Dragon's Tale 7 (Patreon)

When I had saved Lillian from the pirates in a struck of fancy, I knew a battle for dominance was inevitable. However, delivering that battle through our tongues struggling against each other was a surprise. A really pleasant one, especially when Lillian’s reply to my wandering hands was only a brief stall before turning her attention back to the battle of dominance, moaning deliciously. Encouraged by that, my fingers dug into her shapely posterior, enjoying the firmness even as I allowed her tongue to slowly gain dominance, simply because the hint of victory went a long way to mollify her initial stiffness that appeared after my initial overreach. 

Pride was an interesting sin… 

Her attention locked on our kiss, her only reaction was to moan louder when my other hand replicated the move and dug deep into her breast, its size perfectly filling my palm, her nipples stiff enough to tickle the center of my palm. The dance of her lips intensified further, and excitement started to spread in my veins, burning my exhaustion much better than any kind of stimulant could. Even my magic started to move with greater fluidity, still not enough to cast a spell, but at least enough to manage an elemental blast if I skipped on the shape manipulation. 

My heartbeat rose as well, but that revealed a different problem. For a moment, my heart thumped twice before it reduced to one. Only then I realized that my heartbeat was not perfectly centered, and came from two sources, the second just under my heart. It seemed that my risky move wasn’t without its mysterious drawbacks. 

But since I had no idea what to do about the source of that second heartbeat, I shifted my attention back to the sexy blonde on my lap who was doing her best to invade my mouth. I squeezed her body and explored her curves, excitement filling the moment further. And since my naked shaft was throbbing excitedly, I tried to pull her closer to feel her body against it, but that proved to be an overreach. The moment my shaft touched her core -still covered by her panties- she jerked back, a panicked expression on her face, the realization of what she had been doing hitting her hard. 

She even tried to cover her chest once more as she jumped up to her feet, but she abandoned that ridiculous line of action after receiving my mocking glare. After all, there was little point walking around like that after what we had just done. “I will check if there are any ships around,” she rapidly said, and dashed away without waiting for an answer. It was a ridiculous excuse, because from where we were sitting, we had an almost uninterrupted view of the horizon, and it was empty. Still, I shrugged and turned my attention to the meal that was cooking on her improvised runic frying pan. Ensuring the quality of our food was a good way to use my time if she wasn’t willing to entertain her hero… 

I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw her return twenty minutes later, wearing a makeshift bra made from seashells, connected by a thick line of seaweed. She started speaking in an effort to distract me from her blush. “Is the food ready?” she asked, once again avoiding my gaze, and along with that, my nakedness. Watching her, I didn’t have the heart to tell her that she looked even sexier wearing that makeshift bra, triggering the image of a mermaid, especially strong when stuck on a rocky outcropping in the middle of the sea. 

“Sure,” I said as I passed her one of the large stones I had decided to use as plates. She looked at the plate hesitantly for a moment, like she was stumped on how to eat without a set of three different knives and five forks. “Just grab one with your fingers and eat it, princess,” I said. In reflex, she turned at me to respond, only to avoid it immediately when she met with my nakedness once more. She started nibbling the meat. 

I chuckled before grabbing a plate of my own and started eating, with significantly bigger bites. I had no idea what any of the changes the dragon heart was making to my body, but it clearly needed a lot of food for fuel. Therefore, I was devouring my sixth chunk of meat when she finally finished her first. “You’re really hungry, huh,” she asked, though still avoiding my gaze. But her tone was rather sharp for a casual question. 

She was probably trying to fish for my last display of magic, I deduced. “The spell I  used to finish it off took a lot of energy from me, and it’s just common sense to replenish it,” I answered. 

“Good thing we have enough to last us a while, then,” she answered, pointing at the half-carved body of the dragon serpent.  

“Yeah, the big guy was rather generous,” I answered. “It’s a pity that we have to leave it behind when we sail away.” 

“What, why?” she answered. 

“Bringing it with us is very dangerous. We could have done it if it wasn’t a magical creature, but we can’t be sure that its blood won’t bring an even bigger predator to us.” 

“Do you think that’s likely?” she asked, but unlike last night, her tone was curious rather than confrontational. 

“Enough to make it pointlessly risky, fishing is much easier,” I answered, then continued with a more serious tone. “Moreover, I don’t want to take the risk of being tracked by the pirates.” 

“Do you think that's possible?” she inquired, her gaze turning to my side. 

“I wouldn’t discount the possibility. There’s a chance that the dragon serpent had a link with the pirates. Maybe they were keeping it trapped as a pet, and sent it to track us,” I said. I didn’t mention the possibility that it was the captain’s familiar. That was a can of worms with too many dangerous implications, and I needed her reasonably focused, not panicking because she was being targeted by an enemy much more dangerous than she had previously assumed. Not to mention claiming that I defeated such a formidable familiar would sound like empty boasting, and would make her trust me less. 

“Maybe you’re right,” she murmured. “It’s appearance is too coincidental otherwise.” 

I nodded as I wolfed down the last piece of meat before standing up. “Excellent, then let’s leave.” 

“Right now?” she asked, surprised. “You’re still exhausted, and while I can use magic once more, wouldn’t it be better to rest some more before starting the journey. I’ve also yet to regain full control.”

“That’s true, but it’s still better than waiting here,” I answered. “I will feel much safer once we’re on the mainland where they are disadvantaged. In the sea, even with their main mast destroyed, they have the advantage if they catch up with us.” That earned a nod of approval. 

She looked like she was about to say something when I grabbed my pants and underwear but chose to carry them rather than putting them back on. Instead, she silently picked up the beacon she had built to signal her family about her location and joined my walk. Still, her dissatisfaction didn’t prevent her from grabbing my arm to support me when I stumbled from exhaustion. I was feeling better after lunch, but I was still a distance away from my peak condition.  

“Do you mind operating the boat?” I asked after pushing the boat to the sea and stepped on. “It has sufficient charge to see us to the shore, but I don’t want to risk operating it while my control is still shoddy.” Claiming my control was shoddy was a gross underestimation. With my current state, it was likely that the boat would just explode. 

“Sure,” she said enthusiastically as she gently placed her beacon stone in a corner of the boat, happy with the opportunity to break the flow that positioned her as the helpless damsel of our little story. “Just show me the controls.”

“Press your finger here,” I said, pointing at the central rune from a distance. She leaned forward and put her finger on it, and in her excitement, forgot the revealing state of her panties, especially since they got wet while pushing the boat into the water. And not one to miss such an opportunity, I walked behind her and grabbed her wrist, correcting her target. “Better,” I whispered throatily. 

She stiffened as my shaft pressed against her bottom, her drenched panties might as well have been nonexistent in terms of reducing the sensation. She gasped, but when her head turned to catch my gaze, she was calm once more. “Weren’t you too exhausted to walk properly just a moment ago,” she said. Her words would have been classified as snark, but the sudden jump in her tone ruined the impression she tried to create, and just exposed her shyness instead. 

“Some things are worth the effort,” I answered even as I leaned further. With my chest pressing against her back, I could feel her heartbeat on my skin. The silence stretched for a moment, but I broke it before she could gather her wits. “Now, try to activate the first rune while spreading your magic to the second and then to this third rune…” I said, launching into a detailed explanation on how to use my construct. It wasn’t something I would have done under more forgiving conditions, as doing so required me to teach her a number of my tricks, but it was a small price to avoid the pirates that were doubtlessly following us. 

“Fascinating,” she murmured as her fingers traced the edges of the carved runes. “I would have never thought that an auxiliary rune can be used to balance three asymmetric sets,” she continued. But even more important than her fascination with my innovative runic construction, her hips started to grind against my shaft slowly. I wasn’t sure whether it was conscious or if it was her instincts subconsciously taking control. 

“That’s all the information you need. The rest, you can handle by yourself,” I said a few minutes later, calling an end to our impromptu class. I would have stretched the explanation even more, but my legs started to tremble, persuading me against extending the compromising lesson. Still, seeing a fleeting expression of disappointment on Lillian’s face was well worth the sacrifice. After all, back in the school, none of the rich scions were able to awaken anything more than a mild disinterest in her. 

Despite her dissatisfaction, she kept her attention on the runic scheme directing the boat, because directing the boat was not something she could have done with wandering attention. That was the drawback of my rapid construction. A proper control scheme would have continued to move automatically without any input, maintaining the required mana flow without active concentration. Of course, a proper scheme required a team of experts to build and took several days, not something that could be compensated for in the middle of nowhere. 

The next few hours passed in silence if I discounted the constant buzz of the wind, and the occasional curse that escaped her mouth. I didn’t try to talk with her, mostly because I didn’t want to distract her from her task. No need to tempt the keepers of fate like that, especially considering their recent performance. However, I wasn’t bored with the silence, because I used the opportunity to try to understand the changes my body was going through after my reckless actions. I kept my eyes closed for the most part, trying to focus inward despite the delicious view Lillian created when she crouched in front of the control panel, her fair skin covered with a light sheen of sweat. 

The first thing I discovered was that my mana flow was much stronger, yesterday’s gentle flow replaced by a torrent of unbelievable depth. I had a feeling that, if it wasn’t for my ruined control, I would have destroyed that dragon serpent without the slightest effort. That discovery didn’t excite me as much as it should, because I was aware that such a sharp increase would have a cost bigger than just ruined control. 

So, I focused on my magic. Soon, I discovered that my magic flow was gathering toward my chest, just a couple of inches below my heart. Under more normal conditions, such a discovery would have been a cause of celebration, because the existence of a core was what separated ordinary mages from sorcerers, giving the latter their phenomenal control and power. A majority of mages, even the noble ones, failed to cross that divide. It was something a lot of nobles failed to overcome all their life, forced to live their life with the awareness that the only thing that lay between them and death was the annoyance of a sorcerer. But I kept my attention on the core, trying to examine it. I knew it wasn’t entirely natural. 

I managed to find the drawback after wasting a couple of hours in meditation. It wasn’t exactly mine. The dragon heart lay on its core, devouring my magic while expelling waves of its own. Its chaotic state didn’t allow me to diagnose it with any sense of accuracy, but even then, I could sense that my magic had changed. How much, I didn’t exactly know, but it wasn’t something that could be written-off. 

Moreover, the dragon heart was still swallowing and expelling magic. 

It was uncharted territory. Not exactly a good realization, considering even in its most documented state, a considerable number of mages eviscerated themselves in an attempt to pass the divide between mage and sorcerer. 

I remembered my grandfather’s saying. 'The weak cry and curse while the strong act!'. Wise words, though as usual, the situation I received those words in was far from casual. He had said those when I was nine, just after I had used lightning magic to kill a pack of hyenas, my body ruined thanks to a mixture of side effects of a miscast spell and wounds delivered by them. Still, the absurdity of the situation didn’t make those words any less true. 

I needed to take control of my magic before it transformed into foreign energy that would burn my body from the inside. I quickly cycled through the meditation techniques that I knew before settling on one that had the highest chance of giving me a semblance of control over my changed magic. It was a painful method that would waste a lot of mana, but luckily, neither was my biggest problem. I had an abundance of magic, and pain was a constant companion during  my youth. It wasn’t my favorite companion, but still, it was much better than death. I sat, legs crossed, and my hands in front of me, just an inch apart. With a breath, I let out a spark from my right index finger, which dived directly into the palm of my left hand. A gasp of pain escaped my mouth as the pain dug into my flesh. 

I felt the boat lurch and realized that I had forgotten to warn Lillian about it. “Are you okay?” she exclaimed. 

“Just a meditation technique, keep your attention on your task,” I managed to answer between my clenched teeth even as a bigger spark escaped from the index finger of my left hand, and disappeared into the palm of my right hand. It was stronger than the previous one, and as a natural consequence, hurt even more. I didn’t even have time to cry when the scene repeated itself… 

The passage of time blurred while my ears filled with the sound of lightning crackling, my arms burning like they were covered with naked fire. If it wasn’t for my changes, I would have only been able to maintain the meditation for a few minutes because of the mana loss. However, now, I barely felt a dip in my reserves while the pain continued to build up. I ignored the pain and persevered, because the quickening flow of my magic was much more important than the occasional gasp of pain that escaped my lips. 

Especially since the changes were not limited to my magic. With each pass, I could actually feel my muscles revitalizing, my earlier exhaustion being replaced by boundless energy, and that energy allowed me to continue the meditation exercise despite the pain. And as the hours passed, even the pain started to dwindle, suggesting that I was actually getting stronger. So, I continued for hours and hours, only stopping when I felt the benefits from the meditation starting to dwindle. Even without casting anything, I could feel that I had some control back. It was the control of a child, but I was satisfied. Even childish spells were dangerous when backed by a sorcerer’s potential. 

When I opened my eyes, it was almost midnight. Lillian turned toward me immediately when the lightning discharges stopped, her eyes filled with worry… It seemed that I had an explanation to give.