The Black Collar: Chapter Seventeen

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Chapter Seventeen

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Late afternoon sun painted the island gold when Alvaranox and Kirra returned. Alv left the sword and helmet behind. They reminded him more of death than victory. The sword was too heavy for Kirra. Alvaranox decided to let it rot in the sun along with the bodies of his attempted slayers. The dragon did not want to talk to Kirra about his latest vision but nor he did not want to leave her worrying. Alvaranox told her he saw memories from another Guardian Slave who could not protect her home.

As Alvaranox flew back towards Asterryl, questions whirled in his mind like dead leaves spinning in the wind. Why was he seeing these things now? Why did he see Asterryl burning? Was the collar trying to warn him what would happen if he failed? He did not want to be Asterryl’s slave, yet he held no real desire to see the place burned or its people slaughtered.

That dragon in his vision. She seemed so heartbroken. She must have cared for those people. It seemed as though they’d treated her better than Asterryl treated him. Why were the men in the black and red cloaks there? Were they not dragon slayers?

“Alv,” Kirra said, loudly enough to draw the dragon from his thoughts. “We should go for a swim.”

Alvaranox blinked a few times. He looked back at Kirra as he glided over the waters of the Lake Of Teeth. The water reflected the golden sunlight, and the dragon’s eyes reflected the glowing waters. “What?”

“You heard me, you silly beast,” Kirra said, laughing. She stroked his neck with her hand. “I know you’re upset, and I want to cheer you up. You told me one of the first things you wanted to do when you were healed was go for a swim. If I recall correctly, you even invited me to swim with you. Why don’t we go swimming now, while its still so nice and warm? It’ll take your mind off things for a while.”

Alvaranox turned his gaze back towards the horizon, smiling. Of all the things Kirra rightfully had to worry about if something was going wrong with the collar, what most concerned her? Alvaranox’s mood. Knowing Kirra was more worried about the dragon himself than the town he protected was enough to lift Alvaranox’s spirits.

“Yes,” the dragon said, angling his wings as he began to descend. “Let’s go swimming.”

Alvaranox swept in low over his island, swooping over the forested section. Leaves rustled and boughs swayed in the downdrafts from the dragon’s wings. The forest was not large, but it was beautiful. Rounded stones worn smooth by time and the elements littered the forest floor, often draped in blankets of emerald moss. Patches of dead leaves stirred beneath the dragon’s wings. Trees grew wherever roots found purchase between rocks. The oldest trees’ twisted, barky roots grew over the top of rocks, seeking the distant earth. Oak trees held sway in the little forest, but a collection of towering pines and a scattering of narrow, white-trunked poplars suggested that some of the trees were planted by the island’s former residents.

Alvaranox descended just past the forest to land in the expanse of sandy shoreline. His wings blew sand around, and his paws kicked up more of it as he touched down and trotted a few steps. Once he’d come to a stop, Kirra swung her leg over him and hopped down onto the shore. She patted his side, smiling up at him.

“You alright, Alv?”

Alvaranox looked back at Kirra, nodding. “I am, yes.” He nuzzled her, then smiled. “Thank you, though.”

“Of course.” Kirra rubbed the scales protecting his ribs for a moment. Her smile faded, replaced by earnest conviction burning in her emerald eyes. “You’re my friend, Alv. I care about you. When things trouble you, I want to help. Now. Enough solemn talk. Let’s swim!”

When Kirra moved out of the way, Alvaranox folded his wings and turned towards the waters. Waves gently lapped at the beach. Further into the water, a few small white caps rolled across the horizon. The scent of water floated on the breeze. Alvaranox smiled. Already the lake was relaxing him a little.

The dragon watched Kirra for a moment. “Be careful of the far end of the beach. That’s where the dock was. I ripped it out ages ago, but I don’t want you to injure yourself on any leftover mornings or broken anchor poles.”

“Thank you,” Kirra called back. She took off her dark green cloak, and folded it up. Then she walked up the shore to where the moss-covered stones and forest gave way to smaller pebbles and sand. “I’m going to leave my clothes up here so they don’t get wet, or sandy.”

“Alright, Kirra,” Alvaranox said, drawing little sigils in the sand with a claw. They were old runes he remembered from his childhood. His mother used to teach him how to scribe them with his claws. He sighed, and slapped the sand with his paw, dashing the runes. “The water’s not going to be too cold for you, is it?”

“Not unless the water on your island is a lot colder than the water on Asterryl’s shore.”

That seemed unlikely. The water was cold but on a hot day like this it was refreshing rather than frigid. Alvaranox glanced over at Kirra. She was removing her clothes. He hadn’t considered the fact she might swim nude while he was around.

Kirra sat on a mossy stone, and pulled off her boots. She took her socks off, and stuffed them into the boots. Then she stood back up, paying little attention to the dragon watching her. Either she hadn’t noticed Alvaranox was watching, or she didn’t care. The fact she turned her back to him as she continued to strip made it a little harder for the dragon to tell. She unbuttoned the long sleeve blouse she wore, exposing fair skin as she pulled it off. Though the sun’s kiss had darkened her face and arms in the weeks she spent in the sun with Alvaranox, it had not done the same to the rest of her body. She folded her shirt and set it atop her cloak, then began to unbutton her breeches.

“Are you going to swim naked?” The dragon asked before he could stop himself.

Kirra froze. She jerked her head around to stare at the dragon with wide green eyes, red curls swaying. “I was going to, unless you have a complaint?”

“Certainly not,” the dragon said, lifting his spines. “You do not mind me seeing you that way?”

“Not as long as you don’t spend the whole time staring at me like some dirty old pervert,” Kirra said, laughing. She finished unbuttoning her black breeches and tugged them down, revealing the plump curves of her bare rump.

“I’m not old,” the dragon said, smirking. Perhaps this was a good chance to embarrass Kirra. “Does that mean its alright to stare?”

Kirra giggled to herself as she wriggled out of her breeches. “Please yourself,” she said, bending over to pull her breeches over her feet. “Wait, that’s not what I meant!”

The dragon’s eyes widened. She looked as though she was presenting herself. He caught a glimpse of red hair where he had not anticipated it. Intriguing. Alvaranox swallowed hard, glancing away. Heat rushed through the dragon’s body. His ears, frills and nose all flushed purple. The dragon felt himself tingle and swell, and he hissed under his breath. Maybe he’d better just get in the water.

“You win this round,” Alvaranox muttered, sloshing out into the lake. The water was cold around his paws but not unpleasant. He waded through it quickly, seeking the calming coldness of the deeper water. When the cold waters reached his underbelly, the dragon shivered, scales clicking.

Kirra soon waded out to join him. The dragon glanced back at her, this time catching a glimpse of the soft roundness of her breasts, and the flash of red hair between her thighs. Her body looked quite soft under all her clothes, her skin smooth. She looked a little rounder in the middle than he would have realized with her clothing on. Though he wanted to look away, he found his eyes lingering. Kirra saw him looking, and her own face flushed scarlet as she waded out until the water was covering her.

“Sorry,” the dragon murmured, licking his nose.

“Don’t be,” Kirra said, the water sloshing around neck. “I’d look if I was you. Besides, you’ve probably not seem many humans naked before, after all. Other than when you tossed Nylah in that hay pile.”

The memory made Alvaranox laugh. “I have seen them a few times.” He grinned down at Kirra a moment, then cocked his head. “May I ask a question about your body?”

Kirra dunked herself under the water. She was gone a moment, then came back up, shaking her wet hair back and forth. Soggy red curls plastered themselves against her. “Only if I get to ask one about yours.”

“Deal,” the dragon said, looking down at her through the water. “Why does it have hair?”

“Why does…” Kirra looked down through the water as well, and then burst out laughing. “I’ve no idea, Alv! It just does.”

“Why is yours red? Nylah’s is not red there.”

Kirra laughed again, blush deepening. “Because I have red hair, and Nylah doesn’t. Our hair is the same color…well, wherever we have it.” She lifted a hand from the water and shook a dripping finger at him. Cold droplets splattered the dragon’s nose. “Now stop looking at me like that before I slap that gold spot off your nose.”

“I shall try,” Alvaranox said, taking a few steps back. “Ask your question.”

“Do you ever feel naked?” Kirra waved her hand at them. “Or self conscious? I mean, your bits are just…out there. I didn’t feel self conscious about swimming in the nude around you because you’re a dragon, and you’re always nude. At least, I didn’t until you decided to point it out.”

“I do not understand the question.”

Kirra folded her arms over her breasts, beneath the water. “Remember that day you woke up…you know. And your spear was…”

“That was the bluestrand,” the dragon said, snapping his jaws. “I could not help it! Sometimes that herb has that effect. You know that.”

“You sure were embarrassed!”

“Yes,” the dragon said, snorting. “I was. But I see what you’re asking. No. Normally we‘re not embarrassed to be naked. Not the way you are. Our bodies simply are the way they are. But it is different for a male when he is…”

Alvaranox trailed off, and Kirra smirked at him. “Aroused?”

“Yes.”

Kirra’s smirk grew into giggles. “So that’s why you rushed into the water while I was taking my clothes off. To hide your spear! You dirty lizard.”

“I did not,” Alvaranox said, hissing. Then he glanced away, flattening his still-purple hued ears back against his skull. “…Maybe a little.”

“I should have known!” Kirra said, laughing. “I knew you were staring at my rump the other day when we took your stitches out!”

“It’s not as though there are any other females for me to stare at,” Alvaranox muttered.

Kirra went quiet a moment. She hadn’t meant to bring up painful memories for the dragon. She was just having fun teasing him, and she thought he was having fun, too. “I didn’t mean…”

That was as far as she got before Alvaranox leapt forward, and slapped both his front paws against the surface of the water. An immense wave crashed over Kirra’s face, and sent her stumbling backwards. She slipped beneath the surface and came up a few moments later. Over the sounds of her own coughing and sputtering, she heard the dragon laughing at her.

“Oh! You brat!” Kirra laughed along with the dragon, realizing she’d been had. “I am going to get you for that!”

“Good luck with that, woman!” Alvaranox backed away again, grinning at her. For a moment, he really had lamented the fact he hadn’t seen a female dragon for ages. But Kirra asked him to go swimming to lighten his mood, not darken it. And Alvaranox would be damned if he was going to let a little slip of the tongue ruin the rest of his afternoon.

Kirra sloshed through the water towards the dragon, slapping at the surface with her hands. Cascades of spray splattered Alvaranox’s face. When some of the cold droplets got him in the eyes, he yelped and turned his head away. “Truce! Truce!” The dragon laughed, rubbed his eyes, and then turned back towards Kirra only to find that the woman had vanished. “Kirra?”

For a moment, Alvaranox peered around for her. Kirra erupted from the water, wet red hair flying in all directions. She hoisted her hands up over her head, and before the dragon had a chance to react, she hurled a double handful of mud scooped up from the lake bottom at him. The foul-smelling muck splattered just between the dragon’s ridged black horns. It speckled his green scales with brown and dripped into his copper eyes.

“Aaarrggggg! I’m blind!” Alvaranox stumbled back and forth in the water, sending waves rolling across the surface of the lake. “No fair using mud!”

“No fair being ten times my size,” Kirra said through her laughter. “That’s for dunking me!”

“I did not dunk you,” Alvaranox said, hissing. He thrust his head beneath the water, shaking it back and forth to clear the mud. Alv jerked his head up from the water, the spray of droplets thrown from his muzzle caught the sun and shone in a scintillating rainbow. “Now I’m going to dunk you!”

Alvaranox charged towards Kirra. Kirra shrieked and backpedaled away from the beast. As he lunged at her, intent on pushing her under the surface, Kirra slipped to the side, just out of his grasp. Kirra laughed and rolled over onto her belly on the surface, quickly swimming away from the baffled dragon. He wasn’t quite sure how she was doing that, as he’d never actually watched a human swim before. He always thought when humans said they were swimming, he just meant they were wading and flopping about in the water.

Kirra’s feet tore at the surface, sending spray in all directions. Her hands knifed through the water as she propelled herself across the lake. Every few moments she tilted her head to take another breath. Alvaranox watched her for a while, fascinated. When she began to circle back towards him, he waded closer to join her.

“You’re quite good at that,” the dragon said, raising his eyes ridges. “I am impressed.”

“Thank you,” Kirra said, breathing a little harder as she came to a stop. She began to tread water in front of the dragon. “I learned to swim when I was a girl. Always enjoyed it! I can swim on my back, too, and a few other ways.”

“I did not know that.” He grinned at her, licking droplets form his nose. “I don’t think Nylah can swim half as well as you.”

Kirra grinned, poking the dragon on the nose. “Alright, your turn. Let’s see you swim now. Do you use your wings?”

“No,” Alvaranox said, shaking his head. “I use my paws, and my tail. I keep my wings folded tightly. The membranes provide too much resistance against the water. It is harder to move them around underwater than it is in the air.”

Alvaranox took a breath, and launched himself off the lake bottom. He dug at the water with his paws. The dragon quickly swam away from Kirra, his wings folded tightly as the cold water washed across him. He scooped at the water with his front paws, pushed it with his back paws, and the tucked all four limbs up against his belly. Then the dragon wriggled himself a little, working his long tail back and forth against the water like an oversized paddle.

Kirra called out somewhere behind him. “You look like an giant scaly dog crossed with a snake!”

“That is an insult to both dogs, and snakes!” Alvaranox called back to Kirra, grinning to himself. Then he realized he’d gotten that backwards. “Wait! Turn that around!”

“Too late!” Kirra said, laughing.

Alvaranox pushed his paws out again, treading water over a deeper section of the lake. The water was cold but the warm sunshine against his back and wings balanced it out. Soon, Kirra swam out upon her back to join him. To Alvaranox her backstroke looked both graceful and chaotic, all flailing limbs and spraying water and elegant motion. Kirra’s wet skin shone in the sunlight, the water splashing around her flickered like fragments of broken crystal.

Alvaranox wasn’t sure it was appropriate, but part of him thought Kirra looked beautiful in the water and sunshine.

When Kirra came up to the dragon, she came to a stop for only a moment before she swam around behind him. Alvaranox glanced back at her, wary of some kind of sneak attack. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Kirra answered his question by wrapping her hands around his tail spines. She beamed at him. “Pull me through the water!”

“What do you think I am, a festival ride?” Alvaranox flared one of his wings, slapping it against the lake’s surface with a resounding clap.

“No, if you were a festival ride I’d have to pay.” Kirra laughed, tugging the dragon’s spines back and forth. “Now pull me!”

“Oh very well,” Alvaranox said, trying and failing to sound exasperated. “Hold on tightly, then!”

The dragon began to swim forward. He paddled at the water with his paws, gradually picking up his pace. His tail swept behind him a little, swishing Kirra through the water. As he swam faster, Kirra gave a little squeal of glee. She held fast to his tail spines as Alvaranox swam all around the island. Kirra laughed and cried out in delight the entire time. The more Kirra laughed, the more Alvaranox found himself smiling. The dragon glanced back at her a few times. Water sprayed up around her body and she didn‘t mind in the least when it splashed into her face. Red curls trailed through the water around her head.

Alvaranox swam and swam until his legs and back were burning. “Alright,” The dragon called back to her. “I need a break.” The dragon eased to a stop, and grinned at Kirra as she released his tail. “Now, you pull me.”

Kirra laughed at that, swatting playfully at his haunch. “I would if I could, Alv.”

Alvaranox flicked his wing, sending droplets splattering Kirra. “I’m going to head back towards the island so I can catch my breath without treading water.”

The dragon began to paddle back towards the beach. Before he could stop her, Kirra grabbed at his tail again, laughing. “No sense in both of us swimming!”

“Brat,” Alvaranox called back, grinning.

Alvaranox pulled Kirra into the shallows around the island. She released his tail, and Alvaranox flopped down into the water, his belly resting upon the muddy bottom. Water sloshed up against his sides. As soon as he was settled down Kirra tried to climb up onto his back. The dragon’s wet scales were slick, and with a squeal Kirra slipped right back down into the water. Her little scream vanished beneath the surface. When she reemerged she was coughing and sputtering again.

“What do you think you’re doing?” The dragon cocked his head. He perked a single ear and lifted his spines.

“As long as you’re going to laze around, I was going to do the same.” Kirra looked the dragon over, planning her ascent. “I was going to lay in the sun on your back.”

“Isn’t that what the shoreline is for?”

“The shore’s all sandy. I don’t want sand…well, anywhere.”

Alvaranox took a deep breath, and let it out in a long sigh. “Oh, very well. Wet as I am, your easiest climb is likely my tail.”

“Thanks, Alv,” Kirra said, swimming around to the dragon’s tail again.

This time Kirra was much more careful in her attempts to climb up the wet dragon’s scaly body. She straddled his tail, and then climbed up to his haunches. From there she wriggled on her belly until she’d reached the point of his back just between his wing joints. Then she stretched herself out, laying against the dragon’s scales. Kirra gave a happy sigh, enjoying the feeling of the dragon’s warmth against one side of her body, the sunshine against the other.

“You feel nice and warm, Alv,” Kirra said, sounding a little drowsy.

“So do you,” Alvaranox replied, feeling conflicted.

The dragon wasn’t sure how scales felt against skin, but skin felt lovely against scales. Warm and soft in ways he tried to forget. He missed the touch and scent of females. He’d probably never see another dragon again. But he saw Kirra. He grit his teeth, trying to force the thoughts from his head before he ended up buried in the mud. Still. Kirra was his friend. If not for Nylah, Kirra would have been his best friend by now. As it was, that was a gap that seemed narrower by the day.

“Kirra…”

“Yes, Alv?” Kirra lifted her head from the dragon’s scales. She looked as drowsy as she sounded.

“Do you have a lover?”

“What?” Kirra blinked, taken aback by the question. Nervousness flickered in her eyes, and brought a hint of scarlet back to cheeks that had only recently turned to their normal hue. “Not at the moment. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“I was only curious.” Alvaranox lowered his head till the water brushed his chin.

“Well then, Mister Curious,” Kirra said, grinning. She traced her fingers in little circles across the dragon’s scales. It was more intimate a feeling than Alvaranox would have expected from so little a gesture. “If you must know, while I’ve certainly shared beds with men I fancied, I’ve been too busy helping you recover lately to spend much time with anyone else.”

“Oh,” the dragon said. Alvaranox was irritated and surprised to feel his heart sinking a little. For a moment he peered at his own reflection in the lake. In the water, his coppery eyes took on a faintly blue tint. He wondered if some of men she fancied might not even want to be with a woman stuck caring for a dragon. “I’m sorry about that. At least now you won’t have to spend as much time with me.”

Kirra tensed upon his back. She nearly went rigid with horror when she realized how that must have sounded to the dragon. “No, Alv! No, no no! Please, I didn’t mean it that way. Not at all!”

Alvaranox turned his head to peer at her. Confusion and uncertainty swirled in his metallic eyes. The dragon cocked his head, his breath nearly catching in his throat. “What way did you mean it?”

“Alv…” Kirra sat up on the dragon’s back, pushing wet curls out of her face. “I’ve many years to find a man I want to spend my life with. With any luck, some day I will, and when I retire as your handler, I can settle down with him. But right now, you are my first, my second, and my third concern.”

Kirra leaned forward to wrap her arms around the dragon’s neck. Alvaranox felt her warmth and softness pressed to his scales. “I don’t know if you realized how happy I was just to be asked to share this island with you. You’re my best friend, Alvaranox, and you deserve so much better than this cursed collar. It pierces my heart to know that I cannot set you free. You don’t deserve to be stuck here. You should be free to go and find yourself a female, find yourself a lover! Have hatchlings with her, and scare all the idiot humans you want!”

Alvaranox swallowed, trying to dislodge the sudden lump in his throat. His voice was as cracked and parched as the wasteland he so often saw in his dreams. “I should very much like those things, Kirra. But I do not delude myself into thinking I shall ever have them.”

Kirra sighed, resting her cheek against his scales. “One day at a time, Alv. Some day you’ll be free. And until then?” Kirra turned her head up, smiling at him. “Until then you have me, at least.”

Alvaranox gave a sigh. The sound seemed to hang low in the air as if weighed down by confusion. Perhaps that was all he’d ever have in Kirra, a friend. Then again, did he actually want something more? With a human? He’d admitted to Nylah if she’d been a dragon…but that was Nylah, and this was…Kirra. Damn it. In the end, it probably didn’t matter.

A friend was enough.

“I am glad to have you, Kirra.”