Dragon Goddess’s chosen

I awoke to my body aching all over, especially my arm and side that the poleaxe struck me on, not nearly as bad as I expected, but a groan still escaped me from the pain. I opened my eyes to the sound of a flurry of movement to find Kat sitting on the ground next to me in a tent, she clearly had been crying recently.

“Nngh? You ok?” I groaned as I tried sitting up and she quickly hugged me tight.

“Don’t worry about me…” She sniffled softly as she nuzzled into my neck. “Fucking dumbass… I just got you back and you go and nearly get killed again…”

“Sorry…” I hugged her back just as tight.

“H-how are you feeling? Your arm was broken when you got out of there… I think you had other broken bones too… You were screaming when we gave you that potion…” she pulled back a little to look me over.

“Sore everywhere… and tired”

“But, not like actual pain?”

“I don’t think so?” I shrugged and she gave a relieved sigh before gently lifting my shirt slightly to look at my stomach, revealing that someone bandaged it over.

“It’s not bleeding anymore… good…” she sat back and wiped her eyes a bit. “I’m so glad that potion worked…”

“Good thing I still had it…” I stretched a bit, surprisingly happy to feel my wings and tail again. I looked back at my girlfriend. “So what happened in there…? It used a spell on me and I was hallucinating for a bit…”

“I-I don’t know, the three of us couldn’t get the bars open and they suddenly flew open on their own after something shook the whole crypt.” She answered “We got in after that… you were rampaging and attacking that draugr. You weren’t listening to us at all…”

“… I-I was still fighting…?”

“Yes… and you growled at Eris when she tried to help.” She gave me a concerned look. “You didn’t stop until I touched you. What was that spell? Madness?”

“…No… Cause Fear… it showed me our accident… it almost felt like this past month was just a daydream for a bit… then we got hit again… I think…” I sighed, the feeling in the pit of my stomach returning just thinking about it and my tail flicking nervously. “Where are we…?”

“About halfway back to town, as far as Eris and I could drag you…” We both flinched a bit when my stomach growled loudly. She relaxed first and smiled a little at me. “Let’s get you some food.” She gently grabbed my hand then led me out of the small tent. Right away, I noticed it was night time already and they had set up the three tents we owned in a circle around a fire pit. “Max, wake up!”

The mage was on top of a rock, keeping watch but it was evident that he was dozing off while leaning against his staff. He jolted upright with his ears going up to full attention.

“S-sorry, Kat-” he started to say as he looked over then stopped when he saw me. “A-alex!” He scrambled down from his perch, practically sprinted to me and tackled me in a hug. Kat smiled a bit and released my hand to go to a length of twine stretched between some trees that had meat of some sort hanging from it.

“Hey, Max” I laughed softly and hugged him back. He shyly peeked up at me, tears starting to form at the corners of his eyes.

“I-I was so worried… we gave you the potion and you were screaming and you didn’t wake up after…”

“It’s ok, I’m fine now, sore, but I’m fine.”

“H-how does everything feel?” He whined, not stopping fussing over me. I sighed and playfully wrapped my wings around him too.

“I said I was fine, see? Didn’t hurt at all to move my wing and my arm’s ok too” I gave him a comforting smile, trying not to show that I was still a little shaken up by that spell. He whined more and buried his face against me.

"Just let your boyfriend worry about you,” Kat teased as she returned to us with some of the meat along with a pan, a small glass vial of what looked like cooking oil and herbs of some sort. She quickly got to work setting up to cook over the fire.

“I don’t think we ever actually con-”

“Y-you heard her… just let me worry about you,” he interrupted, peeking up at me and his tail wagging ever so slightly, clearly enjoying the title and also settling down a little. I smiled and squeezed him a bit before gently pulling him off of me.

“There’s nothing to fuss about, though,” I laughed softly as he pouted. “I’m ok, see?”

“Fine…” he shyly wiped the tears from his eyes as he looked away from my face. He then mumbled something too softly for me to make out what he said.

“…? What was that?” He squirmed a bit and looked back at me with his ears folded back adorably.

“W-we finished the job…and you promised more kisses…”

“I thought we were going to wait to make sure she was fine before doing things for her attention~” Kat teased.

“She said she was! A-and she promised…” he huffed. A slight giggle escaped me before I playfully cupped his cheek and pulled him into a quick kiss.

“Happy now~?” I asked as I pulled away from him and sat by the fire.

“M-maybe” he mumbled happily and plopped down next to me. “I-I think you promised kisses though… m-more than one”

“Sneaky pup, taking advantage of me cooking right now.” Kat giggled and playfully kissed my cheek before going back to focusing on the food.

“What about you guys…? That doesn’t look like enough for you two…” I pointed out.

“We ate a few hours ago, you’ve been out for a while…”

“Oh… you didn’t have to cook for me, I could’ve done it if it’s just for me… what is it anyways?”

“Rabbit. And I wanted to anyways, just because you say you’re fine, it doesn’t stop me from wanting to take care of you even if you’re a big strong dragon,” she playfully elbowed me. “But~ it would be nice if you cooked for me sometime~” she glanced at Max “and him too~”

“S-she doesn’t have to cook for me, I’ll just take the kisses she promised…”

“You’re focused on those huh~” I teased him softly and draped a wing over him as I looked back at Kat. “Actually now that I think about it, since when can you cook?”

“You didn’t think I could cook? Me, in all my feminine charm~ unable to cook?” She feigned offense.

‘You burnt instant ramen somehow’ I thought as I cocked an eyebrow at her. “I’ve barely seen you cook successfully.”

“She cooked for the rest of us… it was pretty good for what we could find” Max said as he leaned against me.

“Thank you,” my girlfriend laughed “but for her this is a new thing, I was awful at cooking before.”

‘Did you get a cooking skill like my blacksmith or herbalist ones?’

“Nngh, what’s with all the noise?” Eris’s voice groaned and glanced over as one of the tents opened to reveal the disheveled and definitely recently sleeping fighter based on the mess that was her hair. “Oh, hey, you woke up, you look good for someone who lost that much blood.”

“…good to see you too, Eris?” I responded. She shrugged and yawned. I couldn’t help but feel like she was wary of me now. “Sorry for waking you…”

“It’s… whatever… you’re feeling… normal now right? Or do I need my sword…?”

“Eris.” Kat scolded.

“What? I’m just making sure, even if you two are relaxed around her after earlier.”

“… the draugr used Cause Fear on me. I was hallucinating during that…” I tried to explain. “I guess my body went into fight mode instead of flight or freeze. I need to remember that the next time I try the spell on something…”

“I was kind of wondering about that…” Max mumbled, staying cuddled up to me. “I-I knew it wasn’t normal for her, remember the boar? She can control herself while she’s like that”

“… if you say so,” Eris shrugged again, already looking like she was going to doze off again where she was sitting.

“Don’t worry about it, everything is ok now, I doubt I can rage right now anyways, I’m tired and hungry,” I assured her.

“Speaking of, your rabbit is ready,” Kat said, offering me a knife to use that I happily accepted.

“Thanks,” I playfully kissed her cheek as I leaned in and speared the meat off the pan with the borrowed knife.

“How much time do I have before my watch shift?” Eris asked as I started eating.

“You have time to sleep, I’m going to take over for Max when Alex is done eating,” Kat answered and our fighter gave a thumbs up before disappearing back into the tent.

“Ok, try to keep it down then, please”

“We’ll try”

“I can stay up with you” I offered between bites, talking quieter now.

“No. You can rest tonight, you said you were tired and we don’t know if that potion made up for the blood you lost.” My girlfriend said, her voice slightly stern, then she smiled comfortingly at me “Just snuggle your new boyfriend tonight, only fair with what we’ve done together so far~”

‘…I was hoping to use that to tell you about the draugr talking but oh well, I’ll tell you tomorrow then if I can get you alone’.

“Y-you’re a lot more open to this than I thought…” Max mumbled.

“It was my idea after all, Maxie~” She teased and he squirmed a bit as he looked away. “And I’d doubt you guys would try anything while we’re camping anyways~”

“Don’t really like the idea of getting caught by Eris again” I sighed, my tail flicking as I remembered the event then I immediately had to push the thought of trying the same with Max out of my head. I quickly caught onto Kat smirking at me slightly.

“Don’t break the poor pup,” she whispered in my ear.

“W-what was that?” Max whined softly as he pouted up at the two of us.

“Nothing, cutie, just had to tell our girlfriend something~” he squirmed more when she called him that and shyly stuck his tongue out at her.

“I have good hearing you know…”

“I figured~ so you could figure out what I told her on your own,” she stuck her tongue out at him as well.

“And you’re both being childish” I laughed softly after finishing what was left of my food and standing up to stretch. “The rabbit was really good, Kat, I’ll try to figure out something to make for you guys sometime.”

“You better~” She giggled and stood as well. She smirked at Max before suddenly pulling me into a deep kiss, pressing against me eagerly and making a gasp escape me when I felt her tongue shove its way into my mouth. The surprise of it made me freeze at first but I quickly relaxed against her soon after, happy to submit to her affection like this.

“Nngh?” I mumbled when she pulled away and playfully smirked at Max more as she pulled her tongue out of my mouth. “H-hey, don’t be using me in whatever competition you’re trying to start”

“I’m not~ just trying to get one last kiss in before I hand you over to your boyfriend for the night~” she teased before happily walking towards the rock we found Max on.

“… n-no fair,” Max mumbled softly, squirming more.

“T-That’s fine you’re sleeping with me tonight and she’s not so you have that on her,” I reassured him as I guided him back to the tent, the tiredness creeping up on me more as I walked. I immediately sprawled out on the bedroll inside and opened my arms and wings to invite him to cuddle.

“U-um…” he hesitated a bit, squirming.

“Come on, we cuddled on the cart… or are you scared of me too…?”

“N-no I’m not scared of you!" He responded quickly. “I-it's just… um”

“I can go find another bedroll if you’re not comfortable with this yet…?”

“No! I-it’s not that…” He got cutely determined before hesitantly laying down next to me, leaving some space between us and blushing hard.

‘Why do you have to be so cute?’  I playfully grabbed his hips and pulled him against me “You don’t have to be so far-” I froze when I felt something pressing against my stomach and my face grew hot. “O-oh that’s why…” ‘O-ok he feels bigger than I thought he was… ok calm down, too tired and not ready to think about that’.

“S-sorry,” he squirmed before shyly turning around to face away from me.

“I-it's fine, we should probably sleep.” I sighed as I hugged him against me and nuzzled into his neck.

“P-probably,” he mumbled, shyly pressing back against me. “U-um goodnight, Alex…”

“Goodnight.” I gently squeezed him against me as I happily nuzzled into his neck on instinct before letting myself drift off to sleep.