Dragon Goddess’s chosen

The next few days were a lot less exciting than the previous ones. Kat handled turning in the quest for all of us while I was still recovering from her attention, resulting in Max and I going up in rank along with a payout that would let us easily pay our way to get to Rookport. I also had to take the time to replace all of the busted buckles on my armor and stitch the hole left by the poleax before it was usable again. With those repairs, I also included a circular metal bracket to hook the weapon onto my back in a way that was easy for me to draw it and put it away securely. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to activate the plasma enchantment again, only the size adjustment one had activated since I attuned to it. During the downtime I also managed to replace the health potion that was used up on me with a couple more of them by trading the truffles Max and I found the day we met Kat to Mr. Iarhorn.

“You haven't been putting your hair up the past few days~” Kat teased from the bath as I got ready on our third day back to town. 

“Someone marked up my neck with her biting a couple days ago.” I responded and stuck my tongue out at her “Surprised it took you so long to notice.”

“It didn't~ well on the first day, I thought you forgot to do it~” she giggled. “At least mine aren't permanent like yours~”

“You left like four of them!” 

“You liked it! I can leave more if you want~” 

“I-I don't need that to happen again so soon…” I shivered a bit at the thought of letting her take control like that again. 

“Shame~ you were adorable~”

“Hm…” I grumbled, my tail flicking a bit on its own as I retrieved my armor and started putting it on. Kat laughed more and happily just watched while hanging on the side of the tub. Just as I finished the last buckle on my stomach armor, there was a knock on our door.

“Max.” My girlfriend mouthed at me then she used her Ensnare to close the bathroom door. 

“Coming” I called out as I went to answer the door. To no surprise, Kat was right and the adorable dog mage hugged me as soon as I opened the door, nuzzling into my neck immediately. I hugged him back as I greeted him. “Hey, pup~ couldn't wait any longer?”

“No… I wanted to see you… a-and I got a letter from Dad I wanted to talk to you about…” He nuzzled more, as he pressed up against me. He definitely became more affectionate in the past couple days, especially in the mornings after I slept next to Kat.

‘You're trying to replace her scent with your own, aren't you?’  

“Is… is Kat still here?” He mumbled as he hesitantly pulled away and looked around.

“Yeah, she's in the bath right now”

“Hey, Maxie~” my girlfriend's muffled voice greeted him. His ears went back and there was the slightest hint of a blush on his face.

“G-good morning, Kat…” 

“So you said you got a letter from your dad? Good news I hope” I asked and his ears returned to their normal position and his tail started wagging as he focused on me.

“Yep! He's going to be in Rookport for a while before coming home. I… I was wondering if we could… go that way? You were going to go when Kat was still there…”

“You sure about leaving home now?” I playfully kissed his cheek before going to retrieve my shoulder armor to put on. 

“Y-yes… I kind of want to go see him before he gets back here… um, s-surprise him about all this…?”

“Surprise your dad with your dragon amazon girlfriend?” Kat teased. 

“Better t-than telling him over letter or Mom telling him… a-and he'd want to see that I left home…”

“We do have enough money to hire a carriage for all of us…” I thought aloud.

“Still would be a couple days even by carriage” Kat added. “We can stop at the halfway point, I think it was Elmcester, rest there for a night ”

‘Yeah, this'll let us meet with Nicolas… cutting it close to the timeframe Ivra gave him…’ I glanced at the bathroom door. ‘Kat did say to not rush going that way, that we'd find a reason to go… looks like this is it’

“Ok!” He yipped, his tail wagging excitedly. “... I get to share a room with Alex this time though!”

“There's nothing stopping us from both sharing a room with her…” my girlfriend suggested then the door suddenly cracked open and her head peeked out. Max yelped and he quickly looked away from her. “Alex, can you hand me a set of clothes please~”

“I d-don't know about t-that…” he stammered, blushing hard and looking away still despite that only her face is visible.

“Leave him alone, Kat” I sighed as I went over to her pack.

“What? It is an option~” she continued. I just rolled my eyes and searched through her pack for clothing to give her. I froze when I ended up grabbing a hand-sized rectangle of cracked glass with a plastic case.

‘The fuck? She still has a phone??’ I scooped it up with the clothes and put it in the middle of them before carrying the whole stack over to her. 

“Thanks, babe!” She grabbed the clothes then gave me a confused look and I heard her voice in my head. ‘My phone too? Why?’

‘How do you still have it??’ I asked over the connection as she closed the door.

‘Everything in my purse came with me… Kinda glad I had it on me for once that night… ‘

‘Why didn't you say anything?’

‘It's dead, and I forgot… Wait, you can charge it! I have photos and music on there!

‘I'd fry it if you forgot what happened to you when I tried to control how much I'm letting out…’ I had to hold back a sigh as I moved to the bed and plopped down on it. Max happily sat by and cuddled up to me right away.

“Ok so if we get Eris on board… you think we could head out today?” He gushed, either forgetting about being flustered by Kat or trying to distract himself.

“... Maybe but we should tell your mom too before we do” I responded at the same time my girlfriend's voice entered my mind again.

‘True, but we can figure out a way… maybe you can learn to control it more…?’

‘Learn how? You volunteering yourself for me to train it on you?’ I teased.

‘U-um what? No… M-maybe… dam-’ she started stuttering then the connection suddenly broke, letting me focus on the conversation with Max.

“... I kinda… already talked to her before coming to you” he nervously scratched the back of his neck. “Got the make good choices talk again… even though I'm not a kid anymore…”

“Moms are always like that, at least mine was too,” I laughed softly and kissed his cheek. “I was a little younger than you when I got with my first girlfriend and I got a similar talk from her and Dad…”

“Glad to hear it's not just her…” he sighed as he leaned against me. Both of us looked over as the bathroom door opened and Kat walked out, clothed and a blush all the way out to her ears. She quickly made her way back to her pack and retrieved a brush from it.

“I'll go bring it up with Eris if you can go find someone to hire to take us to Elmcester.  She'll probably agree, I think she wanted to go back to the city anyways.” She offered.

“The princess not for country life?” I laughed and she just smiled at me as she brushed her hair out. “I'll take that as a yes” I got up and stretched a bit before wrapping my wings around myself like a cloak and offering Max a hand up. “Want to come with?”

“Um I-I would but I want to talk with Kat a-about something…” he mumbled as he took my hand.

“Oh, Ok then. I'll come find you guys when I can get someone” I kissed him softly then went over and kissed Kat's cheek before heading to the door. As I closed it behind me, I heard Max's voice again.

“I told y-you that you were too r-rough with her! She still has marks!” He whined.

“And I told you that she's ok~ they'll be gone in a few days” Kat laughed in reply. I shook my head and sighed before continuing on with the task I was given.

 

---

 

It wasn't hard to find a merchant that was passing through town that was willing to take on a few adventurer passengers and make some extra coin. We did, however, have a tight timeframe to get our things together and onto the cart since we were interrupting the merchant's schedule. Kat ended up teaching Max rock, paper, scissors when they got in a light argument over who got to sit next to me for the first part of the journey, but I knew she let him win, given what her ability was. Meanwhile, Eris just seemed happy to be moving again, even if we were going back to a city she had already been to. 

‘Ok, Nicholas should be somewhere here…’ Kat's voice said in my mind at the end of the uneventful ride to the orchard town we were approaching. 

‘You really like this spell... but yeah, it's where the gods said they'll put him.’ I responded as I stretched my cramped wings, accidentally making my napping boyfriend stir a little, but he didn't stop using my lap as a pillow.

‘I'll go look for him, can you and Eris get rooms for us? The inn here is separate from the guild hall.’

‘And Max?’

‘We both know he'll go with you.’ She smiled a bit at me. ‘And don't worry, I'll fill Nicolas in on our situation so he doesn't out us as chosen.’

‘Actually… I've been thinking since we looked at Rissaeth's note… I need to tell Max… especially if I'm sharing a room with him… he needs to know I'm a dragon’

‘I thought you were going to wait a bit?’

‘That was before I found out I accidentally ‘claimed’ you as my mate. I'm scared of doing the same to him…’

‘Eris needs to know too, then. Not fair to leave her out’ my girlfriend mused as the cart started passing by buildings, finally entering the town. ‘I'll figure out a time to tell her, if Nicholas doesn't out us to her’ she stretched then got up while the cart was still moving. “Hey, I'm going to hop out now to walk around and stretch my legs and check out the guild hall for quests, Eris, can you show them to the inn we stayed at last time?”

“Huh? Oh um sure?” the fighter responded, giving her a groggy confused look. At the same time, the noise of the town and the bumpy, stone-paved road woke Max up as well.

“Sleep well, Maxie?” Kat teased as he yawned cutely and looked around in confusion.

“We're here already…?” He mumbled then he focused on Kat standing “wait what are you doing?”

“Getting out” she answered simply before gracefully jumping down from the moving cart. “See you guys at the inn!” by the time the cart turned the corner a block away, I felt her presence in my mind dissappear 

“Crazy elf…” Eris sighed then looked at me “and you hooked up with her.”

“She's done crazier” I shrugged, thinking back to the bike stunts she pulled early on in our friendship. Eris however smirked at my comment and playfully leaned in.

“Like try to fuck a giant dragon girl in a public bath?” She teased in a whisper then glanced at Max. “Does he know you like to be leashed like a dog too?”

“Shut up…” I grumbled, thanking whatever luck I had that the merchant I hired wasn't beastfolk as Max's ears shyly folded back.

“K-kat might have mentioned it…” he mumbled.

“Max!” I hissed as Eris gave a stiffled laugh.

“Anything else you want to share about our dragoness?” She continued and he blushed hard as he shook his head.

“N-no…”

“But there is something~”

“I-I didn't say that” he gave me a pleading look.

“Eris, leave him alone, anyways, why do you care, you said you aren't into girls” I sighed. She smiled and shrugged.

“Cuz its fun, my brothers aren't around to tease but you are~”

“You and Kat are too alike…” I grumbled and wrapped my wings around me like a cloak again as the cart came to a halt in a plaza with a large tree in the center and a market around it.

“This is my stop kids.” The merchant announced, giving me a reprieve from our fighter. The three of us hopped out with our belongings and I went around to the front to give him our thanks and the second half of the payment I promised. 

“Ok… where was the inn again…” I found Eris mumbling to herself when I returned to my party members. 

“You don't know?” I asked as I hooked my weapon onto its bracket on my back. The bracket I made for it was nice but it wasn't comfortable to have the ax on during the ride.

“Give me a break, it's been like a week and we were only here for a night.” She grumbled, still trying to orient herself.

“Give you a break? Right after you were teasing me?” I laughed. “Yeah… right”

“Kat was the one with directions when we were coming to get you.” She started wandering away and I grabbed Max's hand as I immediately followed her through the market. Max quickly got distracted with all the smells around us, even with the nearly empty stands. I couldn't blame him, I had to keep my mouth shut to make sure my very snake-like enhanced sense of smell didn't distract me from making sure we didn't lose Eris.

‘Hopefully these are still open by the time we get a room… I haven't had anything sweet in awhile…’ I thought as we passed some really good smelling apples. I glanced at Max as I kept following Eris, and quietly noted that he was staring at a watermelon stand. ‘Maybe I should try to surprise him with one of those, he looks really interested in them.’

“I remember this street!” Eris announced happily before suddenly taking off down a street at a brisk pace. I cursed softly and quickly pulled my boyfriend away from the good smells of the market to follow. Eventually she got us to the front doors of an inn and turned to us, looking pleased with herself.

“Good job, the princess knows how to navigate,” I laughed as I walked up to the door and opened it.

“Like to see you do better, barbarian~” she quipped back, walking past me and to the counter before I could go up.  As she talked to the rabbit girl clerk, though, I noticed that she was glancing at me nervously like she thought I was planning to eat her.

‘Weird… but Rookville didn't really have any ‘prey’ beastfolk like her, maybe it's my teeth...' I tried to shrug it off as Eris returned to us with keys.

“Alright lovebirds, you got a single king bed room, you owe me six silver.”

 “You owe me a gold for the trip here” I countered. She paused then shrugged before handing me a pair of keys.

“Fine, we're even”

“Oh so that means I don't have to do night watch too?” I joked as I grabbed Max's hand and led him to the stairs. “So generous, princess!”

“You know exactly what I meant!” Eris called after us and I heard Max giggle softly behind me. I continued to lead him up and to the room with the matching number on our keys. It didn't take long to find it and Max immediately went and flopped onto the large bed once we were inside.

“How is it, pup?” I asked as I checked out the rest of the room. It was pretty similar to the ones in Rookville, bathroom had tub and similar furniture in the main room, bed was bigger here though.

“Soft” his tail wagged a bit before his head popped back up and he gave an adorable smile.

‘You're so cute… that makes this even harder… please don't hate me…’ I thought then took a breath. “So… remember when I said I had more to tell you…?” I started and his smile was replaced with a confused look.

“Y-yeah? Why? D-don't tell me you have another girlfriend s-somewhere or something…”

“No, no, it's just you and Kat that I'm with… I was always planning on telling you but a lot of things came up and I have to tell you them now…” I sighed and dropped my pack to retrieve Rissaeth's cheat journal and her letter. “So… I'm a dragon, like a full dragon…”

“There's no way you're a full dragon” he laughed. “You're way too kind and gentle, a-and both the guild card and my Appraisal said you were only part dragon.”

“I don't have an answer about why those are always wrong… but the Appraisal was wrong about me being female…?”

“True... w-why bring this up anyways?” His ears shyly folded back, starting to look slightly hurt. “I-if you're a dragon… why h-hide it? Aren't d-dragons proud of what they are?”

“I… I hid it because I was told that people are scared of dragons… I was a human before…” I sighed and sat down by him. “I had to tell you now because we're sharing a room again and in case anything happened tonight… Y-you can't let me bite you when we have sex… if you don't hate me after this…. I bit Kat during our first time and we're permanently bonded now… I'm scared of accidentally forcing it onto you too…”

“...” he was quiet for awhile then hesitantly leaned against me. “What do y-you mean by bond…?”

“Like a mate bond… it's something dragons do apparently… Kat and I only found out after we got back from the crypt…” I handed over the letter.

“What's this…?”

“It's… it's how we learned about it” I sighed. He gave another confused look before starting to read over it.

“What meeting…?” He asked.

“I'll get to that in a bit…” he gave a soft huff over my answer but kept reading quietly until he got to the end.

“W-why is this signed by t-the Goddess of protection…?” His head snapped up to look at me.

“Remember that I said I had responsibilities I still needed to tell you about…? I didn't think they'd affect us so soon after I told you… but I-I'm… a champion or chosen for her… and Kat's… Ivra's…”

“W-what? S-since when??” He yelped. “Y-you better not be joking a-about this! Some of the g-gods won't hesitate to m-make your life difficult! I... I can't lose you like that…”

“I'm not lying… We've been chosen since we…” I sighed again, my tail flicking nervously until I wrapped it around a bedpost. “Since we died on another world over a month ago…”

“... when y-you suddenly appeared in Rookville…” I smiled a little at this.

“I didn't think you'd notice when I got there…”

“O-of course… you w-were a new pretty girl I kept seeing around town…” he mumbled and shyly looked back down at the letter. “You said you died on another world…? Like another plane? B-but you said you were human…”

“Yeah… I was… crushed? I guess… Kat got a piece of metal to her heart… She still has a scar where she was hit…” I leaned against him as I continued to tell him everything, giving him the journal to look over as well. My boyfriend quietly listened as he skimmed through the journal, asking a question only occasionally. His head snapped back up when I got to the last thing I needed to tell him. “I… also…. I was a guy before… that accident… destroyed my body and Rissaeth made this one for me.”

“W-wait you were a guy…?” He shyly looked me over in confusion. 

“Yeah… s-still getting used to everything… you  and Kat have been really helpful getting me to finally start to get comfortable…”

“It… it explains how you act sometimes… thought you were j-just a tomboy or something… um… was Kat also…?”

“No, she's always been a tomboy” I laughed softly then sighed. “I-its not a deal breaker though… right? Y-you're allowed to be mad at me for hiding all this…”

“I-I am… you hid a lot…” he closed the journal as he sighed as well and the look on his face confirmed that he was upset. “B-but… i-its stupid… I care about you… a lot… I should be more mad…”

“Sorry… I thought you'd think I was crazy if I told you everything… then we got together… I was scared to suddenly spring it on you with everything… but it ended up happening anyways…”

“Promise me… please… n-no more hiding things… T-there's nothing else right?”

“I promise, I'm so sorry-” he interupted me with a quick kiss.

“O-ok. Thank you for finally telling me… “ he mumbled.

“Y-you're too forgiving, pup…” he stuck his tongue out at me cutely.

“You're deeper in k-kiss debt to make up for everything…” he joked softly them shyly cuddled up to me. 

“I'll try to keep up with my payments…” my laugh came out as a quiet giggle as I held him close. He nuzzled against me for a bit then suddenly sat upright.

“Oh gods… my girlfriend is a dragon… I… my f-first time was with a dragon…” he glanced at me shyly. “O-or um are you my boyfriend…?”

“Girlfriend is fine," I laughed and kissed his cheek. ‘So glad that this turned out well’  

“O-ok…” he gave a sigh before cuddling up to me again.

“So… you think if we hurry, we can snag one of those watermelon for us?” I suggested and his tail wagged ever so slightly.

“Um... t-they're probably gone by now…”

“Doesn't hurt to try, and I know you wanted one, you were practically drooling looking at them” I stood up and playfully pulled him to his feet as well.

“I-I wasn't!” He whined as I led the way to the door but he definitely wasn't putting up any resistance in following me. “A-a watermelon doesn't cover for all the kisses you owe me…”

“I know but you wanted one~”