Chapter 4: Check Out of Hotel Kashira

Kashira woke to sunshine peering through the cracks in the stone around her. The world was bright, with all the fresh white snow everywhere; the sun reflected nicely off everything and gave it all a very white glow. No clouds were left as evidence that it had been angry and storming the night before.

The demanding little bunny she had collected was still completely limp within her. She yawned. Well, let’s test my teases last night and see which of us is right. 

She gave him a gentle clench. He moaned at her, and she felt him turn over when she released it. She smiled. “Come now, bunny, I thought you wanted out as soon as it was morning. Up, up!”

There was another bleary moan at her, and though she couldn’t hear it, she thought she felt a huff. She didn’t chuckle, but she was all big grins as he seemed to struggle to wake up. I knew you would be tired. She felt smug. You can stay a bit longer, cutie.

She inspected his belongings; they were frosty. Nothing could dry in a blizzard. Also, even though it is sunny, it isn’t warm. Things are freezing instead of drying. She breathed out, and her breath curled out in front of her in a visible fog. I need a way to capture dry warmth for him so he can clean up, and everything can get dry. She looked around the ruins at all the gaps letting in light through the walls.

Kashira got up, carefully shifting her weight off her guest. The dragon moved to a side area where the masonry was largely still in one piece, so it was where she kept most of her actual hoard. She would nose open a large chest where a thick woolen tapestry with gems was bundled. She took it out delicately between two claws and shook it out. Compared to the jayune, it is pretty big. I think I can use this to make a warm space.

The dragon could only very faintly remember tents, but when she tried to recall what held them up, she realized she’d never paid attention. She sat back on her haunches and then itched the base of her neck a bit with her front paw. It doesn’t matter. I just need to capture the heat, so I will use this as a door and build a box with magic. That should work, right?

She closed her eyes, focusing a little to attune herself to the surroundings, feeling the earth. Rough crystalline slabs rose out of the earth, clear and white in patches, and she fit them together so that there was a slab across the top, and three walls. She focused on the disturbed earth where the slabs of crystal had pushed up and out into the air and smoothed it out, making it as smooth as she could. She draped the tapestry over the top, blocking the door with it. Might feel a little dark inside. I do not think I have any light-producing treasure, though.

After some hesitation and thinking it over, she decided that warmth was probably more important than light. So, she didn’t do anything else about that. Instead, she focused on the stones themselves and charged them with magic so that they would warm up. She put his backpack within, dumping it out. Some steam rose from it and damp belongings as they started to dry in the heat. His clothes were wet enough to be frozen stiff, so she felt she needed more heat for them.

He will need a bath anyway to clean up after his stay within me. After some consideration, she used her magic and sculpted a basin. On a whim, instead of making it out of the clear stone, she gave it a smoky look, her earth-aligned magic straining a little to help her adjust the stones she drew from. 

Then, she agitated the stone, sending vibrations of her magic through it until it was hot. She laid his clothes over them, and she watched the frost melt, then steam curl off them. She would turn them a bit here and there to help get them warm and dry.

Every once in a while, she gave him a little squeeze, and she got moans and pushes against her in response as he struggled to wake up. He was just not ready to wake up. As the morning advanced, the sun was climbing out of sight from the different cracks in the wall, nearly overhead. We can go a little longer, but I will need to get you up soon or be at risk of breaking my promise.

Now to fill the tub with water. She didn’t have the same abilities with water as she did with earth. She decided to use the snow and heat the tub to melt it. The process turned out to be a little annoying; each time she filled it, the snow melted to very little water. With a bit of patience, she got it full and got the water steaming. She set it up in the castle, near the tent, with his warm and dry clothes hanging nearby. Oh, he also needs to be able to dry off.

After she found some fabric in her hoard that she felt would be absorbent, she felt that everything was ready for him.

“Bunbun, it’s checkout time,” she teased him, giving him a squeeze that he definitely couldn’t sleep through, clenching until she felt him squirm. “Up up, it’s time to get up, or I will have hoarded you past morning.”

Goren was aware foggily of her body being active with him, squeezing over him, but the tiredness he felt was deep and made every part of him feel heavy and sluggish in the heat her body smothered him with. 

He heard her calling or dreamed it, but he went back to sleep. When he began to foggily dream of being laid upon by a big dragon and not being able to move or breathe, he began to struggle against the pressure in the dream only to wake up to her actually pressing down on him. He kicked, waking up with a bit of a start as he recognized he was still very much in a belly. 

“Up, up!” the muffled voice of the dragon came to him. “It is almost noon.”

He kicked again. “You said you would let me out in the morning.”

There was a chuckle then, rumbling all around him. “I did try to wake you up, but you were a sleepy bunbun and just moaned at me all cute each time and turned over.” 

He felt a flush coming to his face. Maybe, he also felt a little relief, that he had actually spent a lot of time in the belly of a dragon and somehow was safe. “Just let me out now,” he huffed. 

“What? I don’t think I heard you, sweetie,” she giggled.

He huffed again. “Let me out!” he said. 

“What? You just woke up, and you already complain? I suppose you can come out. Try to relax so it feels as gentle as possible.” 

She didn’t give him much opportunity before her body flexed around him, this time squeezing near his head and pushing him roughly backward. After that, it was all wet flexes and compressing motions before he felt himself scooped by a tongue, pinning him to the roof of a mouth just as his feet pressed up against teeth. 

“Li-the,” she said in a whisper that was still rather intense around him, but he didn’t understand what she was trying to say until her jaws parted. The light came in, bright against his total-darkness-adjusted pupils. Also, the air that came in was very cold compared to her. 

He closed his eyes, and he waited for her to put him down, but she just held him. He opened his eyes. “What are you doing?” He squinted in the light. 

But still, she just held him, tongue curled against his body, and soon his eyes didn’t feel quite so overwhelmed by light, but the cold was still cold. 

Finally, she leaned forward and opened her mouth, drooling him past her teeth and into her paw. “Welcome back to the cold, Goren,” she said with a smile. 

She was so much bigger than he ever expected, and that sent a different kind of chill through him as he stared at her. She had dark blue scales, like deep water, and a mane that went from the top of her head all the way to her tail tip that was silver, loose, long, and shaggy. Her eyes were a silver color that stood out against her dark blue scales. The thicker scales along her belly, which also accented her wings, were just a few shades deeper blue, almost black. She was easily big enough to hold him in her paw; she was probably around fifteen feet at the top of her shoulder, over triple his height.

“Aw, you have all these cute spots that I didn’t get to see.” She pressed her thumb claw to his side where a particularly large brown patch was. “And are your wings gold? Lovely!”

That shook him out of it.  “I’m freezing,” he huffed and tried to avoid her inspecting him further.

“Yes, well, I am warm, and the air is cold,” she said with a grin, leaning forward and breathing out a lot of steam that curled around him. It warmed him a little but stopped the moment her breath stopped. He squirmed as she lifted him back up toward her face. “Don’t worry, I have thought about your little jayune needs and made at least the start of a plan,” she said, lowering him down to where a tub of warm water steamed. 

She tilted her palm and slid him into it. It was relief on his cold skin, and he sunk into it, trying to scrub her insides off himself. 

She was quiet, watching him in a way that made him feel flustered, but he did his best to ignore her. He looked around and saw what looked like a bejeweled tent. What he could see of the front of it appeared to be depicting some kind of forest scene, but the orange and gold leaves of fall were not only literal gold threads, but the leaves were inlaid with topaz and rubies. “It is a makeshift tent for you to dry off in. Your clothes are dry inside, once you are cleaned up,” she explained when she saw him looking at it. “But I would take time with the bath; help yourself adjust to the lower temperatures of everything now that you have been checked out of your hotel,” she teased him. 

He huffed and sank deeper into the water. “Why are you doing this?” 

“Why not? I noticed you, and so I decided to do something about it.” A pause, a small grumble. “Were there actually any other fae-rabbits loose in the woods that I should be looking for?” 

He turned his face away. “I don’t know. I was walking back from Feridan, and when I got there… there was smoke and gnolls everywhere. I don’t know when they attacked or if anyone had any chance to get away.” 

She hummed. “Well, I am going to have a look around. I expect to find you in the tent I built you, staying warm, eating the food you have in your bag, and recovering like a good bunbun… or I will put you in time out,” she said. 

He sank as low as he could in the water. “I don’t belong to you; you can’t boss me around,” he stated as firmly as he could as he stared up at her intense eyes. 

Kashira leaned down at him in a way that made his heart want to pound its way out of his chest as her lips loomed near him. “We can make it official at some time that you are now mine,” she whispered. “But you may as well get used to being mine now.” She kissed the side of his face. It was a small kiss to her, probably, but her wet tongue smooshed over his cheek, onto his ear, and over his horn.

Goren was so tense, he felt his heart racing; he felt a bit frozen up again as she turned and moved away. He couldn’t even think to ask her how she planned to go about making anything official. He heard her wings flapping as she flew away. What do I do?