Dragonkin Ch. 01

Catrin had slept every night in her father's arms, intending to try to get him to use her like he'd used her mother, but each night she was too tired from working to do more than kiss his lips and fall asleep. In the morning he was always up and about before her, usually with food prepared. He said they might as well eat up everything they couldn't carry with them. He dried what he could and cooked the rest and they feasted, but that meant he didn't have any more free time than she did and their relationship stayed as it had been. Cat sighed heavily as she fitted a second pouch onto one of the leather belts she'd gotten from the soldier's remains, this one for small tools and bits of wire and things she could use for small repairs. She'd rather have all her tools with her, but most of them were too heavy to carry far by themselves, let alone while carrying another full pack.

Aedan lay curled up in the remains of the garden, the dead, dried shafts of failed grains scratching the leathery hide of his underbelly comfortably, and watched his humans bustle around. He found all that activity amusing. If he got half that active in a day he'd need to eat twice as much, and then he'd end up just spending more time hunting. No, a reasonable dragon didn't move much when he didn't have to, and Aedan didn't have to.

He looked over at the female, the one Bradan man protected so fiercely, and sniffed the air coming from her direction. He tasted it with his forked tongue and twitched his ears. He enjoyed the flavor of her scent, especially when she was sweating hard or spending time near Bradan man, when it became musky, with a sharp tinge that somehow carried a hint of sweetness. Then there was the underlying scent of her that was ever present and had taken him a while to identify; urine. Unlike Bradan man, hers came straight out of her body in a way that made it difficult to completely clean up just by wiping, and unlike Bradan man she didn't seem to care if it just ran down her legs while she was working or even just walking from one place to another. The Catrin, as Bradan man had told him she was called, was much more reasonable than Bradan man, Aedan thought. One washing in the pond a day and don't worry about it the rest of the time. Although getting in the pond at all seemed a bit silly. No self respecting fire dragon would do such a thing unless there was food to be found under the surface, and a lot of it. Aedan closed his eyes, daydreaming about how the Catrin's warm, soft body might feel squirming on his tongue as he ate her; he'd been told the females were much softer and tastier than the males.

The damage the dragon had done to the hut was sufficient to make it unsafe, so Bradan and Catrin pulled things out as they wanted or needed them, but otherwise stayed away from it. After a couple of days Bradan had the idea of making the whole clearing stay looking deserted, so if they got enough advance warning of anyone approaching they could hide and hope the ruined look of the place would keep people from getting curious. It turned out to be unneeded, as no one came by while they collected their items, but the lack of trying to be neat fit in with Bradan's lazy and haphazard style. By the time they were ready to go the yard looked as if it had been deserted for years, except the trafficked areas where they'd worked, and one good rain would cover that. Catrin looked back at the only home she'd ever known, shrugged, and walked away from it easily.

Aedan took a couple of lumbering steps, then flapped his wings and left the ground, the magic of being dragon aiding the lift of his wide wings. After circling once over the clearing he headed north, heading for a clearing he had told Bradan man of. It would take his humans a few days to get there, so he'd get some leisurely hunting in. If he just ate small amounts at a time he could just keep eating and flying, scouting out a wider range than he'd ever done before. He pondered a feeling of near excitement that rose up with the idea of exploring new territory. He'd only done it once before, when he was half his current age, looking for more of his kind. Once he'd found them they'd made such a big fuss about avoiding humans that he'd never felt really comfortable traveling again. Now that he'd be doing it for his humans it must be acceptable. Not that being acceptable really mattered; he already associated with humans willingly, and there wasn't much lower that a dragon could go.

North and west of the old hut was nothing but forest, mountain, and forest on mountain. Aedan was able to find enough clearings around ponds to get food, but it took time, as most animals recognized the sound of dragon wings as a threat. Humans were much easier - they would stand and wave their swords around, saving a dragon the effort of hunting them down, sometimes being so obliging as to run out of their little boxes and presenting themselves. Aedan wondered if he just laid out his tongue as a carpet would they run right up into his stomach. When he was larger of course; currently he was stuck with needing to rip them into bite size pieces first, which used up valuable energy.

Wearing her leather skirt and vest, Catrin walked barefoot along the path, holding hands with her father, smiling contentedly. Their first target was the village of Derry to sell off some of Cat's old tools and buy some emergency food bars. Mostly jerky and dried fruit and grains packed tightly into bars, they resembled wood in taste and texture, but were easily stored in small spaces and lasted a long time, very useful when heading into unknown areas where food might be hard to find. Villagers would look at her funny, she knew, but only because of her bare feet, not because of her open vest or short skirt the way they would in bigger towns. Farmers and hunters don't usually care as much about clothing issues, although the men tend to think less clothing means more availability, but not many can understand walking barefoot through mud and other things that may be on the ground.

The village of Derry barely qualified as a village. Being at the end of a road going nowhere it attracted little attention and few travelers. Technically it came under the purview of the town of Derry, being in the region of Derry controlled by the Duke of Derry (not an imaginative man when it came to names), but actually didn't pay very much mind to any authority. The one public building served as pub, inn, general store, and meeting hall; often, all at the same time. The village had no roads, just one wide dirt track between a few stone houses that ended at the 'The End' (the name of the aforementioned public building) and a few smaller tracks that ran out toward farms in various directions that a determined farmer could get a wagon down when he had things to trade.

Catrin moved to the side of the path and walked in the grass, shuffling her feet a little to remove the majority of mud and dirt that had collected. She'd gone into 'The End' once recently with muddy feet and caused a bit of an uproar; thinking about the spanking she'd gotten from the owner still made her wince and breathe a little heavy. She smirked, considering how messy the floor of the place was, and figured the spanking was just another excuse to touch her. Not that she minded the touching, since she'd grown up with it, but he'd made it hard to walk and sit for a while after. Peeking up at her father, she blushed as she thought of how excited she'd gotten to see the bulge in his pants as he'd watched. Several other men had bulges as well, but she didn't really notice who, it was only her father's bulge she was interested in. Looking at some of the mud puddles they were passing tempted her greatly, both for the pleasure of walking in it and for the potential results. With a heavy sigh, she decided things were too uncertain for her to take chances with her father's temper.

Inside 'The End' was nearly empty, the time being early afternoon and most villagers still working. The plain wooden floor felt interesting to Catrin's feet after the mud, dirt, grass, and small stones of the path. The whole place was rough old wood, mostly grey, the floor smooth only because of the many generations of people walking it. A few rough barstools were set in a row along the currently empty bar, while several tables with chairs were scattered about the large room waiting for the dinner customers. A man, a giant from Catrin's perspective, waved to them as they entered, looking purposefully at Cat's feet. She figured he was checking for mud again as she dropped her heavy pack on the floor with a sigh of relief.

Bradan pushed Catrin to greet the owner, Paul, and smirked as the big man wrapped an arm around Catrin and started fondling her little breasts under her vest. Paul had offered to buy Cat several times, but wasn't willing to pay the price for a virgin, since it was such a fleeting state. Bradan could understand his point, but since others would pay the premium Bradan wasn't willing to drop it even for a friend. He'd never told Catrin why he kept her a virgin or that Paul wanted her; he'd seen enough girls get overly emotional when bargaining started and he didn't want to deal with it. He found it easier to just leave her ignorant and talk to the prospective buyers in private. The only difficult part was resisting her temptations; he was starting to think she really wanted to bed him.

Paul sighed into the small girl's mouth, enjoying the way she squirmed and wiggled in his hands. The only reason he didn't offer Bradan more for Catrin was the way she looked at her father; he knew he'd always be second in her eyes and that would bother him over time. Such a sweet girl, she even forgave him for stripping her and spanking her in public, although he knew part of the forgiveness was because it had excited her as much as it had humiliated and hurt her. Opening her vest and running his hands over her stiffened nipples, he thought that was one thing he would change about her if he ever did get possession; he wouldn't allow her to let men touch her so easily. Not that he would make her act like some prudish townswoman, but it would be better if she weren't quite so open with her body. He put his hand under her skirt and caressed her smooth mound, listening to her soft moan, and considered he might not ask her to change very much; it was exciting to be able to make her melt at any time, any place, without resistance as long as he wasn't too rough. He sighed again, remembering he wasn't going to take her. Pushing his hand further between her legs, he eased a finger tip into her anus and grinned as she squeaked and tried to bite his tongue. Swatting her bum hard, he let her go.

Catrin blushed as she pushed her skirt down again and stepped away from Paul. She had enjoyed that finger in her bum a lot more than she would have expected if asked beforehand. The huge man was always finding new ways to get her all hot and wet, but he never finished it. No one ever did, they always made her do it herself or just left her wanting. Not that she wanted anyone to go inside her except her father, but they could at least use their fingers to finish what they started.

Bradan was a little surprised at how Paul was molesting Catrin, quite a bit more than usual, but he was enjoying it immensely. Judging from the expression on Paul's face, he was captivated and perhaps reconsidering her possible value. Trying to make Paul feel a sense of loss and hopefully make him want her more, Bradan pulled Cat toward himself, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, unaware of the look she gave him and the effect it had on Paul. The idea that her feelings might matter to anyone never crossed his mind, so as he saw Paul's resistance strengthen he was baffled. He shrugged it off and decided to let the matter rest for the time being, although he would have liked to have her off his hands when he went out into the wilds. He was a little worried that if he spent too much time out there with just her that he'd lose the chance to get a virginity premium out of her. He pulled at her vest a little, making it pull open and show off her little tits, then dropped the subject from his mind and focused on the trading he wanted to do.

Paul didn't find it as easy to get down to business, but after Catrin distracted him for the third time he told her if she didn't get her cute little ass out of his sight she was getting another spanking. After a minute's thought she wandered out the back toward the blacksmith shop and he was able to concentrate on getting a good deal from Bradan on the tools he was buying. He didn't really need them, but he could use them, so he was in a stronger position than Bradan, who couldn't. Without the cute half naked girl distracting him, Paul made what he considered a fair deal, and decided to see if he could get one more thing.

"You know, she's already a bit old to be asking so much. She's been old enough for what, three years now?" He wasn't really that knowledgeable about the value of young women, since in the villages most were mated for family ties rather than money. Bradan was the first man he'd met who wanted money for his daughter rather than a good mating, but Paul had heard it was common in the bigger towns. Money and politics mattered more than family there, and Bradan was from one of those places, Paul knew. Still, he had to make one more try to get that girl for himself.

Shaking his head side to side, Bradan smiled, "Oh, I'm not asking so much. I know there's not as much money here as in town." He shrugged, "but I'd rather avoid the town if I don't have to lose too much to do it." Looking out of the corner of his eye at the bigger man, he continued, "What you are offering is too little by far. I'd even knock off, say, five percent a year for each year since she turned old enough. Not sixty, though. I'll go to town rather than that." Bradan knew Catrin would be worth a lot more than he was asking, much more than he was letting Paul suspect in case it made Paul curious as to why, but he also knew he couldn't risk taking her into town. The risk of someone recognizing him and getting him put to death was very high, and even if no one knew who he was, getting Catrin to act in a manner that would attract a good price would be near impossible. A townsman wouldn't want a mate with a mind of her own, even if she was a horny virgin. Farmers and villagers expect their women to do some of the thinking and working, though, so put up with a bit more independence.

Paul stood up from the table and held out his hand to conclude the business, "then I'll just have to resign myself to the occasional kiss and caress. Your price is too high for my pocketbook." For a small sum he'd take the risk that he could get the girl to love him as much as she did her father, but not for a large sum. She was a bit headstrong and he wasn't sure anything could get her to change her mind once she set it on something, even if it was the impossible task of getting her father to think of anything outside himself.

Bradan took the hand and shook it, smiling. "As long as no other man takes her and sets new rules. I let her set her own limits, except the one." He shrugged, "she's not easy to control, I'll admit, but she's got a good spirit that will make it interesting for whoever gets her." He took the money the part time blacksmith, part time pub owner handed him, and pushed over the pack of tools that they couldn't carry around with them. Picking up Catrin's pack, he shoved it so it slid up to the door she'd gone out of earlier. "And speaking of no control, I'll save you from yelling at her to keep wet or muddy feet out of your pub."

Grinning, Paul shook his head, "you don't have to. I wouldn't mind an excuse to spank her again."

The two men chuckled, then Bradan picked up his pack and followed Cat's to the door. A short whistle sound brought her running to pick it up and put it on, not the least concerned when the straps caught in her vest leaving her chest bare. Bradan caressed her nipples, making them stand up stiff and pointed, then helped fix the vest, making sure Paul had a good view of her for a bit before finishing. No point in wasting a chance to get one more shot at the deal, he told himself, although he admitted he also enjoyed fondling his daughter's hard little body. A bit more firm than he normally liked his women, but her willingness to have him do anything he wanted made up for that. He took her by the hand, waved toward Paul, and lead Catrin to the northwest edge of the village.

Catrin waved to Paul, giggling a little when he blew her a kiss, and turned to the forest. She was going to miss the village a bit more than she would miss her home.

... to be continued in "Chapter 2 - Beginning"