Chapter 54: Dreams of the Dragon Milf

Thanks to the consummate display of sensual ministrations that my harem of nubile monster girls had just bestowed on me, I fell asleep so swiftly and deeply that, as I drifted away into dreamland, part of me wondered if I was going to be out for another three months.

When I opened my eyes again, though, I wasn’t lying in a  sticky cuddle puddle beset on all sides by horny concubines, but was instead standing on a mountain path. I looked down at my body—I was still naked, but I didn’t feel cold. This was worth noting because the roaring wind and flurries of ice and snow surely signaled to me that I should at the very least have a shriveled sack and diamond-tipped nipples, but no. It was as though I was still in that bed. I was warm, sweaty, and surrounded by the aroma of fresh sex.

Where was I, though? I could work out pretty quickly that this was a dream of some sort, and with that epiphany I figured I’d wake up almost instantaneously. In the past, that’s how it always worked. Whenever I knew for sure I was in a dream, I’d wake up. But that… didn’t happen. Not yet.

I looked around, more out of bemused curiosity than any sense of foreboding importance, but off in the distance I spotted something worthy of my scrutiny.

At the top of the tallest mountain in the distance, I could make out the shape of a plateau. I wasn’t a geography buff or anything, but having a tableland surface at the apex of the tallest mountain in a range seemed highly suspect.

Unable to do anything else, I continued along the trail, still naked, still warm, and feeling only a remote nagging pain in the wounds on my chest—Keenfury’s Cut, I’d dubbed it in my private thoughts.

I continued on like that for a very long time—hours, maybe? Days? Just walking, plodding, padding my steps through snowy trails until I reached a bridge that connected my mountain to the one with the mesa-like pinnacle.

It was at this time that I noticed two things—firstly, there was no color. I was dreaming in black and white, except for the sky, which was a permanent frosty blue. My skin, my swinging dong, my shaggy hair in my face, all variations on gray and nothing else.

The second thing I noticed was that the pain in my wounds was flaring up—not the wounds on my chest, not Keenfury’s Cut… No, it was the dragon blood scars that left my hands, arms, and neck all mangled up to my chin. The pain was burning—actually, burning wasn’t nearly impactful enough of a word. It was searing, scorching, blazing. The pain was so intense that I could go no further, nor could I even find the strength to step backward.

Instead, I crumbled to the ground like a spoiled child who’d been told he couldn’t watch Power Rangers until he finished his veggies. With similar energy, my fist repeatedly pounded into the snow like a pleading mendicant into the pavement, trying to dismiss the savage agony that felt as though it were ripping my flesh off of my bones—and that wasn’t a hyperbolic overstatement. That was precisely what it felt like.

“Apex Hero, Buck of Dragons, do you hear my words?” It was the cold whisper of someone salaciously sexy and dripping with authority. I jerked  my head around, enduring the pain to try and find the source of the dulcet tones.

“I hear you!” I grunted in a near-shout. “Who is this?”

“The Lusterian Elves of Wood and Field know me as Terastrazia,” she said, still out of sight.

I groaned and rolled onto my back, staring blankly up at the sky, seething and breathing heavily through clenched teeth. “It hurts!” I shouted.

“Your dragon wounds are set ablaze by my proximity. This will not do, Dragon Buck.”

“It’s Bucky Drake, actually,” I managed to blurt out before letting out another guttural cry.

“No—you are the Dragon Buck, destined to save the race of dragons from extinction, though your auspicious name is indeed a portent.”

I could hardly process what she was saying. “Get me out of here, please,” I almost sobbed—it hurt so badly I could barely remember to breathe.

Her humming voice came back at me, and I felt her shadow overhead, but I couldn’t open my eyes from the pain. “You must heal your wounds with the Tears of a Nymph—it is the only cure for dragon burns. Then seek me in these heights, Bucky Drake, high atop the highest table in the Wildspine Range. Wake up, Dragon Buck. Wake up!”

With that, my eyes shot open, and I was back in bed in a pile of naked flesh, panting and breathing hard, groping at my dragon wounds, but they no longer stung.

What had just happened? Was I there, or was I not? It felt so real—the pain was excruciating. Even now a specter of that pain still niggled at the back of my mind.

Autumn sat up, hearing me breathe heavily and clearly disturbed, and she cast me a rather worried expression.

“What is it, Bucky?” she whispered.

I was glad it was her waking up. I gestured to the door. She followed my finger to it with her eyes, then looked back at me and nodded. We surreptitiously snuck out of bed, throwing on our clothes, and walked into the short corridor. The door shut quietly behind us—not soundlessly. Just quietly.

We made  our way without speaking toward a little courtyard where a half-carved statue of me next to the Goblin Queen stood erected before a pool of clear water filled with glimmering orange fish not unlike koi.

Autumn didn’t break her gaze from me the whole time. Sitting down in the grass, and leading me to the ground as well, she stared intently into my eyes and said, “Tell me what you saw.”

“How did you know?” I asked.

She nodded at my arms. “Your wounds lit up, bright red, and you were mumbling something. It sounded like questions. Are you alright, daddy?”

I smirked. She was taking the new nickname seriously. Well… I wasn’t going to correct her.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, stroking my neck, feeling the rough and broken texture of the scars there. “It was the Dragon Empress.”

Her kitty cat eyes went all wide and cute, and her tail went taut. “Terastrazia? What did she want?”

“She told me how I could heal my wounds,” I said. “I had to get the tears of a nymph. Is that a euphemism or the name of some kind of herb?”

She frowned, chewing on her lip before answering a few seconds later. “I’m going to assume that she meant it literally, as nymph secretions are known for their magical properties.”

I cringed a bit at the word ‘secretions,’ wondering what else she might be including in that subset. “Well, then I guess we’ve got to find a nymph and kick her puppy,” I said.

Autumn giggled at that and placed a gentle hand on my arm. “How does it feel now, daddy?”

“Feels nice when you rub it a bit,” I said.

Her hand started going up and down my arm and neck in long doting strokes. “Like this?”

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“You like it, daddy?”

I almost cracked up at the odd juxtaposition of the kinky nickname in such an innocent situation. Nevertheless, the hotness of her calling me that did get me thinking about other things. “Yeah, just like that,” I said, surrendering for now to the comfort of her touch.

“Softer, daddy? Or harder?”

“Shit,” I groaned, biting my lip. “You’re doing fine.”

She took a big breath—big for her, anyway—and raised her other hand to stroke my other arm with equal gentleness. “So I guess it’s true,” she noted. “You’re some kind of dragon breeding stud, too.”

“Seems like it,” I agreed. “But I’m still not sure why I would want to save the dragons if they’re going around burning farms.”

Autumn’s eyes lit up. “Oh, Bucky. Dragons adopt the moral compass of their father. The last breeder was a tyrant and an evil man named Tarknash Im Kai’ro. If you really are a dragon breeder, it’ll be a huge deal.”

“So why aren’t you more excited?” I said, noting the relative calm that she exposited this seemingly vital information.

“Dragons mature slowly,” she shrugged. “It’ll be a century before any of them are fighting age, most likely. It doesn’t help us in this war—unless the queen herself is willing to fight for you.”

That made more sense. I nodded, understanding. “Okay,” I grunted. “But it does seem like a good long-term thing to nail down.”

“Absolutely,” she nodded fervently. “You must. And the nearest nymph is probably a couple days away on Blue’s back in the Darkwood to the east.”

“Is that the one across the Aurora River?” I said, trying to remember.

She smiled at me. “You remember.”

“Bits and pieces of conversations people had around me are coming back to me,” I said. “I remember people talking about Aurora City, and the Darkwood, and how Shard City has…”

“Fallen,” Autumn interrupted. “It’s been taken over by the Witch Queen, but the good news is for now both the Witch Queen and Demon Queen aren’t showing any signs of trying to move west.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

She shrugged. “We have been collaborating with the centaurs, and they’ve come to a tepid peace with Marrowheart. Even the wood elves have agreed to an armistice in the Watcher’s Woods, so the southwestern region is more united than it has ever been. And the north is an utter mess with the failed insurrection going on up there.”

“We need to take care of that soon, though,” I grunted. “Feels weirdly vulnerable to have the Goblin Queen’s original castle overrun.”

“I agree,” she said, still stroking my arms, focusing more on my neck, though. “That’s why we need to rush your coronation and consummation with Marrowheart as soon as possible.”

I felt my cheeks grow heated. “I’m not sure when I’ll be ready for that.”

“Well—maybe we should make getting the Nymph’s tears your priority once you heal up a bit more. That should at least bring down the worst of  your injuries and pain.”

I reached out and put a hand on her leg. “You know I’m game, but Autumn, there’s something else I wanted to talk to you about.”

Autumn’s eyes went doe-like, cutely wide as she tried to guess at what I wanted to say, but I could tell she couldn't. “What do you want, daddy?”

“I have two markable monster girl slots remaining,” I said. “I want to mark you as soon as possible.”

I saw her try to fight back a grin. “Yes, daddy. I’m so ready.”

“Okay, new rule,” I groaned. “Call me Bucky when we’re not fucking or about to fuck. It’s starting to feel weird.”

Autumn blushed, brushing back a strand of her golden hair in embarrassment. “Sorry, I’m not great with nicknames.”

“Oh, I’d say you’ve been too good with it,” I chuckled. “But anyway, I’m ready. As soon as I can, I want to mark you. I mean it. I want nothing more.”

She nodded, but then her mouth opened like she wanted to add something, but she didn't speak.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Do you know about… the elf?”

“Oh,” I grinned. “I can mark one elf. Yes, I have questions about that. How much did it cost you?”

Her smile wilted to a frown. “All my catgirl powers,” she sighed. “But that’s okay, Bucky. I wasn’t going to use too many of them anyway. And I can ask for Winter’s help if we need to meet with the gods again.”

I pulled her in, reaching around her back and tugging her against my body in a tight embrace, ignoring the pain it caused. “You’re amazing,” I said. “I just hope I can be worthy of you.”

“You already are, or I wouldn’t have done it,” she said, nibbling on my ear as she hugged me back and nuzzled her cheek into my neck.

I just hugged her like that for a long time. There was more to discuss, but it could wait. I was still thinking about which elf I’d mark, and I didn’t want to press her with too many questions about how it’d work until I was actually ready to do it. For now I just needed to enjoy being back, being alive, so that I could heal in heart and body.

Another decision to make was which other monster girl to mark besides Autumn, but that was a fairly obvious choice. Bonny would have to be it—she bore my first children and had been nothing but good to me since I’d known her. I desperately wanted to keep her close, and I knew—somehow I just knew—that she had been coveting a closer connection with me for quite some time.

After a time, we returned to bed. A few hours later, though, we all got up, me included, and I tried to make myself useful on the farm but was admonished at every turn.

Even Gumi scolded me when she saw me bending over trying to trim dead leaves off of plants and help with the tending.

“No, Bucky, no!” she said rather passionately. “Bad Bucky! Gumi need Bucky go! Go, Bucky! Rest! Tonight Gumi help Bucky rest!”

Tired of being told what to do, I snuck behind the keep where there were only a few goblins hanging around, and they couldn't give two shits what I did with my time. I let out a shrill practiced whistle and grinned at the immediacy with which I watched my blue dragon-steed barreling toward me from the clouds.

He landed with a skidding thud and nuzzled me so forcefully, whinnying so exaggeratedly it reminded me of those videos of needy dogs you’d see freaking out when their masters got home from vacation.

“Relax, boy!” I laughed, petting his neck lovingly. “Good boy, let’s go for a ride, what do you say?”

“Daddy?” a tiny familiar voice sounded out behind me. “What are you doing with Blue?”

I whipped back and saw Carrotina standing there, wearing a cute little white dress that was a bit dirty from rolling around on the ground or whatever it is that bunny girl kids do for fun.

“What’s that you got in your hands, sweety?” I asked, pointing at a half-open burlap sack of carrots.

She closed it in a rush. “Nothing,” she said. Then she looked over her shoulder guiltily. “Don’t tell mommy, please!” she squeaked.

“Did you steal carrots from the farm?” I asked her, trying to take a fatherly tone, but more or less grinning ear to ear.

“Maaaaybe,” she confessed. “Can you keep my secret, daddy?”

“That depends,” I said. “I don’t think your mommy would like me riding Blue until I’m done healing up, so let’s make a deal.”

Her floppy bunny ears shot up. “What deal?” she said.

“Don’t tell anyone that I’m going for a ride, and I won’t tell mommy about those carrots, but you have to promise me you won’t steal them again.”

She frowned. “You had me until the last bit, daddy,” she whimpered.

I laughed a bit too loudly at that. “Get over here, you little pumpkin,” I said, and I reached down and swooped her up in my arms, causing her to giggle happily. “Hang on tight, okay?”

Her eyes went wide. “What are we doing?”

I grinned at her and pecked her once on her twitchy nose. “Let’s go for a father-daughter dragon ride.”