[b][u][center]A Modern Dragon Harem
Chapter 14: Mining Truths
Sponsored by Repanbo
By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]








With the interrogation still going on, and the drones keeping them in the tunnels, there was little for Draconicon and his little ensemble of companions to do besides just talk through their plans. The dragon could hear them from time to time, make out the little muttered ideas that passed between the different huddles of people, but they were always quiet, always repeating themselves before admitting that their plans couldn’t work. Everyone was starting to feel the pressure, and that meant that more of the pressure was slipping up to him, making him feel it as they got more and more stressed out. 

He’d taken what time he could to bond himself with his friends, his…harem, for lack of a better word. He already had a bond with Ailsa and Zavis, but after the experiment with the snake went as well as it had, he used that to press his connections with everyone else that little bit deeper. Knowing where they were in the mountain at any given time was a blessing and a half, even if it did piss Tobias the fuck off once the Doberman learned that he was effectively on radar. 

“That is not fair,” the Doberman said, shaking his head as he leaned against the side of the tunnel. 

“Would it be fairer if I was the one tracked and you weren’t?”

“No. That would be a security risk.”

The dragon arched an eyebrow. Tobias snarled slightly before pulling his lip back down with one finger. 

“I am aware of the techniques the modern-day military has for converting assets from one side to another. There are currently other forces, stronger ones, that likely have stronger means of turning someone against those that they care about. I would say that I would die first, and I would attempt to…remove…those that were trying to turn me at the same time. However, we lack information on their capabilities, so I cannot say that it cannot happen. So. Logically. I should not have one-sided access to information of that sort.”

“So…your complaint is…”

“That I cannot surprise you anymore.”

“You will likely surprise me with all sorts of other things, Tobias,” he said with a small chuckle. “Regardless. What did you want?”

“You’ve bonded with all of us, except one. Why?”

The dragon took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. That was the hard part, he had to admit. He looked down the tunnel, knowing that Anya was all the way down there. He didn’t like thinking about her lately, knowing that he was avoiding her, and knowing why. 

Things had gone to hell, and she had been nothing but a dead weight. 

[i]It’s not fair to her,[/i] one part of him thought. [i]She’s been a normal person all her life, and hasn’t wanted to be more. You can’t expect her to handle gunshots and fantasy dragons and magic spells the way that you would do in a story.[/i]

On the other hand, he had been handling it that way, and ever since she had been brought to him, she’d been clinging to his arm whenever he was around. She wanted him there all the time, helping her get through it, when he needed to be focusing on how he was going to get them all through this. It had already led to resentment, and he really, really didn’t like that. 

And it would be easier to deal with that if he wasn’t attached to her the way that he was to the rest of the group. The dragon rubbed his forehead, shaking his head. 

“I’m fighting the urge to send her home, and I know if I do the bonding thing, it’ll hurt her.”

“Better hurt than dead.”

“There’s the bluntness that I keep you around for,” Draconicon muttered, shaking his head. “You’re right, of course.”

There was no response. The Doberman obviously knew that he’d made his point, and he wasn’t going to push further. Shaking his head, the dragon walked down the hallway, looking towards the darkness. He could feel the presence of Zavis ahead, knew that the snake was probably doing what he could to comfort the vixen. He wished that he had the willingness to keep doing that. 

The problem was, he didn’t. He might have, once. He might have wanted to be there for her, to do what he could to make things better, but ever since things started to go downhill, he found himself wanting to spend time with others. Ailsa was always ready to help out, and Engy, for all his bits of shakiness, was growing more and more confident in his new dragon body. He wanted to be part of the operation, wanted to do things to make the world better, to protect them. 

Anya didn’t. She wanted to have him, and pretend that things were okay. And that wasn’t okay. 

He made a decision. Not one that he wanted to make, but one that would hopefully make life better for her. 

Stepping into the cavern at the end of the tunnel, he found what he expected. Zavis was sitting there with his arms around the vixen, rocking her gently, whispering words in her ear. The snake looked up, the stream of reassurances slowing as the dragon walked up. There was nothing more than an exchange of looks, but it was enough for Zavis to get the point. The snake got up, gently brushing Anya off, and made his way out of the cavern. 

The white-furred, three-tailed vixen looked at him, cocking her head to the side. 

“What’s the matter, Drac?”

“I…” He sighed. “You’re going to hate me for this.”

She gasped, her eyes widening in worry as they always did when she got anxious. The dragon rubbed the back of his head, looking down for a moment, then up, trying to find the words. 

They were just going to have to be the blunt ones, he supposed. 

“I need to send you home. And turn you back to human.”

“Wha…why?” she whispered, already shaking. 

“A lot of reasons. A lot…a lot of reasons. You’re not safe here, and I can’t spend all my time looking after you when there are this many people that need help, too.”

“But…but…”

“And…” 

God, he hated doing something like this. He had hoped that this would be easier, but no. No, it had to be done. 

“And I don’t think we’re going to work out. Not like this.”

The look of utter heartbreak on her face was exactly what he had been afraid of, but strangely, it made it easier. Pain, her being surprised by it instead of seeing it coming, the slight look of her trying to find a way to say that this wasn’t fair, all made it that much easier for him to keep moving forward. 

Because no, it wasn’t fair, but not just for her. Maybe he shouldn’t have jumped into it, bringing her here and transforming her without warning. No, there was no maybe there. He should have told her something and then seen what happened next. But she wasn’t being fair, either. 

This wasn’t a relationship anymore. This was something that had to stop. 

“I’ll send you back, and make sure that you’re normal,” he said, shaking his head. “Nobody will know that you were…like this. You won’t be a freak or anything.”

“You’re breaking up with me?” she whispered. 

And there it was. The line that he had been hoping not to hear, the thing that he’d been mentally pleading with her not to say. Not because that wasn’t what was happening – it was – but because it was the last thing he wanted her to focus on right now. 

It wasn’t the fact that she was in danger out here that got her attention. It wasn’t the fact that he was sending her home. It wasn’t the fact that he was turning her human again. It was the fact that they were breaking up. That was what mattered. 

He sighed. 

“Yes. I am.”

“W-why? What did I do wrong?”

“…Anya. Look. I need to send you home. This is the worst time in the world to have a relationship. I shouldn’t have summoned you out here, and I shouldn’t have changed you. I’m going to send you back in a day or two, when it’s safe.”

“No, please, please. Don’t do this to me,” she begged, grabbing him by the hand. “Please. Whatever I did wrong, I can do better. Don’t – please, don’t break up with me. I…I can do better. I can be better.”

It took everything he had not to get angry in return. This wasn’t what he wanted. He wanted a clean break, something that he could get away from. He had brought her out here, hoping, thinking that it would go well for the both of them, but he couldn’t have been more wrong. Their long-distance relationship had done nothing to prepare them for this, and her less than him. 

[i]This was a bad idea. I fucked this up, and now, we’re both paying for it.[/i]

He pulled his arm free, but she kept grabbing for him, her eyes tearing up. Every time she tried to lay a hand on him, he had to pull himself back again, keep her from getting a grip. 

[i]This wasn’t supposed to happen.[/i]

As she begged one more time, he pulled his hand away, and he turned his back. He forced himself to walk rather than run. The dragon knew that if he turned around, if he took her hand and tried to make it better again, if he even looked at her, he would be sucked into trying to take care of her again. 

And he couldn’t do that. Not now. Perhaps not ever. 

#

The discomfort in the caves grew after he and Anya had that little chat, and he knew that the harem, their companions, were being split. He could feel the others talking to Anya as he sat in a different cavern, making sure that he was out of the way for the moment. He had said what he needed to say, and he didn’t want to be around her while she was still trying to beg him to keep her around. 

[i]I shouldn’t have done this in the first place,[/i] he thought. [i]I should have waited, I should have seen if this would even work out. Just because she was someone that I cared for with all the stuff we’ve done…just because she might have been a loose end…[/i]

Well, now she was more than a loose end, and unless he obliterated her memory, she’d be someone that the other side could turn to their purposes without even trying. In the dark cave he hid in, Draconicon leaned forward, rubbing his face against his hands, grumbling under his breath. 

“Stupid, stupid, stupid…”

Groaning under his breath, he pressed his hands into his face, almost crushing his snout for a moment before he got to his feet again. He started pacing, pushing himself to keep moving, to move and think and think and move. 

“Options. What are they?”

They were still in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of drones watching the mountain that they were hiding in. He still needed to do something to give them a better place to hide. They still had an enemy with some sort of magical power watching them, able to move people around with ease. 

[i]That means that using a move to send Anya home, transformed back so that nobody notices that she was gone, and using another move to blank her memories, give them more time and more moves to take care of us. God…damn…it…[/i]

No, no. He had to calm down. He had to think through this properly, without getting angry and frustrated. And he definitely didn’t need to punch one of the walls, no matter how punchable it looked. 

He gripped his wrist as he kept walking around, keeping himself from giving into the wall-punching urges. Instead, he tried to think. Think it out. Think through things without getting trapped in the box. 

[i]What do I need?[/i] 

For everyone to be safe was the immediate answer, but he knew that wasn’t going to be possible if he was wasting moves to send Anya somewhere else. And besides, he had an obligation. He owed her. If nothing else, he owed her the chance to be around some of the others for a little bit longer, in a place of safety. 

And if it went on long enough, it was just possible that she’d be the one to ask to be sent home rather than him forcing it. That would be the better of the two options, but – 

[i]Three days,[/i] he decided. [i]Three days. If she doesn’t make a choice by then, I make the choice for her. If she doesn’t get better by then, I make the choice for her,[/i] he thought. 

It was the most he could do. 

Solving the Anya problem, at least the part of what to do with her until they were in a better place and could expend some new moves, Draconicon thought about what they needed to do next. A tunnel going up had been his thought, and it was still the main idea that he had. Nobody expected people in a mine to tunnel upwards to hide; everyone expected them to go down, instead, away from the surface, going further into the deep dark. 

[i]And if I did this right…[/i]

Then he could make it look like there was a tunnel leading down, which could be collapsible, sending anyone looking for them on a wild goose chase and then leaving them trapped while he and the rest of his friends got a bit of a lead.

Not great, but it was better than nothing. The biggest problem was that their enemies knew where they were, and there was not much that he could do to get around that. All he could do was try and make it more and more difficult to storm his hideout until they were able to go somewhere else. 

[i]And until I can teleport us all at once, that’s going to be the hard part…[/i]

Fuck, he wished he knew all the rules that they were operating under. That would make life so much simpler. 

There was a knock on the wall behind him, and he turned, glancing back. Engy. The yellow dragon hesitated, then took a step inside. 

“Want some company?” he asked. 

“I’m available for it,” Draconicon answered. 

Sitting down on the one rock in the room, Engy waited for him to sit down, too. The alchemist gently wrapped him in a one-armed hug with his mechanical limb, shaking his head a few times. There was no doubt that Engy had already figured out what had happened; he’d felt his friend talk to Anya already, and they had probably exchanged a fair bit of chatter back and forth. 

“Are you okay?” Engy asked. 

“I’ll live.”

“She’s wrong, you know.”

“I know. But I did some wrong to her, so…she’s allowed to feel this way.”

He nodded. 

They sat quietly for a bit, but Draconicon sighed, leaning forward and resting his head in his hands. He shook his head a few times. 

“God, this is a lot more complicated than writing these stories…”

“I bet. You have any ideas of how we’re going to move forward from this?”

“I’m just trying to figure out how to keep us alive until the next plot development.”

“Think you can?”

“I’ve got ideas. And I have you, and Ailsa.”

“And all of the people that came with Veronica.”

“And Zavis,” Draconicon added with a chuckle. 

“Well, we’ve all had Zavis; he likes to spread the love around.”

“He’s a busy snake.”

“Workaholic.” Engy poked him. “Like you.”

“Well, someone has to be.”

“…Do you want some space?”

“For a bit.” 

Engy nodded, patting him on the back before getting up. He walked to the corridor out of the cavern, paused, looked over his shoulder. Draconicon shook his head. 

“I’m fine. Or at least, I will be.”

“Yeah, I know, but…you know most of us want to be here. You know that, right?”

“I know.”

“We’re all part of the harem. And that means we’re all here for you.”

He smiled, nodding. The yellow dragon smiled back, then left. 

Once more alone in the dark, Draconicon slowly leaned back until he had his back against the rock and stared up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes, slowly breathing in, and then letting it back out again. He rested his hands over his chest, fingers woven together, and he stared at the inside of his eyelids as he plotted. 

[i]If I was writing this story, what would the bad guys do if they were competent…[/i]

#

After breaking through a number of couplets, Draconicon managed to get a rhyme that created the tunnels that he wanted. One went straight up from the main one that they’d been using, burrowing towards the upper parts of the mountain, while another went down under his feet. He even managed to create a ladder for the one that went down, something to make it look a bit more realistic. The one that went up required climbing via hand and footholds, but with their new anthro bodies, everyone was able to do that well enough. 

When they reached the top, he went to the rock wall. He had a grin on his face, one that actually stung a bit as he started running his fingers along the stone surface. Some of the harem looked at each other, then at him with some concern. 

The dragon ran his fingers across the stone surface, taking a deep breath. 

“[i]Notched in the mind, catching stone, wood, and more

Come out, little picks, we have work in store.[/i]”

It was a simple couplet, and with a clear image in mind, he actually managed to do something that he had been half-sure would be impossible. The stone warped around his fingers, and pickaxes, the sort that were used in a certain game that had spread all across the world, popped free. 

“Oh…god…” 

Engy. 

“Oh, that will be useful.”

Zavis. 

“Eh, diamond would be better.”

Ailsa. 

“MINE!”

And that was Veronica and Victoria, lunging for it right off the bat. Draconicon tossed it over his shoulder, examining his stores of magic as he tried to figure out how much he had spent making the two that had popped out. 

[i]Not that much, really. It’s an enchantment of sort, but since it created items rather than just put magic into them, that might be the difference,[/i] he thought. [i]And since they’re not that strong…[/i]

He looked back at the German Shepherd and the kangaroo, watching as they tested the pickaxes on the sides of the room. Just like in the game, cracks started to appear almost immediately, and the stone itself collapsed in a block. The space it disappeared from appeared to be about two feet by two feet, but the collapsed block was only about the size of a marble. As the German Shepherd picked it up, her eyes lit up. 

“Oh, this breaks physics in so many ways…” she muttered. “This is a game-changer.”

“Just keep an eye on how long it takes for it to break down,” Draconicon said. “I want to know what we’re working with.”

“Can you make more, Master?” Zavis asked. 

“I think so. I’ll make one for each of you.”

As the crowd of the harem stepped forward, Anya hung back. He winced slightly at the way that she was removing herself from everyone, yet still looking at them, hungry for attention. It had happened even faster than he’d thought. She was isolated, both from him, and from others, and from her own way of handling things. 

Shaking his head, the dragon focused on making more of the pickaxes. He made one for Zavis, one for Engy, one for Ailsa, one for Vivian – the little possum-kobold had found a mining helmet somewhere, and looked so happy to start digging – and one for Tobias. The Doberman in particular looked at it, spun it around, and then went down to the main tunnels again. 

“Where are you going?” Draconicon shouted down the hole. 

“Experimenting. We’ll need other materials for crafting if this is at all like Minecraft. I would also like to place some traps.”

“Do I need to ask what sort?”

“No.”

“Just make sure we all know where they are, okay?”

“You will be informed.”

That just left Janet and the prisoner. She stood over him, using him as a seat while keeping one of her hands on his wrists. The former security guard shook her head. 

“This is ridiculous,” she muttered. “I keep thinking you find the end of what you can do, and then you do more. How much is the world going to change here? Seriously? How much more can it change?”

“Never ask a storyteller how much the world can change,” the dragon muttered, patting the human on the shoulder. “You doing okay? Seriously?”

“…I’m going to be alright. Just…Still figuring this out. A dragon ‘master.’ A buttload of magic. People trying to kill us. Animal people.” She shook her head. “I’m still not sure I’m not dreaming.”

“If you’re dreaming, then you’re the creator of a world with all this happening, and your imagination has decided that you are a slave to someone else, with a great joy in playing with a dragon’s cock,” he said, cocking his head to the side. “Not to mention that you are the one that came up with the whole scenario and we only live if you keep dreaming.”

Janet stared at him, her eyes wide as he went on. After a few seconds, she slowly shook her head. 

“Um. I’ll take this being real, then…Jesus…You really know how to turn something on its head, don’t you?”

“It’s part of what I used to do.”

Shaking her head, Janet shifted her position on top of their prisoner. The prisoner looked up at him, glaring over a gag that was kept over his mouth. Draconicon shook his head. The only reason that this man was still alive was because he’d ordered it, but he knew that didn’t give him any sort of gratitude. This was the sort of soldier – or former soldier, they hadn’t been able to drag that out of him – that would fight for whatever he was told to fight for. If he had it in his head that the dragon was a threat to the country or whatever, he would fight and try and kill him. That was all. 

“Just make sure that this guy doesn’t cause any problems, huh, Janet?”

“That much I can do. I know how to keep people restrained.”

“Security training, huh?”

“That, and having little brothers.”

“Tell me about it…”

#

With a few hours passing by, they were able to carve out the upper room. It didn’t make it that much roomier or prettier, but at least it made it so that they had some options for space. The blocks that they were able to chip out of the wall could be reapplied elsewhere, so the harem started making little rooms for themselves. They were little more than chunked out bits of space, always in a square, but it was better than nothing. 

It turned into a game of sorts, particularly when someone found a line of coal or something like that. Draconicon didn’t remember Mt. Rainier having coal in it, but then again, he had never studied it. It was also quite possible that it was more of a shift from where he’d called the pickaxes from, as well. People would call out when they found a vein, and everyone would come running, darting down tunnels to find it. 

Draconicon shook his head whenever he saw that, smiling. It felt good to see his harem, his friends, working so hard to get things done together. 

When Tobias came back with some wood, everyone was amazed to find out that they could make workbenches, and more than that, that they could make more tools, expanding what they already had. He didn’t even feel any magic being pulled from him; this was all something that self-perpetuated. 

And that was a little scary. 

[i]I’ve brought something into the world, and it’s changed the world,[/i] Draconicon thought. [i]And I don’t need to do more. It’s doing that on its own.[/i]

From what little he remembered, he doubted that it would bring in things like the Endermen and the Creepers, considering that the tools didn’t spawn either of those, but it was still a creepy thought to imagine what might happen if he started borrowing things from other popular media. God, the idea of bringing people to life rather than just tools…

[i]Magic is scary. Awesome, but scary.[/i]

Soon, their core chamber was lit with torches, the little blocky things becoming a cute little addition. They didn’t let out any real smoke, despite the animations that they made, and they gave plenty of light. More light than he expected, actually. 

In just a few short hours, they had everything that they needed, except for beds and some extra food. Draconicon shook his head, sitting on a carved-out seat beside the sad vixen. 

She hadn’t done any digging. She had a pickaxe, since he had made one for her, but she had sat off to the side, not joining in. He’d watched, hoping that maybe she’d try, but every time that she opened her mouth, she’d shut it again and sit down, falling back into the depression that he’d seen at the start of their relationship. There were even invitations from some of the harem, from Ailsa and from Veronica to try and get her on her feet again, but she just stayed where she was, sighing and staring at them. 

He looked down at the vixen as he sat by her. She didn’t even look up at him. 

“What’s up?” he asked. 

“I just feel alone.”

“People asked you to join them,” he pointed out. 

“Yeah, but they don’t mean it. They just want me to do work.”

“Well, we do have to do work.”

“They don’t want me for me, though. I…” She sighed. “Please don’t leave me, Drac. Please. I need you.”

“…”

“Please.” She looked up at him. “I don’t know what I did wrong, but I can do better. I just…I don’t want to be alone. Don’t make me be alone. I’ll be better. Whatever I did wrong, I’ll do better.”

“…” He sighed, rubbing the back of his head. “Anya, it’s not that simple. I told you, I can’t really do this now.”

“But you can do them?” she asked, nodding at the harem members. “You can do things for them, and…and fuck them?”

“That’s different.”

“How? I’m supposed to be your girlfriend. Why the hell do I get kicked to the curb while you keep them around?”

“You don’t want me to answer that,” he muttered, looking away. “There’s no way to answer that question without hurting you.”

“Are they more attractive than me? Do you love them more than me?”

“That’s not it.”

“Then what is it, huh? Why are you keep them and trying to get rid of me?”

They were getting attention from everyone else, and the dragon knew that this wasn’t going to get better. He reached down, taking Anya by the hand and pulling her to one of the side areas. He slapped down a few bricks, closing it off with stone, and then slapped a door down to cut off the sound. With a torch on the wall, they had enough light to see each other, and hopefully keep the noise down. 

“You really want to know?”

“I’m your girlfriend! Or, at least, I was. I deserve to know!”

“I’m keeping them because [i]they[/i] can hold it together. Because [i]they[/i] don’t need me to look after them all the time. Because [i]they[/i] are trying to make things better.”

“I can make things better!”

“Trying to get me to fuck you doesn’t make things better, Anya. And cuddling doesn’t, either. I literally don’t have time to be with you all the time, trying to make you feel better, trying to keep you from feeling afraid.”

“...”

She stared at him, then, looking down at the floor. 

“I thought…I thought you said you’d love me no matter what…”

“…That’s not fair,” he muttered. 

“You promised.”

“I made a mistake.”

“Am I a mistake?”

“No. But making that promise was.” He sighed. “Look. I’m not getting rid of you. But things are changing. Things are changing, and we can’t just change them back. I made a mistake bringing you out here without knowing that you’d be able to take it, and…and I don’t think we can just put that back in the bottle. Things have changed, and we’re going to have to live with them now. 

“I’m not sending you back. But I can’t do relationship stuff right now.”

“We’re on a break, then?” she asked, the vixen looking hopeful.

“…Not a break I think we can get better from,” he said. 

“But a break? Please. Just a break. A break instead of breaking up. Please. Please.”

“…”

“Please,” she whispered, her voice breaking. 

“I can’t…I can’t do that, Anya. I’m sorry.”

He squeezed her hand, and she cried, leaning over his fingers. He wanted nothing more than to pull away, but he owed her this. He owed her [i]something[/i] for this pain, and he’d let her have this. 










[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Angst, angst, and more angst. Draconicon realizes that he’s been slowly drifting from Anya, and he realizes why. A confrontation, then some magic makes life more interesting. 

Tags: no sex, comfort, break-up, various species, dragon, snake, human, vixen, canine, kangaroo, kobold, series, fantasy, modern dragon harem, harem, Minecraft,