Chapter 14: Hoarded Again
Kashira thrummed as Goren straightened up from holding her nose. “Well, it’s time to go, so remove your clothes and put them away in my bag so they are dry tonight.” She could see all the heat that came to Goren’s face as he reflexively shook his head no.
It felt like it wasn’t necessarily a rejection of the idea so much as a reflection of being unable to quite know how to handle the overwhelming experience of it. It had to be complicated for someone afraid of the implications of being swallowed up to just let her do it. Since he was still near her nose, she nuzzled his face and shoulder to help reassure him, even though her words were about to sass him: “I could count down; that worked well last time.”
“Don’t be a monster,” he said with a definite plaintive note in his tone. “You are a big creature with a lot of teeth, it makes my heart race and my stomach tight, so your answer is rush it?”
She pretended to consider this complaint, and then she answered, “Three…”
He shoved her nose, and she moved with it. He pulled his cloak and shirt off over his head in one motion. She felt a pang of concern as the wind capriciously picked up pace and sprinkled them both with loose snowflakes. The little shiver she witnessed taking over him made her stop teasing him with her countdown. His cold shivers intensified with embarrassment and anxiety as he slid out of his boots and then his pants.
She brought her nose carefully back to him, nuzzling against his shoulders, along the top of his head, against his cheek, breathing softly down over his back. He put his arms around her nose and hugged it, his arm down around her jaw as if he could keep her mouth closed. She made a soft thrum, letting him hold her until the breeze kicked up again and got another big shiver out of him. Then, she tilted her nose slightly, pressed her tongue over the side of his neck and shoulder and down his chest, spreading wet saliva over his fluff as he stiffened up and made quite the overwhelmed squeaky noise.
She moved the paw he was not currently standing on to block the wind and braced him with it. She leaned in and gave him a big, long lick, from the front of his thighs up over his groin and chest. He squirmed, pushing at her tongue with his hands as if he was seeking space, causing his fingers to get coated in her saliva with the rest of him. She curled her tongue around and beneath his chin, making him look up a little, the squeaky noises turning into a long-drawn-out sound that was maybe a groan… or possibly a little moan?
When she pulled her tongue back, he was a lot more shivery against her claws, colder now that he was wet, and even more overwhelmed than before. She gave him a soft nuzzle, and then repeated her lick. Last time, she had pressed somewhat to his right to avoid his face, so this time she focused to the left.
“Kashira!” he gasped, even more squirmy and lively this pass over as she slathered him in saliva, leaving some to trickle down toward his knees. This time, when she curled her tongue up along his chin, she drooled over his shoulder, and out came that drawn-out little noise. She decided it was probably closer to the moan side of things now that she had heard it twice.
Still, as much fun as it was to tease him and get him to react in new ways, she would rather not freeze him. He couldn’t stay in the castle ruins with her because it was too cold, and she needed to be even more careful with him out here. He just wasn’t largely immune to the weather like she was. She mastered her desire to tease him excessively for now. “Just come here, with your little racing heart and the tight feeling in your belly,” she said softly with a grin. Then, she opened wide over him and scooped him upward, with both the paw he perched on and the one she had been using to brace him while she plastered him with big dragon kisses.
“No, Kashira!” There was a definite squeak in all the vowels as he flailed right up until she closed her mouth over him.
She used her tongue to scoot him away from her teeth a few extra inches. “Hmm?” she said softly, intentionally making him jitter across her tongue because of how he reacted to the sensation of her voice vibrating through his body. Even if he did have complaints, this was truly the only safe way she could think of to transport him without a saddle or walking, which would take much too long. He seemed to have run out of things to say, at least in the seconds of pause she gave him to try to express himself. She tilted her head back and took a long, dragging gulp over his body, compressing him downwards into her waiting throat.
He squeaked as he felt the squeeze pull first on his ears and horns, and then the top of his head, followed by the rest of him, wrapping him in muscular pressure as her body slid him down. She still very much enjoyed the way she felt as he pressed through her, just the right size to fit easily but be very noticeable. She focused and pressed with her muscles to slide him into the hoard belly, where he landed with a particularly squirmy flop. His movements generated a sensation through her like little flutters, almost similar to adrenaline during flight when the breeze gave out unexpectedly and dropped her. She decided that she quite likes it. “All right, collar test one, tell me if you can hear me?”
“Like you are next to me still… uh, you know, out there when I hear you next to me, not all of this,” he pressed with his big back foot on her in a way that made her laugh. “That was intense. You are far too smug about all this.”
Goren huffed as she just laughed about his complaint and answered him with, “How can I help it? You make all the cutest noises. Absolutely perfect.”
His heart was still racing, and his face felt hot, and he felt… a little different than the last time. That licking just now was intense, and he didn’t want to think about the fluttering-heart sensation he was starting to feel himself have about it. He flopped back, letting the space conform to him a bit again. The insides of a dragon felt extra hot, especially after the chill from her leaving actual trails of saliva on him in the windy and snowy air. The first time she’d done this to him, she’d terrified him and had shown him that fighting back wouldn’t help. The second time, she had grabbed him out of the air, protecting him from nearly falling to his death. And now this time… This time she was teasing me. She was enjoying herself.
He curled inward, putting a hand on his chest, as if he could use his palm to calm the way his heart pounded. It didn’t help because he couldn’t chase away the realization.
Focus on anything else, he told himself. “How long do you think it will be… until we are there?”
She didn’t answer for a moment; there was some jostling as she took off. He listened to her accelerated breaths and heart as she flew. “The wind is in our favor, so I think that we will get there a little sooner, maybe a little before dark if we are lucky. It’s further to Buetarn from Arieton than it was from my castle to here.”
“And then we’ll face the gnolls?” he asked.
“I was planning it that way. Is that fine with you?”
Goren hesitated. “I think it’s important I go as soon as possible. I feel like the longer we wait, the more likely...” The more likely they will all be gone. He didn’t want to make it real, so he could not bring himself to even say the idea aloud. He knew it wasn’t reasonable, and he also knew that they might already be gone. He tensed, as he tried to control his thoughts. The warmth surrounding him and the way that teasing him had made him feel light inside faded into a cold and dark rushing feeling.
Her voice cut through the growing panic. “Of course. In the meantime, why don’t you tell me more about what it was like to train as an artist? Tell me what you like about art.”
Right. Art. Focus on that. “There are two kinds of artists, I feel like. The kind that do it for a hobby and the ones that make it their life mission to bring what’s inside to the outside. I did art as a hobby at first because it was the only thing that felt good to me. The more I did it, the more I wanted it to be better, smoother, and closer to what I was actually feeling and seeing inside of me. Nights sketching by the firelight were some of the best moments…”