The Missing Dragon Ch. 05

He lowered his head to kiss the base of her neck, never stopping the tender touch tracing little circles between her thighs. The man was quite able to tease and listen at the same time.

Her smile flashed her teeth, but she found herself happily resigned to his touch. Taking a deep breath, she began her tale.

"Although we were not the first race to venture to Arolius, the elves are the most long-lived of all the races upon this world. In the forests of our homelands, when the magic of our people was at its most potent, we were practically immortal. It is said that the elves were created thousands of years ago, when an ancient servant of The Creator wished to impress her master. She saw the creatures that he had brought from another world, and wished to help them grow and flourish. Those creatures were humans, and she took a small group of them away into her forest and gave them her power. Those were the fathers and mothers of our people, born within the servant's forest realm. We were the servant's idea of perfect beings: graceful and magical beyond anything humanity could hope to offer. The servant brought us before her master, and The Creator did smile upon us. Yet he did not value us above humanity, or indeed above any of his own creations."

Valise cleared her throat a little at that point, pausing for a moment to enjoy the feel of Gregory's lips tracing their way up to her earlobe. She then took a breath and continued the story.

"As you can imagine, this didn't go over too well with the servant. She pleaded with her master to raise the elves to their proper status as the highest creatures upon Arolius, but The Creator didn't seem to see things her way. In the end she submitted to his will, as all things eventually did. My people were sent back to their homeland, but we had been remade with the purpose to rule and guide the world. So The Creator's rejection of their duties came as a rather sudden shock to their pride."

"I imagine it would, after all that trouble," Gregory noted; his voice soft near her ear.

"Indeed. It hurt us; perhaps more than The Creator could have known. We fell into arguments, and small wars broke out over who should lead our race. It was then that Anuvin, one of our greatest heroes, decided to go and speak with The Creator himself. The story goes that Anuvin was a lesser druid of the servant, who packed up his things for a suicidal journey into the Northern Mountains where it was said that The Creator dwelt. Unfortunately for Anuvin, The Creator liked his privacy, and the forests at the base of the mountains were enchanted to keep trespassers occupied in an unending labyrinth of trees. Anuvin stepped into this trap willingly, but The Creator didn't heed him, just as he didn't heed any of the other lost souls who had foolishly trapped themselves within his barrier."

"Ok, is this Creator guy supposed to be a bit of a dick? He kind of sounds like he needs to show a little more awareness of his creations." Gregory's head had lifted and he leaned forward so that she could turn to look upon him.

She seemed quite shocked by this suggestion.

"He was the one who made this world for us. We shouldn't question him," Valise noted.

"Alright, if you say so. Still, it seems like he should maybe have put in a bit more effort. I mean, a giant forest that you can never escape right on his doorstep? Why not just a huge wall or something less harmful? Dick move right there."

"If you're going to spend so much thought into picking apart our mythology we could be here for a long time indeed." Valise had indeed turned to him and narrowed her eyes.

"Fine! I just want to state that for the record I'm with Anuvin at this point."

"As you should be." Her gaze softened and she laughed when he planted a little kiss on the tip of her nose before getting back to her tale. "Anuvin wandered the forest as many before him, and soon fell to madness and isolation. Whilst in this state, he began a habit of talking to the trees for want of hearing a noise that wasn't birdsong or the rustling of the leaves in the wind. He told them stories of his people, stories of the sea, and stories of the world to the south. In the end, he came to know them as old friends and would tend to them as he continued his unending journey. He would clip stray branches, and help the seeding of new trees in fertile ground. The trees listened, and they provided him with fruits and berries to keep him alive as he wandered. Then, one day, he came upon a sapling and began tending to its roots whilst telling it a riddle. He was perhaps less surprised than he should have been when the sapling answered him."

"Hold on a sec, there's talking trees now?" Gregory asked. "I haven't come across any trees out in the forest that were all that talkative."

"Perhaps they don't like the look of you," Valise's tone was sympathetic. Then her grin returned and she laughed at the dumbfounded expression she'd brought to his face. "I'm sorry, that was mean wasn't it? No, trees aren't really prone to talking in this part of the world, but they are living creatures and magic can shift the nature of things quite a bit. There was a lot of magic in the world back then, particularly in The Creator's own enchanted forest."

"Oh, right. So The Creator gave these trees consciousness?"

"In a way, yes. They were his sentinels, and it was they who kept wanderers from The Creator's home. Yet none who had come before had thought to see them as anything more than obstacles, and Anuvin's kindness had brought them to like him quite a great deal. I don't think that the sapling was supposed to speak to him so openly, but the young are more open than the old and when it did speak none tried to silence it. Of course by that point Anuvin had known he'd gone mad for quite some time, and the sound of a tree speaking in his mind wasn't as much of a shock to the system as it otherwise would have been.

He spoke with the sapling, who asked him to tell the story he had never spoken of: The story of why he'd ventured into the forest. He simply told the sapling that he wished to speak with The Creator on behalf of the elves, and wouldn't speak more on the matter. Given his good nature, the forest brought word to The Creator that they wished Anuvin to have an audience with him. Now, The Creator tended to prefer watching the story of his creation unfold of its own accord. He rarely dealt with anyone directly anymore, but even he couldn't resist speaking with the one who had managed to befriend his forest.

The Creator appeared to Anuvin in the guise of an old human wanderer. Anuvin saw through the disguise, and addressed The Creator directly. They shared a small fire and the elf spoke of his people and their plight. The elves were made to rule all, but now had no place in the world to call their own. The elf did not ask The Creator to change his mind on the matter, for he knew that would have been terribly rude. Instead, he asked that the elves might find another purpose and place in the world. Upon this request, The Creator smiled and told Anuvin that it was not his place to tell others what they should and should not dedicate their lives to. Instead, it was for them to find their own path. Then, he reached out his hand and placed his fingertips upon Anuvin's brow to clear the madness from the elf's mind. Finally, The Creator disappeared."

"Wait," Gregory frowned. "So he did all that for nothing?"

"Of course not. You see, it isn't always what lies at the end of the road that matters. It's how we get there. Anuvin felt himself restored and ready to return to his people, for now he no longer felt the burden that The Servant had placed upon him and his race in that calling to be greater than all other creatures. Instead, he saw all things as his equal and returned to the elves to teach what he had learned. Soon enough, all our kin came flocking to the sound of Anuvin's name. He told us how to speak to the trees, and of the deepest secrets of the forest. We prized kindness over power, and became protectors and guides to the world The Creator had built. New enchanted forests were grown around our homes, and our lands were made evergreen even in the darkest of winters.

This is the story of how we became the guardians of the natural world, and you must understand it if you are to know why my sin was so great."

"You didn't work for BP, did you?"

Valise gave him a somewhat sharp look at that, chiding him for his tone rather than comprehending what his words meant.

"Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood a little."

"What is a BP?"

"A great enemy of the natural world." Gregory nodded sagely.

"Then perhaps I am. Do you know of The Withering?"

"I don't think it's come up, no."

"It began centuries ago, when one day the ground shook across the world and the peak of The Creator's home exploded with fire and smoke."

"You mean a volcano?"

"Yes and no. The effect was similar, though it brought a greater cataclysm with it than any volcano I have known of. Had The Creator not prevented anyone from coming near his home, it might have caused terrible damage. Even so far away, the impact of the blast was said to trigger earthquakes in this very forest. None know what began it, but any sensitive to magic know what it began. The Withering. The weakening of magic in the world. It began then, and continues even today. Kingdoms fell because of it. The power of human mages crumbled. Even the gods themselves fell in its wake as their once-powerful forms fell apart to nothing.

After it began, The Creator was never seen again. The ruins of his home within the mountain were swept with molten rock and uninhabitable. The Enchanted forest had burned with the impact of the cataclysm. Then, a few decades after The Withering began, the dark ones emerged in the barren mountains of the north."

"You mean the Black Orcs that Grolfir mentioned?"

"Nay, the orcs of the Northern Mountains were once much like those you know now until the dark ones seduced and defiled their race."

"Weren't they caught up in the blast when the mountain went boom?"

"No, the northern mountain range is much like that which you can see to the south from the camp. It is very long, and The Creator did not keep it all for himself."

"Right, sorry. Just trying to keep a picture of it all in my head."

"It's perfectly alright, Gregory." She turned and kissed him softly, and he kissed her back with a loving enthusiasm. "I'm glad I've managed to keep your attention. Not many care about the fate of the elves, or our stories."

"Why not?"

"I'll get to that part soon enough, now where was I? Ah, yes. The dark ones. It is thought by the wise that the flow of magic in this world was somehow important in keeping those creatures away, for they are not of this world. They are beings of shadow made flesh. Their magic comes from elsewhere, and it wasn't weakened in the slightest. A great war had raged for many years in the human kingdoms, spurned by The Withering and tensions that had long been festering. We elves distanced ourselves from it, even when it was ended and the human Empire rose from the ashes, we stayed isolated in our forests between the Northern Mountains and the Empire. Though we suspected the demon influence, and the loss of contact with the northern orcs was troubling, we were not prepared for the evil deluge that eventually crashed down upon us."

Her eyes had grown distant with the memory, and it became clear that Valise had experienced a part of this story first hand.

"The elven realms fell one by one to the dark ones' invasion, and with frankly terrifying speed until only the realm of my mother and father remained. Mother died in our last great battle, and father disappeared. Soon after, all the men within our tribe disappeared in the night never to be seen again. Our warriors on guard had been placed into some kind of enchanted sleep. I was left to take the mantle, with the aid of my sister. I was left with two choices. To plead with the humans for aid, or..."

Her voice trembled, and Gregory shifted his arms to wrap about her waist and hug her gently against him. A couple of warm tears splashed against his arm as she quietly wept. In this time he said nothing, but waited for her to finish the tale in her own time.

"I... It was pride, I think. Even then, I couldn't shake that weakness of our race. If we had fallen so quickly, I doubted the humans would even be able to muster a defence at all. So, I decided to work my own magic using power from a well I knew to be plentiful. I used dark magic. The magic of the demons. Nature's supposed guardian wielding the very essence of destruction that yearned to rot the heart out of every natural thing in this world. I thought I was strong enough to wield it against them, but I was not. It consumed me, and I became a tyrant and an addict. Thankfully, my sister rose up against me before I could turn our last fortress over to my need for more of that vile power. She was crowned as our new queen, and she had my ears clipped and my power diminished before banishing me to my mortality. I was sent away to the human lands where I watched the humans do what I had thought impossible. Their years of warring amongst themselves had made them fierce in battle, and capable of pushing back the demonic incursions. They did not fall, but by then I knew my homeland would have been overwhelmed. I have not seen my sister since then, nor any other true elf." She stopped and sniffled as his embrace of her had loosened slightly. Lifting her hands to wipe her eyes, she offered a sad little smile. "So you see, I am unworthy of your kindness. I am a fool who sacrificed her people on the altar of her own pride."

She fell silent on those bitterly spoken words, and he felt her body tense up within his arms as she braced herself for his reaction.

"Yep," he finally said with a nod of agreement. "On the scale of staggering fuck-ups that's pretty high up there."

"You would make light of this?"

"No. Not exactly."

Gregory paused for a moment to consider his thoughts on the matter before trying to set them out before her.

"How long ago was this, Valise?"

"It has been a hundred and fifty-four years since my exile."

Gregory tried very hard not to smile at that, and just about managed it.

"Valise, I know I'm a relatively young guy but even I'm old enough to know I'm not the person I was five years ago. I wouldn't want to be the person I am now five years in the future. People evolve. They change. You were a queen put between a rock and a hard place and you made a horrible decision in a desperate search for something to save your people."

"That is putting it too kindly, Gregory. I gave myself to those dark forces."

"Right, and are you planning on doing it again any time soon?"

"What? Never! I would never even consider doing such a thing. I see them now for what they truly are and I loathe their very existence for how they changed me."

"Right, so you're pretty much the most solid elf I could hope to have at my side if I ever come into contact with that kind of magic. Right?"

"I... That isn't-"

"Oh yes it is. I'm not going to offer you any forgiveness, Valise. What you did didn't hurt me or mine so it's not my place to forgive it. That said, even an imbecile could see that you're not the kind of person you've just described to me. In fact, the shame and your hatred of who you were now serves to guard you against ever making those mistakes again. Keep that hatred hot, and that shame deep. Just remember that you aren't that woman anymore, and that the woman you have become is loved."

"Gregory, I don't deserve-"

"You don't deserve what? To be loved? Of course you do. Besides, though your past sins might be pretty damn huge, I'm slightly insulted that you feel so much guilt over them."

"Why?" she turned her head to face him, and he looked directly into her eyes.

"Because you saved my life, and I'm the most important person in the world. I mean, seriously. What would you all do without me? Surely that makes up for your past transgressions."

That note of playful arrogance brought the smile back to her lips, and he saw a glimmer of amusement in her eyes. It was an immensely rewarding experience to know he'd put it there.

"Oh really? I saved your life and that just makes up for everything I've done?"

"It bloody well puts a strong argument forward for it from where I'm sitting. And it's not just the life saving. You've helped me out here so much, Valise. I don't know what I'd do without you."

She felt an ache in her chest, and knew only he could ease it. So she shifted around entirely to face him, coming to rest on her hands and knees between his legs. Her blue eyes seemed to have their own gleam, and he watched as they broke away from his face to glance down at the engorged pillar rising up from between his legs. A sweet silence fell between them, and each felt closer to the other than before. His acceptance of her in spite of her flaws made her feel like that ache near her heart wasn't going to disappear any time soon.

Then she grasped his cock amidst nimble fingers and stroked along its length before she bowed her head before him and brought it between her lips.

"No." His tone was firm. "Not yet. Come here."

Before she could begin loving him with her mouth, he lifted her by the shoulders and pushed her down amongst the furs lining her tent. He saw the note of confusion on her features, but she seemed to trust in his judgment. After her confession, he wanted to show her just how much he valued her service. Once her back had settled against the furs, she ran her fingers across his bare chest and enjoyed the touch of his battle-sculpted physique. His skin was hot to the touch, and she felt his lust for her burning within that heat.

She wanted him badly, and he soon gave her what she wanted in a way she did not expect. Finding her fingers sliding up across his chest to settle on his shoulders, he had lowered himself down her body. The hot traces of his breath on her fair skin sent crackling jolts of excitement through her. When he sank down between her legs, she parted her thighs to welcome his attentions. Yet for all that, she still did not anticipate what he was about to do until the last moment when his mouth fell upon her open pussy.

It wasn't the first time he'd done that to her, but in that moment she had thought he would use her for his own pleasure. She wanted to serve him. To make up for her past sins in any way she could. His understanding hadn't been something she'd expected, but the way he almost worshipped her with his tongue had come as a complete surprise.

Feeling his arms slipping underneath her legs, she gasped with pleasure when his tongue almost immediately sought out her clit. Slow, deep licks across that most sensitive of places were interrupted occasionally with almost playful flickers of the tip of his tongue against it.

"Gregory, I cannot-" That was all she managed to get out before her breathing became ragged and he stopped teasing her. Apparently he'd decided to devour her instead.

He loved the experience of pleasuring a woman with his mouth. In his time on Arolius, he had assumed a more dominant sexual personality. It was in his nature to be the aggressor, and in the case of Fiona in particular he knew that it became something even more. Still, to his mind there was nothing more potent or enthralling to his partners than to have his mouth upon their sex. To watch as they came apart on the movements of his tongue. It had been something he'd taken to practicing at length, and strangely enough he rarely struggled to find willing participants for his studies.

By the time his tongue touched Valise's wet lower lips that day, he'd become very talented indeed. She certainly didn't disappoint either, as her body writhed in his clutches and she moaned his name whilst he sent a thunderstorm of hot pleasure throughout her body. In truth, he could have happily lapped at her like that for hours. He enjoyed the taste of a woman on his lips, but Valise had a somewhat unique flavour that was sweeter and clearer than he'd tasted before. Like a fresh water spring, she poured forth against his hungry mouth when she reached a sharp climax. He drank heartily upon all that she had to offer.