Queen Leilu shoved open the great, heavy doors to her son's chambers. All his curtains were shut, and the scent of a lusty night poured out from the unlit room.

	"Rain! It's time!" she bellowed.

	A sleepy groan was the only response.

	With a sigh of frustration, she stepped into the darkness and carefully crossed the large, circular space. The clickity-clack of claws caught her attention as not one, but two young females skittered away from Rain's bed and escaped through the now open door. With a shake of her head, she flung aside a pair of curtains and assaulted Rain with sunlight.

	"Aah!" On the luxurious bed at the center of the room, the blue-scaled dragon prince tried to shield his eyes.

	"Honestly, Rain. One floozy isn't enough?" She turned from the window and was met with an unobstructed view of the prince's royal maleness. The blanket had slipped from his lower half, and he looked to be at full mast. Goodness, the fullest of masts. "Oh, merciful gods," she muttered to herself. "Why today?"

	He was oblivious of his body as he stretched lazily in bed. "Come, now," she said, opening more curtains and flooding Rain's chambers with cheery morning light. "Up, up, up. Too much to do today."

	Finally, Rain was able to stumble blindly over to the basin. He splashed his face and tried to shake the sleep away. "You know them, actually. The twins," said Rain in a groggy voice. "And they're not floozies."

	Leilu's conquest of curtains was almost complete and Rain's chambers continued to get brighter. "All it takes is one - one female who uses your seed." She beat her wings to draw in some fresh air.

	Rain still remembered the day he learned about that - and how relieved he'd been. What a privilege to belong to the only race whose fertility was completely voluntary. In order to conceive, a conscious decision was required on the part of the female, and Rain was always quite thankful for this when it came time to play.

	"Can we not talk about my seed, please?" Rain rubbed his eyes. The moment he finally opened them, he could tell his mother was in a working mood. All her finery was absent, her deep violet scales left bare. No cloak to wrap her pale pink underside. No jewels. Even the crown was nowhere to be seen.

	Rain didn't like the look of this at all. Everyone knew - the less Queen Leilu wore of her royal attire, the more likely that she had a job for you. And this morning, except for the satchel at her side, she was naked as the day she hatched.

	"If you can bed two dragonesses at once, you're old enough for your mother to lecture you about it. Not to mention, as the only heir, your seed happens to be very valuable," said the queen as she watched her son saunter over to the wardrobe and take his horn rings. "That alone makes it a topic perfectly fit for discussion."

	Rain slid a golden ring onto each horn, rubbed his eyes once more, and gave his mother a tired look. "You're saying you don't trust the twins?"

	"I'm saying you risk too much." She pointed between his legs. "All for the sake of that."

	Still half-asleep, Rain glanced underneath himself, where he finally noticed the rigid slab of meat. "Gods above!" He scrambled for the blanket to cover his hindquarters. How had he not felt it before? He was definitely awake now. "And you let me walk around like that?!"

	Leilu motioned out the windows. "No one will see. They know better than to fly so near the palace."

	Rain had a look of disbelief. "What about you?!"

	"I'm your mother. I've seen it."

	"When I was a hatchling, maybe!"

	"What difference does that make?"

	Exasperated, Rain dropped the issue. A female couldn't possibly understand. Her sex was seamless. Even an aroused female slit was less than obvious. She didn't have any parts to be exposed in quite this way. "What exactly is it you want, Mother?"

	"Your measurements," she said plainly.

	Measurements? Surely she couldn't mean... Oh, right. His coronation armor. "Alright...well, umm...can we do that later, please?"

	The queen puffed two thin plumes of smoke from her nostrils. "No, we cannot. The smiths need time to forge it." She advanced toward her son and peeled the blanket away, exposing him again.

	Rain reached for it in vain. "Mother!"

	She flung it behind her with such spirit that it blew out the window and disappeared into the sky. "Unless you want the kingdom to remember you as the first prince in history to be crowned in nothing but his scales, you need to be measured right now!"

	"But the servants can't see me like this!"

	"That's right. They absolutely cannot, especially not today." From her satchel, Queen Leilu produced a long yellow ribbon marked with numbers, as well as a sheet of blank parchment, which she slapped down onto Rain's desk. "And that is why I'll have to measure you myself."

	"You can't be serious," Rain protested, his mother already wrapping the ribbon around his head.

	She slid it down his neck, taking a moment to meet his eyes. "Do I look serious?"

	Rain didn't answer. Of course she was serious.

	"Stand up straight," she commanded. "I can't measure you properly if you're slouching."

	Rain sighed and posed like a statue. A sculpture of inappropriate anatomical correctness. His mother was the only female in the whole kingdom who could make him feel like this.

	She stretched the ribbon across Rain's chest, then between his forelegs. "This is your own fault, you realize," she said as though she could read his mind. "If you had taken care of this yesterday...like I asked..."

	Rain watched in mild fascination as his mother moved with such purpose, completely ignoring the throbbing pink flesh that hung beneath him. She slung the ribbon over her wing as she grabbed the quill at his desk and began to write.

	Once she'd put numbers to parchment, she dropped the quill into the inkpot with a tink, and turned back to her son. She grabbed a foreleg and measured it from shoulder to elbow, from elbow to wrist, and from wrist to clawtip. Around the wrist. Around the bicep. Individual fingers. Every motion was fastidious and deliberate.

	Rain couldn't have possibly prepared for this. Awakening to being gripped and grabbed and groped by his own mother, her paws at nearly every corner of his aroused body. Such a strange feeling, akin to being examined by the castle sage, only even more humiliating. He hated to admit it, but the same weird tingle was making its way down his spine.

	After recording more numbers, Leilu paused a moment and sniffed. "You smell like sex."

	Rain blinked. "Having sex all night will do that." Some spiteful, perverted part of him, buried deep, wanted her to think about that - wanted her to wonder if he meant it literally, if his stamina was truly that impressive.

	"You know what I meant," said Leilu, apparently unfazed as she continued down Rain's body. "You need a bath. A thorough bath."

	Rain shivered and blushed as he felt the tickle of the ribbon on the sensitive, pale scales of his underside. How close must she be to his member? He didn't want to look.

	"Just so you know, I do trust the twins," she said from underneath her son, "but they're not the only ones who've been sneaking out of your tower at dawn. When it was once a week, I turned a blind eye. But now...every single night without fail."

	"Have you been spying on me?!"

	"I do have a right to involve myself in my son's affairs." Leilu moved to Rain's back, to the base of his wings. "Listen to me, Rain. Your father is well-loved, but he is not without enemies. If these enemies learned of your...nocturnal rituals, they would most certainly use you to get to him." She continued down his back. "Do you have any idea how much they would pay to get their paws on an egg fertilized by the prince? Or even a few drops of your seed? One of your anonymous females could scoop a vial of it when you aren't looking, and have a bucket of ice waiting outside."

	"I can't believe we're talking about this."

	She ignored him. "I understand you have a male's need, but there are safer ways to slake it."

	Rain cringed. "Dare I ask what you mean?"

	"Self-gratification, of course."

	He slapped a paw against his forehead.

	"If that doesn't satisfy you, go see the sage. She'll give you one of her 'devices'."

	"Mother. No."

	"Fine, fine. It was only an idea. Hold this here," she said, pointing to one end of the ribbon at his back.

	Rain obeyed as his mother stretched the other end all the way down the length of his tail.

	"If you insist on female companionship, I could draw up a list of trusted suitors," she said as she wrote more numbers. "Daughters of friends to the royal family. I'm sure they'd be glad to know you."

	Ridiculous! He couldn't imagine being bound by some list, cycling through it in the same order again and again. Besides, he had a few favorites he would sorely miss. "Would the twins be on it?"

	"Most likely. And I'm sure they'd appreciate being allowed through the front gate, rather than having to sneak through the escape tunnels."

	"W-how did you-"

	"A mother has her ways."

	Rain suppressed a shiver when she wrapped the ribbon around the base of his tail. "And how long would it take you to make this list?"

	"Well, your father and I will be busy with your coronation affairs until-"

	"So, I should just turn blue until you say it's okay to have sex again?"

	"Don't interrupt me. I think you'll survive a week or two without being inside a female. Besides, you're already blue."

	"You don't know what it's like..."

	The queen craned her neck around to look Rain in the eye, smoke rising from her nostrils again. "Do you think I'm made of stone? I do know what it's like, young drake," she said sternly before returning to her measurements. "There's nothing wrong with enjoying your body, but you're being reckless. A little self-discipline goes a long way. I promise it's not going to shrivel up and drop off."

	What a horrible thought, but somehow still not enough to bring his erection under control. Rain sulked and sighed. "I wish all this coronation stuff would be done with. This is ridiculous."

	She moved to measure his hind legs. "I'm sorry you think so."

	Rain's eyes widened as the delicate ribbon and the gentle touch of his mothers' paws rose higher and higher on his thigh. First the right, then the left. He was in no fit state to be enduring this.

	"But you are the pride of this kingdom. The people adore you. And they have been looking forward to this day for a long time as well. It may seem stupid to you, but the prince's armor is just as important as the prince's crown."

	Suddenly, rain had an unpleasant thought. "Does that mean I have to wear armor to court from now on?"

	"Yes." Leilu poked her son's ribs to get his attention. "I need to measure your waistline. Would you mind moving that out of the way?"

	He could barely believe this was happening. With a nervous forepaw, he reached down and held his penis as far back as he could. To his horror, he touched wetness. Had he been dripping on the floor this whole time? His mother hadn't said anything, but she surely must've noticed. This was quite possibly the most shameful day of his life. He thanked the gods no one was here to bear witness. Several painful moments dragged by as he waited.

	"In fact, after today, you must wear your armor and crown in the throne room at all times, whether on official business or not."

	Were his days of attending court in comfortable nudity really over for good? He might have made a fuss about it, but he couldn't focus on anything but his mother's paw on the lowest reaches of his abdomen, a mere claw's length from his open slit. The silky touch of the ribbon, soft like a feather, rested almost against the base of his penis. In her attempts to be gentle, she was tickling the most sensitive scales on his body. His belly twitched and flinched each time she shifted. Only when she finally released him and began writing again did Rain remember to breathe.

	"We're done. You can sit down," said Leilu without looking up.

	Finally breaking free of his statue-like stance, he begrudgingly sat on the cool marble floor. Now he felt even more exposed, his penis jutting forward like a ship's figurehead. Why wouldn't his erection just go away? "If I can't go naked, I guess I'll just have to avoid the throne room as much as possible."

	"Oh, come now," she exclaimed, the quill hard at work in her paw. "For goodness sake, do you truly detest wearing armor so much?"

	"Yes," he affirmed just before something on the floor caught his eye. Next to a small puddle of his fluids was the ribbon, all coiled up like a snake. He'd been trying to wish away the warm tingling in his hips, but a naughty idea began to sprout. He'd always been curious. It would be easy. His mother was still writing. Her back was turned.

	"Why?"

	Slowly and delicately he reached towards the measuring ribbon, checking for the queen's gaze. "What do you mean, 'why'? It's heavy. And hot. And scratchy."

	"Coronation armor is tailored for the wearer," she said as she wrote. "That's the entire point of these measurements. I promise it will be comfortable."

	Ribbon in paw, he lifted it carefully so its metal ends would not scrape the floor. She seemed not to hear. "What about after succession?"

	"Pardon?"

	"When Father steps down, can I hold court naked? I don't want to wear armor every single day." He envisioned himself sitting proudly on the throne, bare scales shining in the sunlight as nature intended.

	The queen smiled to herself. "Once the throne is yours, you can do as you please. But I would advise against breaking with tradition, especially when the people are adjusting to you as their new king. The sage, for example, would be deeply offended if you took the throne without wearing the king's armor."

	Rain snorted. "That's because she's a thousand years old," he joked while stretching the ribbon down the length of his penis.

	Leilu tapped a thoughtful claw at the end of her snout, still oblivious. "Oh, please. She's five hundred at the most. But as I said, once you're king, the rules are yours to change. You can turn the throne room into a harem if you wish."

	Rain opened his mouth to say something.

	Leilu didn't even look up. "If you do that, I will break off your horns."

	Fair enough. In the moments of silence that followed, Rain studied the numbers the ribbon told, though he didn't know what to make of them. No frame of reference. He'd never seen another male in any state of arousal. The ladies always seemed pleased, but what if they were simply flattering him because he was the prince? Although if that were the case, why would they keep coming back for more? If they were pretending to like it, they certainly did a good job - theatrical, even.

	Rain didn't notice the writing had stopped. Somehow he didn't hear his mother dropping the quill in the inkpot, nor did he hear the parchment being rolled up. He had no idea she was staring straight at him.

	She cleared her throat.

	"Nothing!" Rain nearly leapt out of his scales, tossing the ribbon just a little too far.

	It landed at the queen's feet as she grew half a toothy smile. "Big enough?"

	Until now, Rain had forgotten the feeling of being caught red-pawed. Of being shamed by his mother's amber eyes. The way she just sat there so confident and casual like none of this was actually happening. He couldn't take it. "No! I mean... Yes? Uhh..."

	"I don't know why you males are always comparing yourselves. It'd be irritating if it wasn't so impossibly cute." She grabbed the ribbon and stuffed it back into the satchel along with the roll of parchment. "Right. I'm off to deliver your measurements to the smiths. Go have a bath and I'll meet you in the throne room." She looked between his legs, then pointed a dainty claw downward. "And get that under control before you leave. Otherwise they'll have to forge a special compartment in your armor."

	"Okay," he said softly, feeling far too young for his grownup body.

	On her way out the door, Queen Leilu paused and turned back. "One more thing..."

	Inwardly groaning, Rain awaited further nagging.

	"You'll doubtless be pleased to know..."

	Rain's expression softened.

	"It's above average."

	The prince waited until the doors were shut tight before smiling wide. The twins had satisfied him so wonderfully last night. Why were his loins still warm?