Dragons Are Solitary, but They Still Have Friends
—
Travis and Joey were wrestling on the floor of the cave. Not an uncommon game for them, but this time was different.
This time Travis was winning.
He’d figured out some of Joey’s most common tactics and was able to deal with them now. When Joey had wrapped his tail around Travis’s leg at the beginning, Travis had squeezed his legs together and kept them that way to hold it there so he couldn’t wrap it around Travis’s middle later. Joey was stronger than him, so instead of pushing back when Joey pushed, Travis pulled, making them fall over and turning so that he landed on top.
After that, it was a simple matter of getting Joey’s arms and pinning him, though Joey didn’t make it easy, wrapping his legs around Travis’s waist and trying to roll them over, making frustrated little growling noises when Travis didn’t let him.
The simple matter of getting Joey’s arms was made harder by how strong Joey was, but Travis managed it, getting one and then the other, holding them down against the ground, trying to pull them above Joey’s head. “I got you,” he grunted.
“No…you don’t…” Joey growled, still trying to break free.
Travis smirked, holding fast. From his position, Joey couldn’t move that well. No matter how much he squirmed, he was going to have to give in eventually. Their bodies pressed against each other, they writhed on the floor for a while. They were both hard and every so often a nice feeling would come of that, but Travis was mostly focused on winning right now.
Managing to get Joey’s hands above his head, Travis grinned in triumph. “Come on, surrender.”
“No,” Joey insisted, squirming harder, increasing the movement between their bodies, and the good feelings coming from that. Judging by the little noise Joey made, Travis wasn’t the only one who noticed, and Joey kept doing that, eyes on Travis. Travis moved back, not able to help himself, watching Joey, keeping his hands in place, refusing to let go until Joey admitted defeat.
They kept going like that, doing something that wasn’t quite wrestling anymore, for a few minutes. Joey started to growl more and more, and suddenly he reared up and bit Travis on the shoulder. “Ow!” It didn’t hurt that bad, Travis was just surprised.
Joey fell back, eyes wide. “Sorry! I don’t…know why I did that.”
“It’s okay,” Travis laughed, grinding hard against Joey. “If you’d just surrender, I’d let you go.”
“Not surrendering. Dragons don’t surrender.”
“Then dragons stay pinned to the floor all day.”
“You can’t hold out that long.”
“Can too.”
A shadow fell over the cave, then disappeared, and there was a whoosh of wind. Both of them froze. “What was that?” Travis asked.
“It…I think someone flew in front of the cave.”
“Someone?”
Joey nodded, looking over to the entrance. “Get off.”
Travis did as he was told, standing and pulling Joey to his feet. “I still won,” he said.
“No. I was about to push you off.”
“You’re full of it. I had you.”
Joey gave him a look, before heading for the cave entrance. “We’ll call it a tie.”
“But it wasn’t!”
“Hey runt, that you in there?”
Travis blinked at the voice calling out from the mountainside. But Joey broke into a smile, nearly leaping in place. “Yeah, I’m in here!” He hurried to the cave entrance, and around the side came another boy, taller and leaner and narrower than Joey, dark hair broken by black horns, the scales on his tail holding a greenish sheen. Unlike Joey he had wings on his back, black streaked with vivid green, which held Travis’s attention for a good few seconds until Joey leaped on him with a shout as if to knock him over.
The new boy laughed and easily got Joey in a headlock, grinning and holding him in place. It wasn’t until that happened that Travis noticed that he was also stark naked and got for himself some confirmation that yes, being big was just a dragon thing. Joey was growling at him in a friendly way. “And you still suck,” he said.
The new boy looked up suddenly, saw Travis standing there, and he blinked. “Oh, hey.” He let Joey go, nearly dropping him. Joey backed away, rubbing his neck. “You found a human?”
“He found me.” Joey sounded a little defensive. “Travis, this is…” Just like Joey’s name, it was a series of sounds that Travis couldn’t replicate.
“Louis?” Travis asked, trying, and feeling bad because that wasn’t even close.
“Close enough,” Louis laughed, approaching Travis, peering at him carefully. “Huh. Never seen a human up close before. Thought you’d be bigger.”
“That’s what I said about dragons,” Travis said, trying not to feel like a spider under glass. One of the monks at the orphanage had used to study spiders and would put them in little glass things to see them better and it had been weird and Travis had always felt bad for the spiders.
Louis snorted. “Just because you’ve only seen the runt. The rest of us are more impressive.”
“Joey’s impressive.” Joey had been sidling over and as Travis said that, his tail wrapped around Travis’s waist, his fingers lacing through Travis’s. “We’re friends.”
“So I see,” Louis said, and he reached out and gave Travis an experimental poke on the shoulder, right under the bite mark.
Joey growled at him. “Mine.”
Travis felt funny about that. Not a bad funny, just warm and fuzzy.
“Okay, okay.” Louis backed off, smiling. “Yours. I wanted to see how you were doing on your own. I didn’t know your sire kicked you out until I went looking for you a while ago and he just growled at me and made me go away. Told me you were gone.”
“Uh, yeah.” Joey smiled. “Told me I was too old for him to take care of me.”
Louis gave a shrug. “You are. Took me forever to find you. Since you’re so small.” That was with a playful grin and he gave Joey a shove.
Joey shoved back. “Just because you’re dumb and don’t know how to look,” he shot back. “I wasn’t hiding.”
Louis bared his fangs. “Careful, I’m bigger than you.”
“So’s Travis, and I just beat him in wrestling.”
Travis narrowed his eyes. “You did not.”
“We got interrupted.”
“Yeah, I see that,” Louis joked, looking down at Joey’s boner. Travis’s had partly faded, but Joey was still at full strength. “You really are growing up, finally.”
“Shut up,” Joey said, with another shove.
“You know,” Louis said, looking thoughtfully at Travis. “Your sire has a human too.”
“He…” Joey blinked. “He does?”
“Well, that’s what I hear, anyway. Someone said he flew off a while ago, came back with a human, hasn’t come out of his cave since.”
“The princess,” Travis said, straightening. He looked at Joey. “I…came here because everyone was looking for the dragon who kidnapped the princess.”
“You…you mean my sire kidnapped the princess?” Joey asked, looking a little stricken.
“Well, I don’t know…” Travis admitted, shrugging. “But maybe.”
“But that means there’s guys with swords looking for him. What if they find him?”
“Hey,” Louis said, punching Joey’s arm. “Your sire’ll fry them, that’s what’ll happen if they find him.”
“Yeah…” Joey said, nodding. He didn’t sound convinced. “Yeah, you’re right. I guess that’s why he kicked me out. There wasn’t room for three of us in there.”
“Hey,” Travis said, squeezing Joey’s hand. “There would never have been room for four of us.”
Joey looked at him, eyes going a bit wide, and he grinned, hugged Travis. “You’re right. It’s better this way.”
“I wanted to brag about my hoard,” Louis said, crossing his arms. “But it’s just some junk and you’ve already got a human. I guess even the runt wins sometimes.”
“Yep, you can’t top what I’ve got here,” Joey bragged, arms around Travis as he looked at Louis. His horns were brushing Travis’s face. “Even my sire’s is nothing compared to this.”
Louis snorted. “We should go hunting sometime, now that I know where you are.”
“Yeah!” Joey grinned. “Sure. Travis can come too!”
“Sure,” Louis agreed. “If he can keep up.”
“I can.”
“Sure you can. Tomorrow?”
“Deal.”
Louis nodded. “See you then. I’m off. Your cave is too small. Just like you.”
Joey snapped his jaw. Louis laughed, and headed out of the cave. He waved over his shoulder, kept walking right to the ledge, where he just jumped right off, and a moment later a big black and green dragon rose from the cliffside, flying off to the north.
Joey sighed when he was gone, arms still around Travis. “He’s my best friend,” he said, looking up at Travis. “We grew up together.”
“He’s got wings,” Travis said, sliding his arms around Joey too. “How come you don’t have wings?”
Pulling a face, Joey’s tail moved down, around Travis’s leg. “Mine will grow in someday,” he said, a little defensive.
“Okay. Are you worried about your sire?”
“No,” Joey said, shaking his head. “He’ll be fine, Louis is right.”
“Yeah, probably.” Travis wasn’t so sure. There were a lot of people looking for the princess, from what he’d heard.
“What I’m worried about is our tie.”
“You mean my victory?”
“Nope.” Joey tugged, but Travis anticipated him and pushed, and Joey ended up on his back with Travis on top of him again. “Hey!”
“Admit defeat.” Travis grabbed Joey’s arms again.
“Never,” Joey growled, moving his hips to try and get away, rubbing himself against Travis again. He was still hard and Travis was rapidly getting there again.
“Fine,” Travis said, grinning. He leaned down and kissed Joey. “New rule. Whoever cums, forfeits.”
Joey grinned back, moving his hips just like Travis was. Either way, they were both going to win. “Deal.”
—
How Best to Use a Sword 