’re stupid. You sound stupid,” Ronnie said, staring at Cal.
To which his brother laughed loudly.
“I am stupid. I know I am. It’s fine. It’s why I like my job now,” Cal said. “You’re stupid too though! It’s fine. Mom says it’s cause dad’s kinda dumb, but we’re both smarter than him.”
“We’re not stupid, just inexperienced,” argued Ronnie.
“You… hunt, kill, eat us?” asked a Drake that’d moved closer on the side.
Nick ignored the two bickering Dragons and focused on the Drake.
“I will. I will hunt, kill, and eat every one of you. This is my territory now,” Nick stated and meant it. He planned on expanding his walls this way. He wanted more land to invite more people into his country.
If everyone wanted to adapt to Dolphen culture, adopt Dolphen beliefs, become Dolphen, he would welcome them. For that, he’d more land.
This was a logical expansion point becuse Gnomes and Dwarves would love this area.
“You join my family. Hunt, kill, eat with me,” Nick sated and nodded his head. Keeping his meaning and words simple. “Easier. Better for us both. Go tell others. We leave soon. Bring young. I will protect. I am your Dragon. Our family will have many protectors.”
What Nick didn’t say, was the area that he planned to use for the Drakes was a major city with a Dungeon in it. Having Drakes nearby would allow him to set basic quests for Dungeon runner’s.
Go clean the Drake nests. Go feed the Drakes. Go defend the Drakes for a week. Go help the Drakes with a task.
Pointless stupid things that’d benefit the Drakes and make them remain and breed more.
Because what Nick wanted was a population of Drakes to serve as air cavalry, or ground cavalry. That meant he needed a lot of Drakes.
Every Drake that was here, in fact.
That was his plan.
“Go get them all,” Nick said with absolute finality. “Tell all, I will hunt, kill, and eat, anyone who doesn’t come. It is time to go.”
The Drake stared at him for several seconds, turned way slowly, and trotted off. It didn’t seem to be in a hurry so Nick had handle on how to take this.
“Summon me, my boy. I will assist,” Lucian asked.
Without even thinking about it, Nick summoned Lucian.
Who appeared not far and landed with a heavy boom in his Dragon form.
Then he squatted down into himself and rapidly shifted into his human form.
He looked a great deal like Nick in many ways, though much older, with a gray beard, yet still with a powerful frame. He was just as tall as Nick as well.
Dressed in what Nick would call ‘noble clothing’ he also cut a handsome appearance.
“That’s… that’s… is that how you do it?” asked Ronnie sounding horrifically confused. “That’s it!? Mom always made it sound really complicated!”
“Ah… you really shouldn’t change your form till it’s time,” warned Lucian, pointing a finger at Ronnie. “Your mother didn’t teach you because you’re not ready. Now… I need to go speak to the Drakes. They’re responding in a positive way and I want to capitalize on it.”
Not waiting, Lucian moved off toward where the Drake had moved off to.
“I wanna do it!” Ronnie shouted and turned to look at Cal. “No fair!”
Turning, Nick looked to where Cal had been.
Now there was a man that had the look of an ogre, rather than a human.
Built of pure muscle, no hair, fully limbed, and looking like he could run through a wall at full speed and come out the other side, was clearly the human version of Cal.
He had a physical age of around twenty-five or so if Nick had to guess. He was an impressive specimen of bulk and muscle.
It really fit his mental image of Cal in a strange way.
“Oh I’m huge,” Cal said and poked at himself. “I don’t have hair? I don’t have hair! I think I screwed up. Damnit. What color are eyes?”
“Blue. Like your mother,” Nick said with a grin. “You forgot the clothes, too. Might want to make sure you take care of that in the future.”
“Yeah. Oh, look at that. That seems a lot smaller than when I’m a Dragon,” Cal said, staring down at his privates.
“No! No fair. My turn. It’s my turn and-and-and it’s not fair!” Ronnie growled squirmed around, then looked at Nick. “Get down please? I wanna try.”
“Fine, fine,” allowed Nick and got down from his saddle after unhitching the hooks. Holding his poleaxe, Nick looked off to where the Drake’s had all gone. “Don’t forget your hair or clothes.
“Yeah!” Ronnie said excitedly behind Nick. “Imma do it better than Cal. You’re stupid.”
“You’re stupid!” Cal replied, then laughed. “Clothes are like scales I guess. Or… yeah. That’s what Uncle Lucian did.”
Uncle?
“I don’t mind,” Lucian replied inside of Nick’s mind. “I’m a good male presence to be around them. I’m not interested in their mother, I have a great deal of age, and can teach many things. Lady Angelique also calls me Uncle Lucian, though only in private.
“I imagine her mate will also call me Uncle. It is rather amusing to suddenly have Dragons around. Though I did warn you about the consequences of this, Nick. I tried.”
“Consequences of what? Bringing on Dragons? We needed them,” Nick answered. “Same with the Drakes.”
“Ah ha!” shouted a very feminine voice.
Nick blinked several times but didn’t turn around.
He kept his eyes straight ahead and was mentally refusing to acknowledge this situation.
As long as he never registered it, it wouldn’t be real, or matter.
Most especially this would be true as Dragons didn’t really tend to wander about in human form.
“Look at these, Cal! My boobs are huge!” shouted the female voice.
“I mean, mom has those, too. Did you think you wouldn’t?” Cal asked. “You’re stupid, Ronnie.”
“You’re stupid, Cal!” shouted the female voice.
Which was apparently Ronnie.
“I think I’m good looking,” Ronnie said. “I can’t tell. My Lord Dragon King. Am I good looking?”
“I’m sure you are,” Nick answered, nodding his head, still staring straight ahead.
Her name is Ronnie!
The fuck is wrong with Dragons?
I thought it was a boy! Like Cal!
“Ronnie… yes, well, Veronica,” answered Lucian in his head. “Veronica. Ronnie. Ronnie. Veronica.”
“Veronica,” Nick mumbled. “Veronica?”
It didn’t make sense to him.
“Yes! That’s me!” shouted a woman who appeared right in front of Nick. She was dressed in a blue-dress, she had the same bright blue eyes Ronnie did as a dragon, and she had long flowing hair that was slate colored. Bound up in a braid behind her head. “I’m Veronica! I still like Ronnie better but… mmm… maybe it’s time to use my whole name. Uncle Lucian and mom use their whole name.”
“My name feels like they forgot to keep going,” complained Cal. “Just… Cal.”
Looking at Veronica, he found her to have a face as artfully arranged as Cordelia’s, just wiht a more predatory leaning to it. With a sharp nose, high cheekbones, and a bright and blazing smile that showed off all her teeth.
“Look! My boobs are big!” she cheered and held up her impressive assets in her hands. They were indeed quite large. “Am I hot?”
“Yes,” Nick said and turned around and ended up bumping into Cal.
“Haha, the Lord Dragon King smells like desire!” Cal said excitedly. “He’s attracted to you Ronnie!”
“Veronica! I’m Veronica now!” Veronica demanded from behind him. “And don’t be silly. He always smells like that. It’s just more potent in our human form. I always smell it on him.”
“That’s your own attraction,” Cal countered and shook his head. “Mom told you that.”
“Mom’s wrong,” argued Veronica who was now seemingly standing behind Nick. He could in fact tell because she’d walked so close to him her chest was pressed into his back. “I’m a Dragon.”
“He’s a Dragon-kin. I mean, Uncle Lucian’s daughter took a human for a mate. You’re stupid,” Cal argued and reached out to prod at Veronica who was standing behind Nick.
He realized belatedly in that moment that Veronica was a very tall woman. As tall as Nick was, in fact.
“You’re stupid,” Veronica immediately replied and reached past Nick to shove at Cal. “Mom was just teasing me.”
“No she wasn’t, even Uncle Lucian said you needed to be careful around the Lord Dragon King,” hissed Cal. “He said you’d get blind to him and that’d be that. Idiot.”
“You’re the idiot, idiot,” Veronica shot back, pushing more firmly into Nick’s back. He wasn’t wearing his breastplate right now and had dressed for warmth considering how up they’d b eflying.
Right now he wished he had his breastplate on.
Am I fucked, Gramps?
“Well, not yet, my boy,” mused Lucian. “Though with how hard she’s scenting you right now, soon if you’re not careful. I did warn you about this.”
I-thought-they-were-both-men!
“She is very much female and very much an adult, my boy. Try to talk her back into her Dragon form. That’ll lessen the issue. For both of you. Though primarily her. There’s a reason my daughter spent most of her life in her human form. The emotions and feelings are more vivid. Like arousal and attraction,” advised Lucian. “Also, the Drakes are coming. I think you managed to convince a good eighty or ninety percent of them. The others are fleeing the area outright.”
Fucking goodie.
I got my Drakes, but I’ve also got a statuesque beauty that could give Cordelia a run for her money rubbing her boobs on my back.
Which Veronica was actually doing while verbally fighting with Cal. Much as she always did, just not very much female instead of two brothers.
“— whatever, when I have a clutch down the road with a Dragon Maiden hotter than you, I’m going to tell them all about your stupid butt,” Cal declared and lifted his chin up. “I’ll tell them that Uncle Lucian and mom tried to help you but you were just-too-stupid. Stupid.”
Veronica growled and reached out to shove at him again, but Cal stepped away.
All of which just caused Veronica to continue to bump up against and rub herself against Nick’s back.
“How about we become Dragons again? It’s almost time to go,” begged Nick even as Veronica swung her arm back and forth at Cal. Despite him clearly being far out of range. He assumed she was doing this now to experiment with her body. “Please?”