Dragon Goddess’s chosen

I woke back up in a coughing fit with a horrible, throbbing headache while being dragged ashore in short jerks. I barely had enough time to figure out what was going on before I was suddenly dropped, making the headache worse and something thumped onto the sand next to me, panting. 

“Ow…” I groaned as I instinctively clutched at my head. When wet reptilian claws touched my face instead of what I expected, my eyes snapped open and I jolted to my feet… into a quadruped stance and accidentally putting pressure on my arm that was bit “F-fuck…”

“You're… you're heavy… you know…” a feminine voice huffed tiredly next to me.  I quickly glanced toward the source to find another, also-soaked, dragon. Unlike me, she was covered in iridescent black scales that reminded me of a rainbow python and she had four black-feathered wings, two large ones in place of her front legs like a wyvern and two slightly smaller ones that connected to her back like mine. 

‘Shit, shit, shit,’ I quickly scrambled back a few steps but putting pressure on my arm made more pain radiate out from the bite.

“Agh… you got my feathers all wet!” She grumbled, opening her back wings and shaking them as she glared at me with panther-like gold eyes.

‘Shit, am I that scary right now?’ I thought to myself, while flicking my tail nervously.

“Did slamming your head on that boat knock all the words out of you?”

'What? No, sorry…” I quickly apologized.

“Do you know how hard it is to get them dry?”

“Sorry for causing so much trouble, I'll-” I paused, catching a scent in the air as I spoke that sparked a warmth in my abdomen. I shook my head to clear it before continuing. “I-I'll just be on my way…”

“Wait, you're trying to get away from me? Where is that bravery I saw when you went up against that monster? In the water even?” She popped up, giving me a surprised look. She froze and looked away. “Not like it was actually impressive… honestly very stupid…”

“Probably was…” I admitted, taking the time to look at my surroundings for a moment ‘Ok… kind of familiar… Think it was after the Xolotl village… don’t see the wreck…’

“... and you did it anyway…” she mused, lifting one of her front wings before breathing forcefully enough over them that her feathers fluttered. Even the sand under her wing was disturbed like a gust of wind just went over it from her action.

“And you rescued me… why?” She paused for a moment.

“No reason. I-I was just nearby…”

‘Weird… kind of evasive…’ I thought then I was surprised by a wave of fatigue followed by a worrying popup:

 

Stamina drained, use mana to sustain rage?

 

‘Shit, I can't turn back now… go ahead, use mana… got to get out of here…’

 

Confirmed, rage will consume mana now.

 

“So… um, anyway… I should be on my way… thank you for saving me…” I hesitantly started hobbling around her to go north.

“Again, really?” She called after me. “I went through all the trouble and you're not going to tell me your name?”

“You sounded so bothered with me… so I figured I might as well find my friends…”

“Two of our kind living in the same area might as well know each other…?” I paused and sighed.

“I'm Alex…” ‘Still not sure if she's a threat… but she's stubborn about staying with me even though she's been speaking to me like that…’

“I didn't mean the name you give those scaleless,” she huffed indignantly then, with a shuffle of movement behind me, I found myself side-by side with the slightly smaller dragoness. Worryingly, the warmth in me flared as the scent I caught earlier also got stronger. “I'm Saerrei”

“I don't know what to tell you, Alex Steele is my name.” I grumbled softly, glancing at her. Somehow, I was able to decipher the look she was giving me to be incredulous and almost cutely confused. 

“That has to be a lie,” she snorted softly.

“I'm not lying.”

“If you say so, Alex,” she looked me over as she kept following along next to me. “Not that it's my issue, but why don't you just fly?”

“Because I can't.” I responded flatly, embarrassment welling inside me for some reason. She suddenly bounded in front of me and made me stop face-to-face with her.

“What do you mean by that? Your wings look fine and you look like you're older than me, it's impossible you don't know how. What's next? Going to spin a tale that you're really a scaleless?”

“...” ‘Shit. You guessed that quick.’

“... I'm… not correct, am I?” she gave a nervous laugh, her tail flicking behind her. Her voice lowered to practically a whisper as she came uncomfortably close, her tongue flicking out like a snake. “Y-you definitely smell like one of us…” she paused “... You… you don't have a male do you?”

“I do. The small ‘scaleless’ that you called my friends” I answered, taking a step back. “I'm with the elf too. Why does it matter that I have a ‘male’?” 

"You're mates with them…? Explains why you were so close with them…” she mused then something clicked with her “You smell like male dragon too but… you haven't been with any, correct?”

“... I… I don't see why that matters… but no? You're the only other dragon I've seen recently…” She seemed to get excited about this answer, bouncing slightly in place.

“That means you're like me! By Rissaeth, you have no idea… wait, you probably do… but still, It's been so many decades and I met no one else…” 

“Um….” She suddenly froze and looked away as she calmed herself. 

“A-anyways… you were right, it doesn't really matter… um…” she said dismissively, her tail flicking more. “Honestly, I should probably head back to my den… it'll be easier to dry off there…” She took a breath and glanced back at me. “If you're actually so clueless and can't fly… I might be able to find the time to teach you…”

“If you're offering it…?"

“Just know you'll owe me more on top of what you already do for saving you if you take it” She added.

“I'm sure we can probably work something out…” 

“G-good. Just come back to this coast… and um… you can signal for me with the lightning… I saw you use…” She backed away more before rearing up on her hind legs and clumsily taking flight while spraying the entire area with water from her still-wet wings.

“...What the fuck was that about??” I sighed as I watched her fly to and disappear over the cliffs. “Getting onto me for trying to leave then take off as soon as she loses her cool for a moment???” I groaned then looked back ahead of me and down at my injured arm before reluctantly continuing to make my way up the beach.

---

10 minutes of painful walking later.

“Alex!” Kat's voice echoed in the distance, snapping me out of the daze I let myself go in to try to ignore the pain. My eyes focused again to find her much further down and running towards me with Max right behind her and the other two lagging behind them.

‘Thank god… gods? whatever… That's so much quicker than I expected…’ I thought with a relieved sigh as I found the energy to speed up a little more to a hobbling trot. I was soon met with tackle-hugs to my neck from both of my partners, my legs feeling like jelly at that point.

“So glad you're ok…” Max mumbled into my neck as he shyly nuzzled against it and I shakily plopped down onto the sand.

“You're a fucking dumbass, you know!” Kat scolded, pulling away with tears in her eyes. I was able to quickly note that her abdomen and leg were bandaged where  she was slashed as she continued to get onto me. “I told you to let it go! And now look at you! You have a broken horn and you were limping!”

“Broken horn?” I murmured as I reached up with one of my wings to feel my horns. Sure enough, half of my right horn was missing. 

“What happened with that other dragon? Did they do anything to you?”

“No… She didn't do anything… was kind of abrasive… but friendly for the most part… kind of weird… um she did offer to teach me to fly before she took off?”

“That's good…” Max mumbled more, refusing to let go of me.

“Wait, she offered to teach you? Really?” Our girlfriend asked incredulously and I answered with a nod.

“You were amazing back there, Ms Dragoness!” Eris called over excitedly as she and Nicolas finally reached us.

“Don't you encourage her! Just get her backpack out of your bag and get her potion out.”

“Why can't Nicolas just use Cure Wounds again?” I asked as the fighter followed her orders, really wanting to avoid using the health potion.

“...I… ran out of mana on Katrina…I couldn't even heal her completely,” the cleric explained tiredly.

“Did you end up killing it?” Eris continued as she pulled out my weapon from the magic bag. Meanwhile, out of the corner of my eye, a flash near my injury caught my attention and I looked down to find Max casting Prestidigitation on it.

“I… I don't know, I was out for a bit” I admitted and braced for the incoming pain when I saw Kat tip the potion bottle over my arm. Like the previous time I remembered using the health potion, It felt like a hot knife was shoved into each of the teeth marks in my arm. “F-fuck… ow!”

“You probably wouldn't have this if you listened!” Kat pointed out as she corked the half-empty bottle and put it back in my damaged backpack.

“Go easy on her… She's ok, that's all that matters right now…” Max piped up and our girlfriend sighed as she wiped her face with a hand.

“I know… I know… It's just… as smart as you are, Alex, you're such a dumbass at times…” She sighed as she tossed her bag down next to me before sitting by it and leaning back on me. “Agh… you're still wet…”

"Love you too, Kat” I said jokingly, curling around her slightly to nuzzle her cheek. She grumbled a bit but kissed my nose to return the affection. “I'll try to listen next time…

“Guess we're setting up camp here?” Eris laughed. “I'm not setting up your tents.”

“I didn't expect you to… I would suggest going back… but I'm exhausted…” I sighed and laid my head down.

“Nicolas, could you go find some wood so we can start a fire… I can help set up your tent in a bit” Kat requested.

“Oh… um sure,” he replied before setting off to search.

“... so… how are we going to do ours…?” Max wondered out loud.

“I'll turn back when I burn through the rest of my mana… I think…” I answered, closing my eyes to rest for now.

“Still… t-the tent only has room for two… barely… and that's when you're not… um… amazon.'' that got a stifled laugh from Kat.

“Don't you start calling it that too!”

“We'll take turns on watch” Kat answered him, still giggling slightly. “All three of us probably won't be in it at a time.” As she spoke, a little electronic chirp emanated from her bag, making me open my eyes again.

“...what was that?” Eris asked, frozen in her task of getting her tent out.

“There's no way…” the ranger scooped up her bag, and quickly dug through it, fishing out a light source. I quickly realized what it was and lifted my head off the ground.

“I thought you said it was dead” I asked, watching as she held up her phone, the light of the screen illuminating her and Max, who just stared at it in awe.

“It was! It's literally on 1% right now. Wait… it's charging… slow charging… um…” She looked at me then playfully brought it closer to my arm next to her and a grin spread across her face. “Hehe, That's fucking great. It's fast charging now. You're a wireless charger like this, babe~”

“That looks like you on the front…” Max observed. “Who's that next to you?”

“That's Alex.”

“Really?!” 

“Yep! I can show you more if you want~”

“You still have that picture from the Gatlinburg Aquarium as your wallpaper…? What was it, in the shark tunnel?”  I asked.

“What do you mean still? We just went there in April last year. And it's a good picture. For once you didn't blink.”

“... Is… is anyone going to fill me in on what is going on?” Eris asked. “What is that thing?”

“Oh, sorry, It's a phone, it's something practically everyone had back where we're from”

“What does it do? It just looks like a glowing brick to me…”

“A lot of things…” I sighed, watching as Kat happily started showing Max more pictures “But practically useless now without signal, except for taking pictures…”

“I have a ton of music downloaded too, it's not just a camera” My girlfriend chimed in without looking up.

“It's hard to believe this was her,” Max murmured.

“And this is easier to believe?” Eris scoffed while waving a tent pole in my direction. She acted like she was trying to be busy with her task but she definitely seemed like she wanted to see too. 

“She smells the same… so it's not that hard to…”

“He just has a thing for scales,” Kat teased and Max's ears went back shyly.

“You're with her too! You have to have a ‘thing’ for dragons too!” he countered then surprised me with the next part he blurted out “And knots!”

“Max!” our girlfriend turned bright red all the way out to her ears and there was the clattering of tent poles as Eris burst out laughing. The screen suddenly stopped illuminating my partners’ faces and “N-no more phone for you!”

“You should probably just let it charge before I turn back anyways” I giggled softly as I watched her tuck the phone between me and her.

“Um… what did I miss…?” Nicolas asked, marking his return, and I looked over to find that he retrieved plenty of wood from the green area away from the water.

“Max revealed one of Kat's kinks” Eris laughed while struggling to focus on getting the rest of her tent up because of it.

“S-shut it!” my girlfriend hissed.

“And apparently I charge phones… Do you still have yours?”

“Wait, you do?! Hold on.” Nicolas quickly dropped the wood and started digging through his pack. Unfortunately, just as he pulled out a red-cased phone, a wave of mental fatigue hit me along with a pop-up.

 

Warning. Mana drained, user unable to sustain rage form further.

 

“Shit.” I growled softly as my body immediately started shrinking. Being fully aware of the transformation this time was definitely a weird experience, especially hearing joints painlessly pop as they rearranged to be humanoid and my neck shortened to the appropriate length. I soon found myself back as a half-dragon and shakily pushed myself up to a sitting position. “Sorry… I thought I had a bit longer…”

“U-um… A-alex… you… you don't have clothes on.” My boyfriend said, squirming and looking away, just as a cool breeze also informed me of the same.  A yelp escaped me as I immediately  wrapped my wings around myself, my face getting extremely warm with embarrassment.

“Shit. shit. shit.”

“Well… um guess all of us have seen you naked now…” Kat joked softly, grabbing my bag already and searching through it. With that, I hesitantly glanced towards Nicolas and found that he definitely saw and was very pointedly looking at the ocean instead.

“S-so much for charging our phones…” he sighed.

“Sorry… I-I thought it would last a little longer… “ I grumbled and pulled my knees to my chest while keeping myself wrapped up in my wings.

“You should probably shrink down more… I don't think you have anything else that fits right now…” Kat sighed.

“W-what about what I was wearing…?”

“Alex, those are in shreds.” Eris giggled, seemingly amused with my situation. “Half of them blew away before we could grab them”

“Dammit…” I groaned and shyly crossed my arms over my chest to cover up before giving Inspect  the command ‘Set default form to 1/8 dragon…’

 

Updated default form to 1/8 dragon.

 

I shivered a little as the blankets that were my wings disappeared and stopped protecting me from the ocean breezes. As I shifted, Kat handled over my clothing to me and I quickly covered up as soon as I was able to. 

 

Once I was dressed, it was decided that we should also start helping set up camp. Kat set up the fire and helped Nicolas with his tent. Meanwhile, Max and I went about setting up ours. He did most of the work though, I was half falling asleep the whole time, the recent events catching up even faster than before. Before I knew it, I was out like a light, again, but at least this time it was mostly of my own volition and on a sleeping bag with my boyfriend cuddled against me.