Dragons of the Wild

[Lord Sia]

With Moon gone, so too was Cloud's distraction, and he found himself thinking. It was an old habit of his, and not a happy one either, born as it was of loneliness and silence. Without the source of light and love that was his Moon, he found his mind clouded once more, old fears and hurts twisting and changing, like snakes shedding their skins, all the better to turn his new-found happiness against him.

How could she love him? She, who was so beautiful and special and wonderful, while he was a lumpy, smoking mess of a lizard? Was it really love, or was it pity for the poor freak? Or perhaps she was just using him, like a human hitching a big, stupid ox to draw her heavy carriage? Would she turn on him, abandon him, drive him away like the others had?

Cloud clenched his eyes shut and braced as he felt old hurts rise to the surface, wounds deeper than flesh and sharper than teeth. He could imagine it, all too vividly; Moon taunting him about his tainted breath, stealing his food in a show of dominance, turning her back on him and flying away...

... But rather than twisting the claw in his heart, the images caused him to snort in unexpected mirth.

Moon, taunt him about his breath? That seemed about as likely as the actual moon coming down to mock him in person.

Moon, stealing his food? She was the one who had submitted to him; in fact, it seemed more likely that he would have to force her to eat her share, especially now that she'd be eating for two - or more.

Moon, turning her back on him and flying away? That, he could actually see, but between the come-hither glances and teasing wiggle of her tail she didn't seem to be trying very hard to actually leave him behind, and even less upset when he caught up to her and pulled her into a brief wrestle before pinning her to the soft grass on the riverbank and-

Cloud felt himself relax, tension he hadn't even noticed he was carrying easing out of his body as he slumped to the forest floor, a light smile tugging at his face as he released the breath he had been holding, inky black smog flowing across the forest floor like a flood of darkness. For the first time since... He couldn't even remember when... He did not feel the sickly fire of shame, burning in his blood.

If he hadn't been looking for her, he wouldn't have noticed the faint glimmer of Moon approaching, as silently as her namesake. But the faint glitter of her scales under the starlight was enough to stoke the new fires burning in his blood, hotter and purer than any he had felt before.

If his breath flowed a little thicker, hotter and heavier than before? She wouldn't care. And so, neither did he.

 

[WolfOfProphecys]

Seeing him laying there, looking more aware than earlier, sent relief through the smaller female. She wobbled unsteadily, having used most of her magic to help heal him, to soothe his pains, and it was making her more sluggish. She carried her water soaked moss quickly to his side, and nudged it against his mouth, “Drink Alpha...” she mumbled, clearly worried and concerned for him.

She settled in front of him, ignoring the smog he was breathing out. She loved his smoke, it was so warm and curled around her like a blanket. Usually her cool breath counteracted it, letting her breathe normally in it, she’d found, but with her magic low she coughed a little, though otherwise tried to hide any discomfort.

Instead, she let a few wisps of her remaining magic breath leave her mouth for his scales, hoping to soothe him in any way possible, “How do you feel?” She asked, soft and kind

 

[Lord Sia]

If he hadn't been watching her so intently, Cloud wouldn't have noticed Moon's fatigue; she was still ten times more graceful than he on his best day, but compared to how she normally flowed forth, he couldn't help but feel a pang of worry. As she dropped the soaked moss - why hadn't he ever thought of that? - in front of him he opened his mouth, but her gentle admonishment for him to drink made him pause. Instead of speaking, he took the moss in his mouth and allowed the cool, earthy water to soothe his parched throat.

At the same time, he reached out, and gently pulled the smaller dragon to his side, steadfastly ignoring the winge of pain as he moved his wings to enfold her. Her lithe body, so smooth and cool against his own rough scales, soothed all of his fears, just like her wispy breath wiped away the aches wherever it touched.

In response to her question, feeling both oddly drowsy and yet strangely playful, he simply held her to his body as he rolled onto his back, pulling her on top of him.

For a brief moment, he paused, anticipating his instincts to wail in protest to lying on his back with another dragon literally on top of his weakest side - vulnerable, dangerous, wrong! - but felt not so much as a flicker of doubt. Instead, all he could feel was comfort, pride, protectiveness... Safe.

He curled together briefly, hugging her with his wings and gently nuzzling her worried snout, before relaxing back down, completely splayed out on the forest floor.

 

[WolfOfProphecys]

Moon crooned worriedly for him as he pulled her close with a wince, knowing just how much he must be hurting. She nuzzled his chin, and whined as he pulled her on top of him. He shouldn’t be doing such movements if he was hurting so much, but she allowed him to hug her. As he relaxed back down, she nuzzled under his chin, her soft muzzle against his neck, and huffed a brief, tiny cloud of her breath, likely the last she could manage. She stretched her cool wings out over his, hoping her colder body might help soothe his joints.

She was so scared for him, had certainly been when he’d collapsed, and she was still worrying over him now. But now, when she was so weakened herself after felling the trees for him and using her breath on him, she knew she couldn’t do much more to help other than keep him company. Still, she felt guilty. She shouldn’t have let him push himself so hard.

“I-I’m sorry Alpha....” she mumbled

 

[Lord Sia]

Cloud snorted, a deep rumble of amusement, as he lazily craned his neck back up to meet Moon's eyes. Slowly, he arched an eye-ridge, the question clear in his eyes.

"Sorry?" He asked, still hugging her to his soft - well, relatively soft - underbelly. "For what?" He kept staring at her, and when she opened her mouth to answer he interrupted with a possessive squeeze, as hard as he dared without fear of hurting her, turning whatever she was going to say into an adorable squeak. Still hugging her tightly, he leaned in and gently nuzzled her, his deep voice purring softly in her ear.

"Meeting you," he whispered, "is the best thing that ever happened to me." He paused to give her a quick lick, his tongue burning hot against the cool skin beneath her jaw. "And the only one who should be sorry is the fool who left such a treasure unclaimed."

 

[WolfOfProphecys]

Moon flattened her ears as he seemed amused. Insecurity flooded her veins. Was he making fun of her? Did he know that he deserved so much more than a sorry from a mate that had failed him? Would he not want her anymore?

She opened her mouth to reply, but it indeed turned into a soft, adorable squeak as her mate squeezed her smaller body. She carefully snuggled into him, pressing her cold body against his warm one. She loved the heat he provided her with just by laying there. She always felt cold, and she loved the heat. Though... it wasn’t always good for her.

His next words relaxed her, shuddering happily as he licked at her cold scales, tilting her head up as he did so, feeling the heat linger on her jaw. She crooned, But net his gaze after a moment, “You deserve so much better than me, my Alpha...”

 

[Lord Sia]

Cloud frowned at Moon's words, and decided to show his displeasure by reaching up with one arm to bop her on the nose, the way an elder chides a wyrmling, before giving her a quick nuzzle to show that he meant no insult, instead letting his claws trace gently down her neck and sides, trying to tease a reaction from her.

"That's my Moon you're talking about," he chided, only half-jokingly. "You better take that back or I'll... Hrm... Well, I'll think of something, I'm sure."

He was in fact thinking of quite a few things, but they were aimed at the treacherous lizards who had convinced Moon that she was worthless. Any gratitude he might have felt over their contribution to their meeting in the first place was vastly overshadowed by his anger.

Of course, holding on to that anger was pointless while snuggling with his dragonette, so he silently buried the blazing embers deep inside of his heart, and turned his focus back to her. Grudges were a treasure of sorts, after all, and there would be a time and a place for him to collect on them - but that was not here and now.

Now, he wanted to see how sensitive she was to tickling. Purely for reference, of course.

 

[WolfOfProphecys]

Moons head recoiled back in surprise as he booped her on the nose like he was telling her off, and quietly nuzzled back when he pressed his scales to her own, wishing to be as close to him as possible and do as her Alpha wanted. She wanted to make him happy after all.

She blinked at him, and opened her mouth to argue that she was right, that he deserved better than her. He deserved a strong female, who could bare strong children for him. Who would be able to have enough strength to help him when he felt bad like this.

But her thoughts were cut off as he ticked her, and she squealed in amusement. She wiggled her body against him as she made sweet squeaking sounds, eyes bright with amusement.

 

[Lord Sia]

As it turned out, Moon was indeed quite ticklish, just as Cloud had suspected. And watching her writhe and squeal with laughter was like a balm to his soul, causing pain both old and new to fade as he allowed himself to slip into childish playfulness.

"Yield, foolish hatchling, yield before my claws of Death!" He rumbled in the most pompous tone he could muster.

 

[WolfOfProphecys]

Moon giggled and squirmed beneath his ‘claws of Death’, shaking her head as she laughed. She was glad he was feeling at least a little better, enough that he was playing with her anyway. No matter how tired she was, having him even look happier cheered her up a lot.

“I-I’ll never s-surrender!” She squealed, laughing all the while