Dragon’s Weir Read online

“And…” Zol grinned, speaking over the angry Dragonish, “its hair was sheered.”

  “Song of the Scab!” the amber one screamed as it lashed out with its hand, trying to deliver a smack to Zol.

  Star gasped, but before she could react, it pulled its blow. It looked around, noticing several pairs of eyes on it.

  “And I thought I was going to have an excuse to get you sheered again.” Zol shook his head sadly. “Pity.”

  “This is not over, Zol,” the angered one sneered, before turning to face Star. “And you, female without a blood-tie, remember my name. Belan will be seeking revenge for this outrage.”

  “Only if your claws have grown back fully.” Zol laughed in Belan’s face. “Last I heard, they were still a bit…small.”

  “Curses on your eggs!” Balan snarled, before turning in a huff and storming away.”

  “Like you’ll ever fertilize any with those small claws and dull fangs!” Zol called back, laughter in his voice as his enemy retreated.

  Star sniffed, then turned to look at her mate-partner. “I believe explanations are in order.”

  “In the shower and while we bathe,” he reminded her, waving his hand before his face. “You still stink like a lazy pain pleasure-trader. And that is so not attractive.”

  “Bitch,” Star mumbled under her breath as she allowed Zol to pull her towards the sounds of the rushing waters, a petulant pout on her face.”

  Chapter Three

  It was safe to say that Star had never bathed like this before.

  Zol all but dragged her into a large steamy room where several columns appeared, shaped like waterfalls. Steamy hot water ran endlessly in clear sheets, draining into several large pools where some Dragonish sat, covering their bodies, human-skin and Dragonish primary forms alike, in rich fragment foam.

  “What are they doing?” Star asked, watching as several male forms assisted the Dragonish ones, scrubbing with long brushes, laughing and talking as they happily worked.

  “Getting clean,” he drawled dryly. “Just what you are about to do.”

  That said, he gave her a mighty shove, and Star found herself flopping face first into a pool of water. She rose roaring, the burn of water invading her nostrils, making her hiss and cough as she tried to gain her feet.

  She blinked her eyes to see Zol standing over her, his laugher echoing though the chambers.

  “Bastard!” she tried to yell, but her coughing interfered, making it sound less than the intended shrill bellow.

  “Now that you are in the water,” he laughed, “all we need to do is apply a thorough coating of bathing foam and scrub the smell away.”

  But Star was staring at the water like she had never seen the like before in her life! She grew up in a desert settlement. Water was for drinking and cooking. Rarely was it used for full emersion bathing. One bathed if they crossed an oasis or a small river or if there was a sudden downpour from the skies. Water was just too dear a commodity to waste like this. Since coming to this place, she had never seen such a shameful waste of water.

  She looked over at the columns, overflowing with their waterfall of liquid, and thought the water utilized could sustain her whole village for a year.

  “Why do you waste it all?” she asked finally, beginning to enjoy the rarity of full submersion despite her frugal mindset. “Water is so hard to come by!” Her electric blue curls were now darker, sodden and hanging in her face. Her brown eyes glared up at Zol.

  “Waste? Water? You do know that we are floating so high above the human population that we are not visible?”

  “Huh?” She believed there was some kind of land…somewhere.

  “We are in the clouds themselves.” He climbed into the warm water, a huge smile on his face. “I am sure you noticed that no one walked into this bathhouse.”

  “But…But how?” she stammered.

  “No one really knows,” he shrugged. “It is like how we exist in Quads. It has become such a part of us that no one questions it. Our aeries have been a part of this weir for generations. We just add onto them when we need to.”

  “There…there are others on our aerie?”

  “No, that is something different. As Father is the Commander of the Kings armies, we have a special aerie of our own. This one has been passed down to the Commanders of the Armies and is part of the benefits he receives for such diligent work. That is why neither Father nor Zen are with us now.”

  “How often…I mean, I know Zen is training…. How long…?”

  “Generations,” Zol laughed. “We live for generations, Star. And even when Father and I pass, there will be another pair found for you and Zen.”

  “What?” she squeaked, completely forgetting about the clinging texture of the water or the fact that he looked almost Ghod-like when he was wet. The conversation turned rather disturbing for her.

  “Not any time soon,” Zol laughed. “We have many generations left in us, but the fact remains that you and Zen are among the youngest Dragonish here. And when Father and I pass, Zen will take up the mantel of Father and another pair will be found for you. It is a cycle, completely balanced.”

  “I don’t…. I don’t like talk of death,” Star finally admitted.

  In the human settlement, death was something you had to face when it was time. Practically no one spoke of it and no one really openly discussed it.

  “Then shall we discuss beauty?” he purred, preening as he flung waterlogged chunks of hair behind his shoulders.

  “And shall we discuss what Balan found so horrid about Zen? Well?” She shook off the dark thoughts and moved closer to Zol. She was getting used to being in the water, but it still made her uncomfortable.

  “Zen is pale.”

  Star waved her hand as if urging him to continue, but he just stared at her.

  “Well?” she asked. “What else?”

  “That’s it,” Zolamel said, laughing.

  Star blinked at him, then turned to stare at the other Dragonish in the shower room. Indeed, they were all varying degrees of brown, but that was it? That was the huge blemish of Zenxian’s perception of beauty? What was wrong with these people?

  “Well, he is rather short,” Zol allowed, “but that will change as he matures.”

  “Short and pale?”

  “More like pale and short, in order of importance.”

  “That’s it?” She couldn’t keep the incredulous look off her face.

  “Basically,” he sighed, looking down at the water. “It’s so hard being different. And when I mated to such an imperfect Dragonish, it, too, took some time for me to accept him.”

  “You, Zol?” she asked her eyes growing wide in disbelief.

  “Yeah,” he sighed. “It took me a whole heartbeat to understand how special he really is.”

  “You overcame your people’s ideals of beauty… in a minute?”

  “Well, look at him?” Zol rolled his eyes as if she was blind. “Broad shoulders, perfect musculature, that red hair and endowed like Father…and that cock will grow with the rest of him,” Zol grinned.

  “And it had nothing to do with his personality?” she had to ask.

  “Well, you look before you speak! When Father brought him home, I thought that I would unfairly compare him to our elder pair in our previous Quad, but just looking at him…. Zen is perfection.”

  “So his skin color makes him ugly to the Dragonish?”

  “Not ugly, just wrong. And to some, wrong equates ugly.”

  “So why is he pale? I think some of the humans I know make Zen look dark by comparison.”

  “Well, there once was a war, as the legends tell. A war between the Dragonish of the Sky and the Dragonish of the Earth.”

  “A war equals ideals of ugly and beauty?”

  “Not just any war, Star.” He settled, reaching for the edge, presumably for balance. “There was a war that burned the forests and scorched the rivers. No one knows what started the wars and no one is quite sure how it ended, but th
e Earth Dragonish were very fierce warriors who relied on manipulation of the lands. They controlled the earth, but we controlled the skies. With sky supremacy, it was easy for our ancestors to drive the Earth Dragonish deep underground, and from what our past-tellers tell us, they began plotting to unleash a menace so great that it would drive us from the land forever.

  “But in the midst of all this fighting, an Earth prince fell in love with a Sky princess. She saw him while flying low and was able to pick him out from the grass and trees because he was so pale. It is said that she fell so deeply in love that she brought this Earth Dragonish to our weirs in the sky, and they lived together as a pair, waiting for their Quad to be complete. But it was never to be. “

  Zol shook his head in sadness and Star had to fight the urge to yell at him to continue.

  “So what happened?” she finally asked, nearly bouncing in the waters. “What happened to them?”

  “It is said,” Zol began solemnly, “that the princess so loved him that she let him roam where he would. Our Aries were not so high in the sky then, but closer to the earth and its inhabitants. And it is also said that the pale prince had another motive besides love. He learned all of our defenses, all of our weaknesses, who is going to forbid the mated prince of the weir anything, even if he was of the enemies people? They were mated and along with mating comes trust and respect. But his trust was fake and his heart as barren as the deserts where you were reared.”

  “He betrayed her,” Star breathed, wondering how anyone could toss away the feeling of family being in a Quad. Then again, maybe the pale prince had a family waiting for him elsewhere. Maybe he never felt what it was to be outcast, to be an unwanted burden.

  “He opened the gates and let in the horde.”

  “The horde?” Star shook her head, trying to shake the feeling of loss she remembered from before and trying to pa attention to the story.

  “It is said that the Scab are the weakest of the Horde.”

  Star shuddered at the name of her most feared nightmares. Even the name Scab evoked feelings of terror deep within her. And hearing there was an even greater monster than those she so feared… It was unthinkable!

  “The Horde decimated nearly half of the warriors before they were driven back. And soon after, the Dragonish of the Sky launched an attack that scorched the trees and the land, and dried up the rivers. When the land that the Earthen Dragonish so depended on was depleted of its life, they either died or moved on.”

  “So your people just killed the lands?”

  “They did what they had to do, Star. I am not even sure they were aware of the consequences of their actions. Anyhow, the Weirs moved higher and a way to build on the clouds using magic and water was devised. Then the dominance of humanity began. Well,” he added, “Humanity came out of hiding and took over where the Earthen Dragonish left off.”

  “And the pale prince?”

  “He was declared a traitor to his people and staked out for the mercy of the Horde.”

  “But…but couldn’t he fly away?”

  “Earthen Dragonish have no wings, Star. They had short claws and fangs not as sharp as ours, which brings us to Father’s punishment of Balan.”

  “I don’t get a connection,” she muttered, still digesting that horrible story.

  “To make one like an Earthen Dragonish is of the worst things that could be done to a dragon. When Father blunted his teeth and took his claws, he in essence became like the cowardly pale prince, a thing to be ignored and despised.”

  “So, Father publicly declared him a coward.” Star began to understand. Then she paled. “And because Zen is pale….”

  “Born pale, people shy away from him, recalling what horrors the pale ones wrought.”

  “But he was born of Dragonish, of Sky Dragonish people!”

  “And who knows! Maybe there was a complete Quad and the Princess laid an egg before her prince was discovered to be a vile wretch. Maybe Zen is a descendent…Or maybe, which I think is more likely, Ghod laughs.”

  “The complexities of you people astound me,” Star sighed, shaking her head at the stupidity of these Dragonish. So they had a bad history, but what good did condemning one male, based on his looks, something that he couldn’t control, do?

  “And soap will clean you,” Zol sneered, reaching into a small well next to his claimed spot of wall. “Now let me show you how to scrub the stinky areas. Women have a lot of folds, I am told, and it’s apparent that you don’t know how to clean them all.”

  “I do so!” Star snapped.

  “Well if you do, please put your knowledge to good use. You still reek and it’s turning my breakfast.”

  “Bitch,” she growled, reaching into the soap well and following Zol’s example.

  The dragon was happily smearing the slick foaming soap over his body, between his toes, and under his arms. “Don’t forget the meeting of your thighs,” he laughed as he blushed. “You must clean thoroughly.”

  That said, he bent over and unceremoniously jammed a finger up his rear aperture, swishing soap around and getting thoroughly clean.

  “What?” he asked as he stood up and made his way towards the showering columns. Star was still standing there, her mouth open, never having seen such a wonton display of cleanliness!

  “You—you….”

  “Washed my ass,” he chuckled. “Stick around. I’ll wash my cock, too. You can gape. And if you don’t figure it out really soon, I’ll have to wash your female folds as well.”

  He didn’t appear to be joking.

  Star turned her back to the room as best she could and began to wash. She may have to sleep with the male, but having him scrub out her…female folds…was just a bit too intimate! She ignored his laughter and got as clean as humanly…dragon-ly possible.

  Maybe after she fucked him a few times he could earn the right to scrub her in public. But for now, she was all for water immersion, as big of a waste that it was, and soap, and for trying to pretend the rest of the Dragonish didn’t exist in her bath!

  Chapter Four

  It was later when they were soaking in the tub room that she remembered to ask Zol about the hair.

  “Well,” he began, settling himself comfortably in the communal baths, ignoring the curious stares they were garnering, “It’s all about the marks.”

  “What about them?”

  “Star, they are special, unique, and totally intimate,” he leaned close to her.

  “But I see them all the time…”

  “You are part of the Quad, Star. You are family. To expose such an intimate mark to others is considered rather—risqué.”

  Star looked down at her own shoulder, noting that her blue hair really didn’t cover anything at all. It was too short.

  “For the males,” he added, “showing one is scandalous. But after you reach a certain age and don’t have one to show at all… that is just tragic.” He shuddered, wrinkling his nose at the thought.

  “And he…” “Had none to show.”

  Star’s mouth opened in a perfect O, the face Zol usually saw when she was in the throes of a surprise orgasm.

  “Needless to say, he was embarrassed as hell as he almost matches Father in age.” There was smug satisfaction in Zol’s voice. “It made him look kind of desperate.”

  Despite herself, Star broke out into gales of giggles, picturing the haughty looking dragon as a desperate mate-chaser. It almost made her forget the uncomfortable walk through the halls, butt naked, while Zol chattered about the latest gossip. It gave her compelling reasons to start growing her hair long, despite the teachings of her desert home.

  But before more could be said, there was a cough and a strange golden dragon ambled over to them.

  This one was not as frightening, but the sheer size of these people in their primary form was enough to make Star sidle closer to Zol.

  “Zol,” the voice intoned, partly amused and a whole lot curious. “Is she the one that the gossips are all in a rage
over?”

  Before Zol could answer, a giggling feminine vice chided him. “Zaz, where are your manners?”

  Star watched as a petite female, one even shorter of stature than her, made her way forward. She had long purple hair and amber eyes.

  “The same place as his talent,” Zol snickered. “Lost somewhere in the richness of time.”

  “I am not that bad of an artist!” Zaz snorted, a puff of white smoke bellowing up from his cavernous-like nostrils.

  “Zaz, as an artist, you should content yourself with building aeries.”

  Even the put upon dragon had to laugh at that quip, and Star was pleased to see that Zol sharpened his dangerously humorous wit on more than the members of his Quad. The Dragonish had a tongue like a keen edged knife and everyone seemed to know it.

  “So you have me figured out, do you, young one?”

  “Young one,” the female laughed. “You are only a week earlier hatched than Zol!”

  “And we both are being rude,” Zaz decided, ending the amusing give and take. “And you have yet to formally introduce us to you partner.”

  “Star.” Zol stood up, totally ignoring his nude state, and nodded towards the two newcomers. “I would like you to meet Zazolm and his mate partner Keirie.”

  “Oh…” she stammered for a moment, torn between covering her breasts with her hands or offering them in an open manner to show friendship. “Um…?”

  “Churlish, Zol,” Zaz snorted while carefully resting his bulk along the edge of the bath. “Churlish to expect her to know our customs when she was reared by humans.”

  Star blushed, and shot an evil glare at Zol.

  “You need only rest your nose like this,” Keirie leaned forward and rested her chin on Star’s shoulder, burying her nose behind her ear for a moment, before pulling back. “And inhale deeply.”

  Smiling at the friendly gesture, Star copied it all the while admitting that this was an effective way of showing trust. If someone wanted to do you harm, they only had to sink their teeth into your neck. And if you were attacked in this position, you could easily retaliate by gouging out delicate eyes or tearing at the vulnerable throat.