Dragon Goddess’s chosen

Alex,

I'm making my way out towards you, I'm sure you had your reasons for not sending a letter yet and hopefully you haven't moved on by the time this reaches the guild hall you've been taking quests in. I'm also curious why you changed your name or the guild somehow messed your name up but I guess you'll tell me when we see each other. Please don't do anything stupid again before I see you…

-Kat

 

It had been nearly three weeks since the run in with the kobold bandits when I received this letter from Kat. I was going to try to send a letter to her first but still couldn't track down which guild hall she'd most likely be able to get it at. I was simultaneously thrilled to see her again soon and also dreaded the encounter and how she might react to my new body. I knew there'd definitely be teasing at least, she always did when I chose a female player character in online games we played together. What gave me more anxiety was that I had no clue how fast the courier system was for the area, the letter could have been a week ahead of her or only a couple days and I had no clue how long I had to prepare myself. 

“Ok, just more easy quests until she gets here…” I sigh to myself after reading the letter for nearly the hundredth time. The same kind of quests that Max and I had been mostly doing since the run in with the Kobolds: in town chores and gather quests, they were boring but safe and my share paid for my room and board easily enough. It turned out that even those simple quests led to developing some skills and stats and in the process I had gained the skills apprentice blacksmith and apprentice herbalist from what I had helped with. I had also taken a few wolf clearing quests by myself as well, Max didn't come with for those, I didn't blame him though, I would be scared of them too in his position. 

“Ugh… too tired to worry about seeing her… just need to be happy about it...”I groaned as I stood up and stripped off my soot-covered clothes from the blacksmith job I just got back from and tossed them over to my small pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the room and made my way to the bathroom to get the bath started. I really appreciated that this world had indoor plumbing figured out already, though the hot water was weird to me, it could get hot enough that I could see steam come off of it but it didn't feel as hot as what I used to take showers at. I had previously tried to use my fire to heat the water before but apparently whatever my mouth made was oil based or at least hydrophobic and all I succeeded in was briefly setting the surface of the water ablaze.

‘Hate being alone with my thoughts now’ I thought with a sigh as I climbed into the now-full tub and lounged out in it. ‘Everything catches up to me when I'm not thinking about the future…’ I glanced down at myself. ‘And I get curious about all of this all over again… every time…’ I grumbled then sighed and tried to push the thoughts out of my head but they quickly returned. ‘Still… couldn't hurt to touch… I-it's what I have to live with now… haven't tried it yet…and definitely need to vent a bit…’

 I hesitantly reached down to between my legs, shivering a bit when my fingers grazed the lower slit. ‘Fuck that feels weird…’ I took a breath and slowly tried to push a finger in, my legs immediately clamping together on their own with the jolt of pleasure that went up through me when it went in. ‘O-ok a-a lot different than I was expecting… ok… s-slow…’   I tried moving my finger slightly and another wave of pleasure radiated from my groin as I tensed up again. I cursed softly to myself and slowly kept going, trying not to let it overwhelm my senses. Soon, I started to feel something rub against my wrist. I looked down to see the tapered tip of my very not-human dick with ridges along the sides slowly coming out of the other slit further up on my body for the first time since getting this body. The discovery of it made me pause and watch as it just kept coming out, stopping at about nine inches including what looked like an unswollen knot at the base.

I started to reach for it but a sudden knock at the door to my room made me yelp and quickly pull my hands away from myself. “Dammit… why now?” I groaned in irritation then raised my voice to call out to whoever was there. “G-give me a few minutes!”

“Ok!” Max's muffled voice called back cheerfully. I sighed and resigned myself to just quickly finish getting washed up while ignoring how worked up I got myself already.

“G-great, he's confusing enough to me already, now I have to face him while horny” I grumbled to myself a few minutes later as I exited the tub and grabbed one of the towels I had ready nearby. I dried off quickly, cursing the odd sensation of the fabric on my now-exposed dick. “Go down, dammit…” I awkwardly wrapped the towel around my body and tucked in the edge up above my chest to secure it, cursing again at the obvious tent. I sighed and retrieved a set of clean clothes to hold over it and hide it while I answered the door. 

“Hey, Al-” Max started to say with a smile as I cracked the door open, then he seemed to process that my hair was still wet and I was in a towel and his face quickly turned red.

“Hey Max, I was just in the bath, lemme go get clothes on but you can come in, just close the door behind you” I told him with a polite smile before turning to go back to the bathroom, still covering my groin with the clothes. I heard the door open then close as I slipped back into the privacy of the bathroom, closing the door behind me. “Is something up? Normally we meet up downstairs”

“N-no, we were gonna meet up for dinner tonight but you hadn't showed up yet”

“Was that tonight? Sorry… must have slipped my mind, Eivor had me busy at the forge all day” I sighed as I went to grab my other towel to dry my hair more. I liked the look of long hair whenever I made player characters that this body was based on, but I had definitely learned making it dry was a chore.

“It's fine… you're not too tired from that are you? We can eat together some other time if you are…”

“Nah I'm fine, we normally just eat downstairs anyways, unless your mom is inviting me back over for dinner again” I laughed “Though, I feel like she wants to set us up together.”

“....yeah… I noticed that too" he sighed.

‘Glad I'm not the only one that picked up on that’ I thought as I continued getting ready. I quickly noticed that he was quiet for a little while. “You alright?”

“... is this from your friend…?”

‘Shit, left Kat's letter out.’ I sighed and quickly pulled on the rest of my clothes, wincing as my underwear uncomfortably pinned my still half-out member against myself. Thankfully, the shirt I got was just long enough to cover any impression of it from showing. “Um yeah, I was going to bring that up… she's finally coming this way…”

“Does this mean you're going to leave when she gets here…?”

“I might… I do want to see more of the world… this place is nice but we've been doing a lot of the same things lately…” I responded as I exited the bathroom. They weren't lies, the village was great and treated me well but I did want to see other places. 

“...are we going to break up the party…?”

“We don't have to, you could come with us if we leave” I gave a small smile. He seemed hesitant as he looked down. 

“I don't know if I'm ready” he mumbled and I sighed before going over and sitting next to him. 

“I won't force you but if it helps, I'll be around to protect you” I smiled comfortingly at him. I figured I would leave with Kat when she got here and part of me really didn't want to lose a friend like Max because of that choice.

“You really don't have to do that all the time… I'm getting stronger…” he mumbled. “...I'll think about it… ok? H-how many days do you think we have…?”

“Honestly no clue, don't know how fast she's traveling” I got up and went to retrieve my brush to finish getting ready. “Let's just enjoy the time we have for now, ok? Maybe take it easy for a couple days?”

“That sounds good…” he was cheering up, it was ever so slightly but his mood was improving. I couldn't help but smile more, happy that I could make him feel a bit better.

“Alright, I'm ready to head down to eat if you are”

---

“Didn't know you liked mead…” Max said as I took a drink of the surprisingly sweet-tasting alcohol. I hadn't drunk alcohol the whole time I had been here, I was worried it would taste bad and didn't want to cloud my mind of my goal. Now that the goal was coming to me and made me anxious, I figured there was no harm in trying it.

“Never tried it before, just knew its honey-wine and that sounded good” I responded happily. “You want some too? it's pretty good. I can pay for your first one if you want”

“...” he shyly picked at the steak he ordered for a bit. “Sure, I'll drink with you…” I smiled at him and passed a couple copper pieces over. He shyly accepted them before getting up.

‘He still seems down about me probably leaving’ I thought with a sigh and watched him go up to the bar counter. ‘Kind of hope he comes with’

“Hey, Red~” a guy's voice interrupted my thoughts and I groaned softly. It was the third time I've been hit on and it was never a local, always another adventurer coming through. I glanced towards the source of the voice. It belonged to a human in padded cloth armor and a lute strapped to his back. “Aside from being gorgeous, what do you do?”

‘Lucky me, a bard. Are they just drawn to dragons in this world too?’ I held back from retching at that line and protectively moved Max's food to by me since the creep decided to sit across from me where my friend was sitting. I then used Inspect on the creep to at least figure out his adventurer rank but was pleasantly surprised with the result.

Stranger Bard

E rank Human (M) Bard

Stats:

????

____

Proficiency with Inspect has increased, related skill, Threat analysis, has been developed.

Threat analysis activating now.

 

Comparison analysis of Stranger Bard to Alex Steele.

 

Strength: Significantly lower

Dexterity: Significantly higher 

Durability: Moderately lower 

Arcane Magic: Equivalent 

Divine Magic: Slightly higher 

Nature Magic: Equivalent

 

Conclusion: Barring undetected abilities, Stranger Bard is of Minor threat to User.

 

Rage will reduce minor threat to no threat, rage emotional threshold or damage threshold has not been met.

 

“I am pretty good at hurting things, wolves, kobolds… annoying bards…” I responded to him as I read over the new popup.

“Y-you don't have to be like that, how about I buy you a drink?”

“No thanks, already have one” I glanced back towards where I last saw Max, and thankfully he was on his way back already. “Now if you excuse me, I was already eating dinner with someone.”

“I'm sure they won't mind if I steal you for a bit” his insistence was starting to ignite my anger a bit. 

‘Break the lute over his head… no don't want to start trouble he probably has a party somewhere…’ I looked around the seating area and spotted a flustered elf mage and wolf beastfolk warrior watching the bard. ‘Hmm they should keep this fucker on a leash…’ I checked on Max's progress to me and found him to be fairly close, albeit looking confused about my situation. “Fairly sure he'll care, so please leave me alone”

“He?” The bard asked, confused as my friend finally reached us.

“Is something wrong…?” Max asked shyly.

‘Please forgive me, Max. I can't believe I'm actually going to try this…’ I thought as I waited for Max to sit next to me. As soon as he set his drink down, I took a breath and swallowed a bit of my pride, and climbed onto his lap. His face turned beet red almost immediately and he gave me a really confused look. “This jerk was trying to interrupt our dinner, Max, we wanted to eat in peace right?”

“...um-I…” he stuttered a bit and looked between me and the bard a couple times “u-um yes…?”

“See?” I smirked at the bard. “Now that you know that he'll care, you can leave me alone, or I can throw you out the window behind your friends over there.” I motion to the pair I believed was his party with my head. The bard turned white, apologized for interrupting our ‘date’ and excused himself before he quickly retreated back to them. 

“U-um w-what was that about?” Max mumbled softly.

“He was hitting on me, I didn't really appreciate it, thanks for the help there, I was afraid I was going to have to break that lute over his head or something” I smiled at my friend but he seemed to get more flustered at that. I quickly became aware of something starting to prod against me in the next couple moments and I scrambled to get off of him, my face quickly getting warm.

‘Dammit, really need to stop getting into situations like that with him’ I grabbed my drink and tried to distract myself with that. ’Letting myself get horny earlier was a mistake. I… I still like Kat… Rissaeth definitely messed with my head or something…’

“You ok, Alex?” Max's voice broke through my thoughts as I finished my drink.

“Oh um yeah, I'm fine, S-sorry for climbing on you so suddenly… just was trying to trick him…” I looked down at my now empty cup ‘Damn… probably going to feel this soon, always was a lightweight…’

“O-oh it's ok… I understand…” he sighed and shyly sipped at his own drink. “Oh… this is pretty good…” I smiled a bit at this, glad to move on from what just happened.

“Told you. I normally don't drink much wines, always worried that I won't like them since I'm picky and have a sweet tooth”

“I don't really drink at all…” 

“Took me a bit to find what I liked, I can't stand beers or ales except for fruit ales. Mixed drinks taste a lot better than those” he gave me an odd look.

“Mixed drinks…?”

‘Shit, have they figured out distillation yet?’ I thought in a panic. “Um you know, using clear and flavored alcohols mixed with juice or something?”

“That's a thing where you're from? Normally only alchemists can get ahold of clear alcohols”

‘Right… the health potion did smell like alcohol…’ “Yeah, the good ones are dangerous though, hard to notice how much alcohol you're taking in” I happily resumed picking at my food, waiting for what I just drank to start having an effect and hoping it'll help start calming my nerves. 

---

 

The feeling of tipsiness never came to me as we kept chatting and eating. I even ordered a couple more tankards of the mead throughout the meal but annoyingly I never got the feeling I wanted. Max, however, only needed that first one to slowly start acting a little different and even lean against me a bit as we ate. He was definitely as much of a lightweight as I used to be and yet he still got a second one. This confused me greatly since my weight in this form was basically the same as my previous life even if I was more athletic now. At least the confusion it caused distracted me enough from everything that it still helped calm me aside from the irritation that came with it.

“You're so pretty, Alex” the mage half slurred as I helped him up from the table. 

“Thanks, you've told me that a few times now…” I sighed, it was true but it had started making an odd feeling well up in my chest, a feeling different from my lightning breath charging. It was late by now, most of the other patrons either left or went upstairs to bed and Max and I were among the last left.

“Only cuz it's true…” he stumbled a bit when I got him up and I sighed to myself as I weighed my options here.

“Hey just take a drink of some of my water real quick and then we'll go about getting you home…”

“Ok!” He yipped and happily did as he was told.

‘Why do you have to be cute…’ I let him get some water in him as I figured out how I would go about this. I eventually decided that carrying him would be the best option and once he set the water down, I scooped him up bridal style with ease and started carrying him out. He yelped at first but then happily clung to me and quickly settled. It was an awkward trip back to his home to drop him off, he was light but with him only being a couple inches shorter than me made it a little more difficult with balancing. It was made more awkward when his mom answered the door as he was complimenting me yet again as he faded in and out of consciousness.

“Um, hi Mrs. Wells… sorry for bringing him back like this…”

“Hello, Alex” the dog-lady responded with a bemused expression “I'm glad to see my son had a good time on your ‘date’ “ I could feel myself get flustered with that.

“N-not really a date… we're just friends and teammates… I didn't realize he couldn't drink like I can… and didn't want him to walk home like this”

“Mhmm… so you carried him?”

“Easier than herding him this way…” I sighed and shifted Max's weight in my arms a bit. She smiled a little and motioned me to come inside.

“You can set him down in the living room, stairs are too narrow for you to go up like this.”

“O-ok..” I sighed and carried him through the dining area to the living room. “Oh um, I should tell you something too… I finally got word from my friend… she's heading this way… and I'll probably go with her to travel around… and I promised you that I'd tell you if I'd bring Max far from home… he hasn't decided if he'd come with us yet though…”

“I'm sure he will, you do realize you mean a lot to him, don't you?” She laughed softly and brought over a blanket, placing it on him when I set him down on a couch. “You've saved him once and you're the first person to party up with him. Thank you for all of that…and I hope you help him see the world outside of our village, just keep him safe while you do.”

“You seem kind of happy about that…”

“Don't mistake that for me being happy to see him leave, I've been dreading that day but it's his dream to follow his father's footsteps and become an adventurer so I've prepared myself for him to eventually leave…” she gave a slight smile. “Give him a few days and I'm sure he'll decide to go with you, ok?”

I nodded a bit in response.

“Kat's a bit impatient but I think I can get her to wait a bit when she gets here” I laughed softly. 

“I would hope so” Mrs. Wells also laughed a bit. We chatted for a bit longer after this but eventually I headed back to my room at the guild to sleep for the night. I hoped to get a while to brace myself for meeting Kat again and for Max to make up his mind before then but we didn't end up so lucky.