Alaus woke up, and immediately wished he hadn't.  He was on his side, ribs propped up by one of Rahamuth's claws, while his head hung down against the dragon's scaly chest.  He ached everywhere; from the waist up because of the strange angles he'd slept with, and from the thighs down because he'd done so much walking yesterday.  He felt sick to his stomach too; he wasn't sure if it was from the dragon sperm he'd ingested, the fact that that was all he'd ingested, or the thought that he'd ingested it in the first place.  Very quickly, his head began to throb thinking about the events of the previous day, and he groaned.
All at once, the draconic limb beneath him was tugged away, and cold replaced the presence withdrawn from around him.  Sitting bolt upright, Alaus stared after the dragon retreating across the glade.  "Raha..."
"Whelp..." Rahamuth cut him off, glancing sharply back around his folded wing.  He cringed, however, and within an instant his features softened.  "Alaus...  go home."
He leapt into the air, and with the mighty beat of his wings, he was far out of Alaus' reach, flying off who knew where.  Not toward the falls, nor his cave.  Alaus sighed, somehow managing to feel even worse than he already did.
 Life seemed so much simpler around the dragon: there was only desire and consequence, and nothing seemed so important.  Choices were so much easier to make when they didn't seem to loom over the rest of his life, or others'.  He could say and do exactly as he wanted around Rahamuth, because no less was expected of him.  Relieved of the politeness of civility, Alaus felt... he could be himself, without restraint.  From the moment Rahamuth left, Alaus was forced to ponder walking among his own kind again.  Choices once more seemed monumental, and emotions mashed the black-and-white vision of reality into a pulpy gray.  Loathed though he was to return to the village, Rahamuth really left no room for argument.  He rarely did.
The forest was unnaturally quiet this morning.  Even the stream seemed muted.  And the village too, when he reached it.  He had nothing but sore legs to remind him of the length of his walk back; none of the journey to the front doors of his home remained in memory.
Upon pushing open the doors, he was greeted with the near-frantic pitch of the maidservant.  "There you are!  Where have you been?  Your father was worried!"
 "Where is he?"  Alaus resigned himself; Father would probably want to see him.
"Gone.  Left early this morning, after waiting for you all night!  Pressing business matters in the city.  Said he shouldn't have put them off as long as he did, and he couldn't possibly be back for a week but-  Oh, you're  mess!  Where have you been?"
Oh.  Father and his travels.  Shaking his head, Alaus gave half the truth.  "Vilda sent me out in the forest for an assignment and... by nightfall I was further from home than I planned."
"Well, you'll want to see her as soon as you get washed up.  And change those filthy clothes!  Just look at you."
Alaus nodded and made for the stairs, while the maidservant's steps rapped toward the kitchen.  His foot was on the first step when he recalled something.  "Magdell," he called - just a bit proud of himself for remembering the maidservant's name.
Her steps halted and she faced him quizzically.
"About that...  moldy loaf I threw at you a few days back?"  He forced himself to meet her eyes.  "Sorry."
 "Oh, think nothing of it any longer.  Mind you keep yourself safe for your father, hear?"
He nodded and stumped up the stairs.  He didn't feel much better.  Next he had to face Vilda, and say goodbye to his apprenticeship.
* * * * *
There she was, enthroned behind her great oaken desk with the poise of a queen and the expression of a witch.  The fact that she hadn't said anything since Alaus entered spoke quite clearly: he knew what she wanted to know, and she was waiting for it.
A dozen fanciful tales seemed ready to spring from his tongue the instant Alaus tried to speak: he'd done the assignment, but lost it under unforeseeable circumstances.  The clever ones tied in tales of why he'd been missing all night.  But, shoulders sagging, Alaus thought better of them all and dropped his.  "I didn't do it.  You gave me a chance, and I abused it."
Nails clacking on the desk; the sound of Vilda's deliberation.  "Well, leastwise you'd be in an honest mood.  Now, what do ye expect me to do, eh?"
"What do I expect?"  Alaus glanced up in surprise.  "You said it when I left: this assignment meant my apprenticeship."
 "Said I'd best be satisfied with what you bring back, boy," Vilda corrected with a wagging finger, "and you're bringin' back truth an' not excuses to start.  Not what I'd hoped, mind ye.  But since you heard it like you said, an' you didn't do the assignment, am I to take it you've no interest in bein' my apprentice?"
"Well, your apprenticeship hasn't been... quite what I thought it would be."  He admitted with a sigh.
"Oh, aye?  And you'd like to be done with it, then?"
"I might if I had someone else I could apprentice under."  Alaus shook his head.  "I don't, so I don't know what else to do.  I'd rather not quit your apprenticeship... dishonorably."
Rapping nails again.  "If I keep you on, ye'd understand you've lost my trust.  Proved to me you won't learn on yer own terms."
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Then I'll not stand for the likes of griping."
"No, Ma'am, I understand."
With a long, tired breath, Vilda nodded.  "Then you stay...  for now.  Keep that attitude, and you'll not have to quit my apprenticeship dishonorably should ye find what ought suit your fancy."
 "Thank you."
* * * * *
Alaus relished the opportunity to lose himself in books, scrolls, and abstract information the way he used to.  For a change, it didn't bother him that he was expected to memorize so much.  After all, his mind was already running in circles: he preferred reciting bones of the human body to thinking about Demille over and over.  Or Rahamuth.  Most often both.
It was one of those sleepless nights, and he was cross-legged on his bed with one of Vilda's scrolls.  She'd been impressed when he'd asked to start taking materials home overnight.  But Alaus was desperate for anything to take his mind off the mounting issue in his mind: Demille versus Rahamuth.  The dragon or the girl?  Alaus told himself he didn't want them in the same way.  He also tried to tell himself they weren't mutually exclusive desires, but he knew better than that.
He wasn't sure whether to call Rahamuth an acquaintance, a friend, or a monster.  But he couldn't deny he wanted the dragon in ways that unsettled him, when he thought about it.  And yet, if he wanted to lead anything like an ordinary life, that would mean he would take Demille - or some other girl - in wedlock.  And those vows left no room in the normal life for Rahamuth.  And the will to ignore this lent him the single-minded drive to spend virtually every waking hour drinking in cold facts and regurgitating them for Vilda.  He was surprised to find the familiarity of her study routine was a small comfort: a reminder some things hadn't changed.
 Alaus realized vaguely he'd read the same line of the scroll in front of him some five times now, neither comprehending nor moving on.  He had no recollection of reading the last half-paragraph.  With a sigh, he set the scroll on his nightstand and lay back, not even bothering with a blanket.  How long had it been?  Five days since Father left.  Two more days until... whatever came next.
He woke to find he had, amid his fitful dreams, utterly tangled his body in the blankets.
His mourning routine was automatic: dress in whatever was clean, eat whatever the maidservant set out, thank her emptily if he saw her, gather the scrolls he'd brought home the previous evening, and head back to Vilda's.  His tranced steps faltered, however, when he saw Demille just ahead of him on the street.  Before either of them knew it, he'd snatched her forearm and jerked her near.
"Alaus!"
"You didn't come!"
"I-I can explain...  Let go of me."
"Tell me why..."
"Let go!"  Demille tried to wrench free of Alaus' oppressive grip on her arm.  Failing that, she reached back with her free hand and delivered a full-palm slap to the broad side of Alaus' face.
 Stunned, Alaus released her, but his own arm was already moving.  Demille staggered under the force of the blow returned to her twice over.  She shied back from him, cupping her cheek while her jaw hung open.  It had been instinctive; Alaus had slapped her right back, and only now came into full awareness of his actions.
"I'm sorry," he said to Demille, across the street.  He noticed eyes on him - others previously going about their merry way on the street.  All stopped to gawk at the scene.  Alaus winced; news of this would be all over town very quickly.  "Sorry," he repeated, "I don't know what came over me.  I...  I shouldn't have even asked you in the first place.  Not when there's... someone else."
It was the best he could do.  Though, in hindsight, he might regret mentioning 'someone else' in public... but it was done.  So with that, he slouched and plodded past the spectators on his way to Vilda's, a sour taste on his tongue.
Vilda greeted him with a slight nod, set him to study at her desk, and shuffled back to her own work.  Alaus lost his morning soaking in information about myriad afflictions of the skin.
 
* * * * *
Alaus was stirred from his perusal of a scroll, Misconceptions of Gout, The Foot Malady.  There were voices on the other side of the door.  With a glance out the window, he guessed it was midday.  He opted to pay it no heed.  Many sought Vilda for minor illnesses and pains.  Yet he recognized the voice of Magdell, the maidservant.  Alaus decided he shouldn't be surprised; she certainly wasn't getting any younger, and he'd known her virtually all his life.
A few paragraphs of symptoms later, Vilda slipped in.  Alaus kept reading: that was what she wanted to see.  However, a hooked finger curled about the top of Misconceptions of Gout and snatched it from the desk.
"What next?"  Alaus glanced up.  She probably had something else for him, or maybe wanted to test his knowledge.  Or maybe even wanted him to help her treat someone.
"Nothing," Vilda said flatly.
"Nothing?"
"You heard right."  Her eyes grew cold.  "I'll take an apprentice an apprentice who ain't the brightest an' cheeriest.  I'll settle for a slack if he's an honest one an' wants to change.  But I'd not suffer the cleverest prodigy if he'd strike a young woman outright an' unjust."
 Oh, that.  "I...  I apologized, then and there.  I didn't mean to, I just... just reacted."
"Aye, Demille's mother went to your house, and yer maid came to me with the full of it.  That ain't the instinct of the healer's hand, boy.  You're done here."
Alaus sighed, and wasn't fully aware when his thoughts slipped from his lips.  "I tried.  I really tried."
"What's that, boy?"
He'd tried to put his life back together - to make it all the way it was before.  And when he wondered just what 'before' he was concerned about, the only answer was Rahamuth.  It had nothing to do with the dragon, but that was when it all seemed to start going wrong.  With a shake of his head, though, all he said to Vilda was, "Nothing.  Never mind."  He vacated her antique chair, turned his back on the heavy desk, and left his apprenticeship behind.
"So you know," Vilda said, stopping him cold, "Her father had a seizure the other night.  She wouldn't leave his side."
So that was why.  Alaus hung his head, guiltier still, but took another step towards the door.
 "One more thing."
Alaus he hated when she did this.  "What?"
"Your father returned early, not a quarter-hour past."
Naturally.  The last person Alaus thought he could bear facing, just then.  Even as he stepped out onto the street, eyes were on him.  Alaus knew he was the talk of the town, today, and he hated their stares.  He wasn't sure whose were worst: the condemning glares of righteous husbands and wives, the surreptitious glances of the village gossips, or the pitying sighs of old men recalling youth.  Alaus saw in those eyes: every one thought they knew what he, Alaus, was all about.  Unwilling to bear even one more gaze than he had to, he retreated from the village.  Not toward home.  Toward the river.
Following the water's edge, the path he'd become so familiar with the past few weeks, there was just one thing out of place: the bush he'd torn up by its roots, thinking to draw the shrub it shaded.  Ridiculous, stupid thing to do.
Alaus had torn up a lot of roots, lately.  More every time he went to visit Rahamuth.  Just like he was now.
 With the falls in sight ahead, Alaus' eyes wandered the mountainside in search of the dragon's cave, briefly wondering what he would do if Rahamuth weren't there, nor in the glade.  A great swash drew Alaus' eyes from the cliff, however.  Alaus' concern for not finding Rahamuth became a moot point, the dragon in question emerging from the river.  Water pouring from his frame, he waded onto shore with wide-spread wings, fanning droplets from their membranes.
Though he did not even glance in Alaus' direction, his head cocked.  "Well, hello whelpling."
Alaus nodded glumly while Rahamuth, unconcerned, flopped down on his side along the beach and bent his neck to scrutinize the scales of his flank.  Wherever he found some imperceptible blemish, his tongue darted out to cleanse his body of imperfection.  Alaus neared; the only the sounds were of the river and abrasive licking.
It quickly became clear the dragon was too engrossed in his beautification to offer more than the courtesy greeting.  With a sigh, Alaus folded his arms and began to pace.  In just a few passes, his steps had beaten a trench in the loose, sandy earth.  Around Rahamuth, he thought he could think straight.  And the issue should have been simpler: he shouldn't have been concerned about pursuing a life with Demille any longer.  And yet, somehow, simplification eluded him.
 A chuckle recalled his attention, and he looked: Rahamuth raised his leg, and his snout hovered over the vent Alaus was becoming increasingly familiar with.
"What are you doing?"  Alaus questioned the dragon lewdly tonguing over his genital slit.
"All in good hygiene," Rahamuth said playfully before plunging his tongue deep, swirling it in the depths of his slit, issuing wet smacking noises.  Eventually he withdrew the muscle, but his snout lowered to another hole at the base of his tail.
Alaus' nose wrinkled, but he was transfixed by the sight of the dragon's tongue making slow circles around the puckered ring of flesh.  "Enjoying the show?"  Rahamuth rumbled.  Obviously he himself enjoyed the attention he gave himself; the tip of his cock was already poking from the last place he'd 'cleaned'.
"Someone's eager today."  Alaus shook his head.
Rahamuth's muzzle lifted indignantly.  "Really, as though sexual engagement were so foreign to us?  Did you think today would be any different?"
He had a point, Alaus had to concede with a small nod.
 "Why, then, are you still clothed?  'Tis not as though you have anything I haven't seen."
"And if I did, you'd be curious."  Alaus retorted.  Though, he did look for someplace off the dirt to set his clothes.  He settled for a stump.
"That's the spirit," Rahamuth rumbled, watching Alaus strip with hungry eyes, rolling silently onto his feet.
No sooner than Alaus drop his last garment, a great weight bore down on his shoulders, pulling him to his back, and knocking the breath from his chest.  The dragon's head crept into his vision, like a stalking cat circling him.  Instinctively, he tried to retreat - to crawl backward along the riverside.  Rahamuth's tail lashed in excitement, and his right foreclaw shot out, slamming Alaus' shoulder to the ground.  The next Alaus was aware, Rahamuth's great, black bulk settled overhead almost sitting on him.  He realized, hot-faced, Rahamuth's penis lay flush against his own.  
"What's gotten into you?" Alaus gasped.
Rahamuth's head ducked down between his foreclaws to peer at Alaus.  "Well, truthfully, this is rather a special day."  He grinned at Alaus' look of confusion.  "Look to your left, between the ash trees."  And he lifted his left foreclaw so as not to obstruct the view.
 Confused, Alaus looked, and spotted a broad figure.  He  was too far away to make out in any detail, but Alaus thought he caught a glimpse of gold beneath the hood of a green, travel-stained cloak.
Golden hair.  Father.  Even at that distance, it would be impossible to mistake: Alaus was naked, with Rahamuth atop him.  As if that wasn't enough, he felt Rahamuth's tongue - hot, wet, rough - sliding across his bare chest.
"Raha- What are you doing?"  Alaus shoved at the snout encroaching on his neck, attempting to sway it - or at least look like he was putting up a fight.  "That's my father!  Jonnor!"
The tongue left him.  "Oh, I know.  I'm afraid it's far too late for feigning innocence, whelp.  I sensed his approach quite a while ago.  I do believe he followed you."
"He- No!"  Alaus panicked, throwing his weight against the claw pressing into his shoulder.  "Why are you- He's going to- He can't see... this!  He can't know!"
"And yet, he undeniably does."  Rahamuth shrugged it off, completely unconcerned.  "Did you really think this could escape such a man?"
 Alaus glanced toward his father.  He was approaching, now.  Eyes snapping back to Rahamuth, he moaned, "Don't hurt him... please..."  The intensity of his plea surprised him.
The dragon, however, burst out laughing.  Whatever the joke, it was lost on Alaus.  He tore his stare from Rahamuth to see Jonnor was not advancing on them any longer, but Alaus shivered as his eyes met his father's.  He found no anger, nor did Jonnor spare Rahamuth so much as a glance.  There was only pain upon his features, clear even from such distance.
The claw against his shoulder was trembling.  Alaus sought some explanation, and found the dragon's shoulders sagged and shaking, and not from laughter.  Was it something Father did?  But when Alaus looked, Jonnor was gone.  Balling a fist, he pounded the claw anchoring him to the ground - mostly in frustration.  He was more concerned with swallowing the wad in throat than entertaining thoughts of moving beyond right where he lay.
Rahamuth's head drooped into view, flashing his grin.  "He is gone, now."
 "What am I going to do now?"
"Do not trouble yourself overmuch."
"'Overmuch'?"  Alaus barked a hollow laugh.  "Easy for you to say."
"I can help...  remove your mind from such matters."  Rahamuth emphasized the offer by rolling his hips, his cock brushing down Alaus' groin.  
Alaus shivered at the touch of the draconic ridges to his sensitive skin, and even halfhearted, his manhood quickly stood upright.  The dragon was right; that was the only thing that could possibly take his mind from...  Father.  "Take me."
"I will," Rahamuth rumbled.  "Tell me how much you want this."
Alaus shook his head.  What was he playing at?  "I do... want you.  Please."  He spread his legs beneath the dragon, emphasizing his point.
"Beg for it."
Beg?  Alaus didn't want to beg, but the emotions welling in him brought him to spout before he could think, "Take me, damn it!  Mate me like... the whelp that I am.  Please...  I need you... in me..."  He gasped softly - nearly a sob - and felt tears trickle across his face.  He really did want Rahamuth...
 A hot tongue swept up his tears.  The weight of the claw on his shoulder and the dragonhood against his midsection lifted.  He heard the sand shift as Rahamuth adjusted above him.  The claw returned to secure him, but the tip of the draconic shaft brushed lower, across his exposed backside, meeting his own forbidden hole.
Fear stabbed: how much of Rahamuth's member could he possibly take?  Yesterday he would never have doubted Rahamuth, but didn't know what to make of the dragon's behavior today.  But then, he just wanted the image of his father's eyes to go away; his eyes kept drifting back between the ash trees.
"Calm yourself, whelp," he whispered over Alaus, "It will hurt far more than necessary you if you clench like this."
With a sigh, Alaus reassured himself.  This was the same old Rahamuth.  He didn't want to hurt Alaus - why would he, after all this time?  He did his best to relax, to physically and mentally relent total control of his body.  It wasn't easy when the dragon's mating tool probed his taint with promising pressure - almost spreading him open.  He watched the muscles of the dragon's haunches tense.
 "It's the last time I get to call you 'whelp.'"  Rahamuth lamented softly.
His hips rolled, the tip of his organ parting puckered flesh and sinking into Alaus' backside, drawing a hiss from the dragon and a groan from the human.  The feeling was foreign to the young man, and he held his breath as his body automatically rebelled against the intrusion.  At the first serious resistance, Rahamuth stopped.  Alaus was quite sure he could take no more than that; his heart sank.
"That's it?"  He'd never please the great dragon if he couldn't take more than that.
"Patience," Rahamuth urged as though in need of it himself.  "You will adjust."
Clinging to hope - and avoiding thoughts of Father - Alaus did his best to relax still further.  Shutting his eyes, listening Rahamuth's breath, and feeling its heat wash over his chest in steady waves.  The claw on his shoulder tightened, holding him in place as the dragon thrust a second time.  Alaus gasped as at least two more inches invaded him.  He lay back, grunting at the unrelenting strain on his passage.  He hated waiting, but couldn't deny that Rahamuth was progressing.  He tried to count the seconds before the next push, but lost track and quickly abandoned any notion of keeping track of time.
 Rahamuth began to advance again, this time a slow pressure, eking his maleness slowly deeper, forcing Alaus' virgin entrance gradually wider.  Bitting his lip, Alaus bated his breath until he loosed his first cry of true pain in the act, and Rahamuth halted.  Panting, Alaus fought to remain limp, as his boy repeatedly tried to convulse, to force  Rahamuth's member from his depths.  The resistance wasn't as quick to fade this time.  He looked up at the fearsome creature holding him down, suddenly very much aware the dragon could have torn him apart this way if it pleased.  Alaus was utterly lost for words at the feel of his bowels being stretched and filled so unnaturally.
How much had he taken?  The girth was already too much.  He made himself look down and saw, to his shock, as much as a third of Rahamuth's penis imbedded in his hole: he'd taken up to the first of the draconic ridges.  
Rahamuth's snout nudged his forehead.  As he lay his head back, a wet appendage slithered its way between his lips, choking off his pants for breath.  Unfamiliar tastes assaulted him, only hints flavors he recognized: skin and river water among them.  Alaus balked as he recognized the invasion to be the dragon's own tongue.  Its rough upper surface explored Alaus' mouth, and his own tongue met the soft, slick underside of the draconic muscle.  Then, as quickly as it had come, it withdrew.
 Shuddering at the thought of dragon saliva, Alaus spat to the side.  Finally catching his breath, he fumed, "What are you doing?"
"Stalling while you stretch to accommodate me."  Rahamuth chuckled.  "And indulging an old wonder.  The human kiss is a... strange gesture, to say the least.  What do you make of it?"
"What do I make of...  That was a kiss?!"  Kissed by a dragon?  Alaus silently mouthed 'yuck'.
For a moment, he forgot about the dragonhood wedged in his rear, and Rahamuth seized the moment to jerk just a bit deeper.  Alaus yelped, feeling Rahamuth's first ridge slip through the taught ring of his entrance.  Even the slight reduction in width following the ridge was a noticeable relief.  He felt stuffed, but at least it wasn't hurting.  Much.
"I don't understand kissing any better either, really," Rahamuth admitted, "But your reaction was delectable.  Perhaps I should try it again?"  His muzzle loomed near.
"Just fuck me, you monster."
"Oh, I will.  Believe me, I will."  His hips rolled back, drawing his cock out of Alaus' overextended anus at an arduous pace.  Alaus moaned, overcome by the sensation of emptiness left behind, leaving him less relieved at the absence than he thought he would be.  With just his member's very tip remaining within Alaus' hole, Rahamuth reversed the act, creeping back in.  Being filled in one continuous motion elicited another moan from the human.  Rahamuth buried his first ridge and drew out again, beginning an agonizingly slow rhythm that pushed Alaus to all his limits, and teased them just a little further each time.  Plowing Alaus time and again, the dragon's breath grew labored, and a hint of strain entered his features; he was holding back, and it was a struggle to him.
 Alaus found it easier to loosen himself as he began to enjoy the exercise, tedious though it was.  Against his instinct, as strained and jammed as he was, it felt good.  Draconic pre-seed was also smoothing the process, his inner walls admitting the violation easier as they were moistened.  He uttered a small, incredulous oath as he felt Rahamuth's second ridge slip inside him, and the next half-inch besides.  The dragon made an approving noise before backed out again.  The human's own manhood stood upright, aimed at the dragon's underbelly and throbbing with need.  But all his attention was on the organ pushing into his core, and already he yearned for more than the gradual work the dragon's mating tool was making of his confines.  He fought to form words in the reverie between his breath and moans.  "Aren't you... through... toying yet?"
"Were you the merest runt of a sand dragon, I would have rutted you into a pit muddy with our combined mating fluids by now," Rahamuth grunted.
Not sure how big a sand dragon was, and not really caring, Alaus pivoted his hips in attempt to spur Rahamuth on.  "Just do it already."
 He was answered with a low growl, and the claws on his shoulder tightened.  That was all the warning he had before Rahamuth drew back and plunged back deep with enough force to make Alaus cry out - a mix of surprise, muted pain, and sudden pleasure.  He bit his exclamation back to a groan the second time, but his restraint dissolved over the third, fourth, and fifth.  He'd never been this loud when pleasured, but the hot maleness lunging into him overwhelmed everything he'd ever experienced.  The force of Rahamuth's thrusts would have skidded him across the sand if not for the foreclaw bracing his shoulder.  Overhead, Rahamuth's grin appeared, and his hissed a satisfied "Yesss..." through his teeth as he wantonly pounded into the human he bent over.  Though not quite half his member had fit, he was exhilarated, and wore his lust plainly in his half-lidded eyes.  Alaus managed a grin for him, glad the dragon was equally pleased.
Rahamuth's tempo rose as his breaths grew shallow, and his carnal growls of pleasure were drowned out only by Alaus' erratic gasps and moans.  The dragon's push grew stronger with every moment.  Hot breath washed over his face, and the next he knew, he felt the dragon's wet tongue dragging across his neck, up his chin, and to his lips.  He couldn't find it within himself to deny Rahamuth's intrusion into his mouth again.  Odd tastes that should have repulsed him replaced the noises of pleasure from them both, muffled as they were by one another's lips - scale on skin.  Their mouths just weren't made to connect, but that didn't stop the dragon from pressing on Alaus, spiraling his dexterous tongue around the human's own. The awkward excuse for a kiss was just one more addition to the cacophony of sensation.  When Rahamuth pulled away again, Alaus drank in a deep breath and tried not to think about what the dragon might have eaten recently.  Fortunately, such thoughts were chased from his mind as the dragon labored to mate him faster than ever, dribbling a near-steady stream of pre-seed from the tip of his tapered length.
 The dragon gasped, "I've waited... to spill my... semen in you... since the day... we met!"
A howl followed the dragon's words, and Alaus felt the fullness in his anal passage pulse.  Almost immediately, however, it retreated.  A rope of pungent, sticky fluid slashed his face; he instantly recognized the taste and smell of the draconic essence.  Thankfully none had gotten in his eyes, for he couldn't tear them from the scene in front of him.  Rahamuth ground his penile ridges against Alaus' stomach and chest with a lecherous moan, slicking his entire front with sperm.  Alaus coughed and spat out a gob of the stuff to gasp for air.  Finally remembering his hands, he put them to use stroking the top of Rahamuth's member, still relieving its load in spurts.  Yet he lifted his eyes to meet the dragon's, questioning, "I thought... you just said...  in me?"
The dragon rumbled with both pleasure and amusement, but humped Alaus' white-painted front several more times, letting his first orgasm fade completely before he answered.  "Ah, yes... and I will.  But I've only just begun with you.  Now..."  The weight of his claw lifted from Alaus shoulder, and they lost eye contact as Rahamuth drew to his full height.  With Rahamuth's cock in range, Alaus wasn't tall enough to see past the middle of the scaly chest before him.
 "Hands and knees," Rahamuth ordered.
So he was going to be taken like an animal.  At least with some frontal contact, Alaus had felt a certain amount of familiarity, some closeness with Rahamuth.  He supposed he should have expected this, but he couldn't help but feel belittled as he rolled over to obey.  The muscles of his backside protested, but he ignored them.  Far more in need of attention was his own erection.  But as one of his hands moved to stroke himself, Rahamuth growled.
"You'll need that hand on the ground."
Apprehension welled up again as he set his hand back into its impression in the sand.  How hard was Rahamuth planning on taking him, now?  If his first climax was just a warm-up, he shuddered to think what the dragon was capable of, especially in a stronger position. Scales brushed his entire back and he felt a prod seeking his entrance.
"Alaus, you're clenching again.  Don't make this hard on yourself."
It was harder trying to relax, staring at the ground in front of his feet instead of being able to see Rahamuth.  Still, he took a few deep breaths and did what he could.  Demeaned as he felt, he had asked for it in the first place.  Been made to beg for it, even.  And, effectively, this was just like the last time; there was nothing more he himself could do than loosen up and take the dragon cock again.  He coughed again at the scent of dragon seed drying on his face and chest; the fluid was rich, and every bit as strong as he remembered, stubbornly clinging to his tongue.
 "Brace yourself."
That was all the warning he had before Rahamuth's maleness lunged into him.  He loosed a yelp as the rigid shaft was buried in him as deeply as ever, and shivers of delight wracked him as the two ridges spear the ring of his pucker.  The dragon growled lustily as he began to mate Alaus  in a position to make use of the full strength of his body: he drove with his legs - not just his haunches as he had done before - his entire frame rolling into each thrust.  
Briefly, Alaus realized Rahamuth had to limit how far he pushed.  If he hadn't, he could have torn Alaus apart.  But even tempered, the force of of the new rhythm was jarring, and Alaus was glad he had both hands on the ground.  He slaved for breath, gasping at the shocks of pleasure from the feel of the massive cock spreading him wide over and over as the dragon built up to a pace outstripping even the finale of his last climax.  The human's passage brimmed with Rahamuth's pre, the lubricant squelching out around his member's ridges and trickling down Alaus' legs.  He heard the lascivious breaths - Rahamuth's unbridled desire for him.  Physically at the dragon's mercy, Alaus discovered a primal satisfaction in being harshly mated by such a powerful beast: of tottering on the edge of fearing what the dragon could do to his body, and trusting him all at the same time.  
 Slowly, Alaus began to think he was growing accustomed to being hammered at that pace.  His eyelids grew heavy as he savored the organ working so deeply in him, his only concern that his arms were beginning to feel the strain of the blows.
Rahamuth would not let him slip into complacency, however; the next thing he felt was a scaled appendage brushing his stomach.  He looked down to find Rahamuth's tail exploring his front, slathering in the sticky draconic semen layered on his skin.  With a chuckle, Rahamuth slipped his now-lubricated tail down and looped it around Alaus' groin, stimulating his genitals with the attention slighted them up to now.  Alaus' breath caught with new ripples of pleasure from smooth scales slithering by his scrotum.  The narrow, limber tail spiraled about the oversensitive skin of his manhood, grasping and tugging in time with every thrust the dragon made into his depths.  Rahamuth's ministrations with his tail far outstripped anything Alaus might have done with his hand.  It was enough to push him to the edge of his orgasm, but he refused.  He held back with every fiber of his being, not wanting it to end.
 He didn't know how long he bore it, but his arms, shoulders, and upper back burned with the effort of withstanding it.  His breath came ragged, and he desperately hoped Rahamuth was near his release.  He did everything he could to spur him toward it, too, exerting what control he could muster over the muscles of his anal passages to coax the dragonhood of its load.  "Come on," he gasped in frustration and want, "Seed me, you...  ah...  I can't take much more!"
Rahamuth growled.  His stance spread, his body sinking lower, bearing down oppressively on Alaus' back.  Even his wings dipped, slipping beneath Alaus and grappling around his shoulder and midsection.  Alaus found himself ravaged with an entirely new scale of speed, being jerked back into every thrust.  He gaped wordlessly, feeling not just two, but three of the ridges of Rahamuth's penis penetrating him.  He ached, being forced that wide, but reveled in the realization; he loved it.  That and the tail stroking him with renewed vigor proved too much.  He spilled a few ropes of semen onto the wing clutching his waist, to the dragon's great amusement.  As Alaus' passages clenched with his peak, the dragon's rumble of mirth rose to a euphoric roar, and with a final shove he planted his throbbing member deep.  Thick spurts of heated dragon seed flooded the young mans' bowels, Rahamuth unloading his need into the willing hole.  The sheer quantity of the beast's climax surprised Alaus, feeling his body pumped full of the fertile essence.  He felt almost sickeningly full, with no sign of Rahamuth's orgasm abating.  Finally, the dragon drew back with an audible squelch, unstoppering a copious stream of ejaculate.  Yet he still hadn't finished; he was merely withdrawing to pound Alaus exultantly a few times more while he spilled the last drops of his mating fluid.
 Had Rahamuth's wings not held him in place, Alaus would have fallen flat on his face; his entire upper body quaked.  He was exhausted... in bliss, but utterly spent.  His eyes closed of their own accord.  Slowly, he felt the vice-like grip of the wings release him, the softening dragonhood backing out, and he was lain in the dirt as Rahamuth stepped away.
A thunderous splash met Alaus ears, but he couldn't find it within himself to roll his head to watch the dragon cleanse.  He himself lay filthy, dirty semen caked down his front and legs, more oozing from his forbidden places.  His muscles refused to listen to him, and his backside ached like nothing he'd ever felt.
He heard Rahamuth stepping over him, and the small sigh that followed.  Then he felt scaled digits around him; he was lifted from the dirt.  Rearing with Alaus clutched tightly in his foreclaws, Rahamuth launched into the air.
Alaus' gut lurched, watching the ground fall away, the river swept out of his view.  "What...?  Where are you... taking me?"  His question was swallowed in the wind of the dragon's flight - if Rahamuth heard him, he did not respond.  Rahamuth wasn't going to hurt him, surely.  But the wind stung his eyes, and quickly dried the draconic semen upon his body.  The periodic beat of wings lulled him as the forest drifted by far below, and he might have enjoyed the experience if not for a nagging feeling in his gut.  He was missing something.
 The village.  Rahamuth was aiming for the village.  He swept low, clearing rooftops by not twenty feet, trumpeting a fearsome roar.
Alaus yelped, "Rahamuth, what are you doing!?"  But even if he had the strength to fight the dragon's grip, he was helpless in mid-flight.  Shocked eyes inevitably rose to Rahamuth, and the naked form in his grasp.  Alaus could but shut his eyes and will it to end.  Thankfully, the dragon cleared the village swiftly and veered back toward the forest.  
Just beyond the tree line, Rahamuth chose a clearing and circling it thrice, descending.  He touched down on his hind legs with care, having to deposit Alaus against a hillock covered in long grass before dropping his weight to all fours.
Alaus was dropped on his back, and he groaned.  Struggle as he might to stand - even to sit up properly - his muscles failed him.  Rahamuth rounded into his vision, the dragon shrugging his wings into their proper folds along his back.  He wore his grin again, but it faltered as his gaze met Alaus'; his eyes flitted away to nearby shrubbery.
 "Why?"  Alaus nearly sobbed.
"Do not be daft Alaus.  It ill becomes you,"  Rahamuth retorted, sullen.  "Did you think it coincidence I would be so intent on befriending the son of a dragonslayer?  Did you think my motives so transparent?"  He ducked his head as though struck.  "Your naivety is so impeccable as to be... endearing."
And finally, Alaus began to piece together the dragon's actions.  No wonder Rahamuth had rushed him into a sexual position: he'd wanted Jonnor to see the extent to which he'd seduced Alaus.  Flying over the village and showing him off humiliated him - and in turn, his father.  To Rahamuth, affronting Alaus was just a means of attacking Jonnor.  "So that's all it was?  From the very beginning, the moment you knew..."
"...That you were the son of Jonnor of Larkhall, yes, I used you."  Rahamuth finished for him, flatly.
Alaus' jaw clenched.  "He'll tear you to pieces for this."
"Tch.  He needn't bother."  The dragon shook his head.  "No, I am under no delusion; I will receive my due for this.  But I'd not be denied the slightest scrap of vengeance...  Even at your expense."
 "So that's all I was to you?  Just a tool?"
"Do not demean yourself.  You made an especially enjoyable tool."  Rahamuth laughed, "I regret nothing.  Ah, for Jonnor's face when he saw us...  saw you.  Yet, I find myself..."  He finally met Alaus' glare, and winced under it.  "I am... sorrowful it had to be you."
"Not sorrowful enough."  Alaus didn't know what to think...  his head throbbed, he struggled for breath around the knot in his throat, and his body ached everywhere.
Rahamuth shuddered without warning.  His eyes lifted above Alaus' shoulders.  "Well...  Hello dear Jonnor."
Alaus groaned again.  Bad enough Father had caught him with Rahamuth earlier; now Father had to see him a cum-stained wreck.  Jonnor had to have been standing directly behind him when he spoke.
"Begone, wyrm."  Jonnor's voice was hollow.
"Why?"  Rahamuth's body sagged, his limbs seemingly ready to give out, as though he suddenly felt as exhausted as Alaus.  Nevertheless, he managed to flash his daggerish grin.  "I have waited for this moment far too long - I simply must savor this."
 "And you will savor the downfall of your pride, for you have sealed its fate with this.  Dread the day you must crawl to me for forgiveness, for I will not give it."
Rahamuth's eyes shot wide.  "Dawn you, and damn your Law, Jonnor of Larkhall!"
"Go!"
The dragon growled challengingly, but his spine convulsed.  With one final glance at Alaus, he wheeled and slunk away, tail hung listlessly between his legs.
Alaus shut his eyes; he didn't want to see Father's face again.  A cloak was wrapped around him, and he was lifted in strong arms.  His head churned with questions about what had just taken place, but he couldn't bring himself to ask - not yet.  And Jonnor seemed content to hold the peace as he carried his errant son home.
* * * * *
The sunrise painted the familiar ceiling of his room - a sight for Alaus' sore eyes.  He felt like a load had been eased from his chest.  Father knew.  And it wasn't the end of the world.  He tested his muscles.  Though sore, he at least managed to sit up.  He muttered an incredulous oath, remembering how difficult it had been just to move yesterday.  Father had dismissed the maidservant and helped him wash.  Though gossip of Alaus being humiliated by a dragon was surely all across town, as far as Alaus knew he and Jonnor were the only ones who knew he'd actually been mated.  It was a small consolation, but still.
 And there was Jonnor in the chair across from him, elbows on knees.
"Good morning, Alaus.  How do you feel?"
"Used," Alaus sighed.
Jonnor winced, but said nothing.
At length, Alaus asked, "What did you do to Rahamuth?  You didn't even touch him and he just..."  His voice trailed off, recalling the inexplicable weakness that had overcome the dragon.
"By Law, Rahamuth's life belongs to me," Jonnor said slowly.  "His body rebels against him when he defies my express will."
"He mentioned this 'Law' too - what is it?"
"Are you hungry?"  Jonnor asked.  "I believe the maidservant has kept some breakfast warm.  You have slept late."
"No, I'd rather just... talk now.  What is this 'Law'?"
"In a word... complicated."  Jonnor sighed.  "It is the order of the universe.  The way, supposedly, all things aught to be.  But because nothing is absolute, it is not so.  To be curt, the natural Law is typically not enforced, but when it is, it is irrevocable.  For instance, I spared Rahamuth's life, and invoked the Law accordingly.  He is mine, and by my word, he may never harm a man or woman.  Therefore, it was the greatest blow he could deal to me: that you would have a willing part in his devices, even if ignorant of his full motive."
 "Willing?"  Alaus knew he had been, and it shamed him, but Father didn't know that.
"Do not take me for a fool." Jonnor's tone was nearly a whisper.  "He could have done nothing of the sort to you otherwise, in full awareness I would not will it.  My child, by my blood, you are a conduit of my will in part - a nuance of the Law Rahamuth learned well and sought to use against me.  Your desire for him supplanted my will to the contrary."
Alaus cringed.  "I'm sorry."  For not seeing Rahamuth's real intentions sooner; for allowing himself to be used.  He couldn't quite bring himself to be sorry for desiring the dragon in the first place.
"Rahamuth is hardly my only enemy Alaus.  Provided you have learned from this encounter, I should be thankful you are not permanently harmed."
"Yeah," Alaus agreed.
Silence stretched on, Alaus watching the swath of sunlight creep across his ceiling.
Finally Jonnor rose to leave.
"Wait," Alaus bade.  "Why does Rahamuth hate you so much?"
"As I said, I spared his life."  Jonnor paused with a hand on the door.  "He is a prideful beast, but not heartless.  Dragonkind discovered that ending a helpless soul was of grave consequence by Law.  Some with nothing left to lose allowed themselves to be beaten by dragonslayers, and begged for 'honorable' deaths.  In so doing, doomed many of my brethren.  By the time we realized our mistake, our numbers were too few.  We turned their scheme against them, by owning their lives, and we turned them upon their fellows.  But we knew the outcome of this as well: we were responsible for the lives we enslaved as such, and if they died, we may as well have ended them ourselves.  We put and end to dragonkind in the vale, but it cost us everything."  Jonnor sighed.  "I live and breath still because Rahamuth was too afraid and too badly broken to fight.  He hates me because I know him for what he is."
 Alaus blinked as the door clicked shut.  "That's...  a lot to think about," he informed his empty room.  He lay his head back, wondering what he was going to do to patch up his life.  He'd have to find someone else to apprentice under, too.
And what was he was going to do with Rahamuth?