You let yourself be led through the village of the Kobolds. Weariness quickly catching up to you again despite your earlier outburst, but you aren't going to let that slow you down. At this point, you doubt even the physical embodiment of Death could stop you from reuniting with your beloved. So you trudge on, vision focused somewhere on the horizon, when something comes over you. You don't know how to describe it; like a prickling sensation at the back of your mind, a twitch that develops behind your ear and a knot of anxiety tugging at your heart. You feel tense and on edge... like you're being watched.
You see it, just as the realization hits you, a pair of eyes peering out at you from the shade of the forest that flanks the village. One pair... no, two, three.... five... you feel a shiver run down your spine and you adjust your wings to provide a little more modesty for yourself, your remaining humanity making you feel more self-conscious and vulnerable than you think you ought to be. You crane your neck around to see the other side of the village and the areas you had just traversed, only to be greeted by more eyes staring at you with a mixture curiosity and suspicion. They track you, the softly glowing eyes of the Kobolds trace your movements from inside huts and along the perimeter of the village. To your surprise, while these eyes belie the cunning and mischievous nature of their owners, they don't convey a sense of hostility toward you. Whether or not it's because of the drake in your present company or just because they truly don't intend to do you harm, it does little to put your mind at ease.
{{Why do they stare?}} You probe your guide for answers. The massive drake pauses in front of you and gives you something akin to a shrug, it's more like a jostle of scales and slight upward motion with his wings.
{{That you noticed them at all is impressive, whel - I mean - Amber...}} Blunt-snout looks at you thoughtfully for a moment, {{They can be quite aloof in nature and they tend to be very suspicious of any outsider. It can take a while for them to adjust to new... Guests.}} You find that him putting a positive spin on your predicament doesn't make you any less his captive and you don't appreciate it.
{{It's hard not to notice hundreds of eyes drilling holes in the back of my head}} you say to him, a little edge starting to creep into your thought-speech pattern. {{Also, I'm not your guest, I'm your captive and I don't plan on staying any longer than it takes for me to figure out how to leave this place.}} The sound of your bravado is tempered somewhat by your shaking frame and somewhat meek and injured stance.
A rumble of mirth pours from your dragon warden. {{You are my - willing - captive, I'm not going to force you to do anything you don't want to do, but I do need your participation and you need to find your beau. Think of it as a mutually beneficial partnership. I do, therefore you are my guest!}} That wicked-fanged smirk appearing on Blunt-snouts... well, snout. Muzzle? Maybe. You're still hurting and Blunt is still being as cryptic as ever, the irony being completely lost on this drake. Before you can interject once more, Blunt-snout makes a sweeping gesture with his wings as he stops before a comparatively impressive structure that stands at the opposite side of the village from where you entered.{{And here we are!}}
You are looking at what must be the stables Blunt-snout has been referring to, but, by the standards of the rest of the village, this building looks more impressive than it has any right to. It's much larger than any of the other structures and uses an architecture unlike what can be seen in the housing and feasting halls of the rest of the village. You're hard pressed to say what's different about its design, you never really had any eye for architecture. But despite the thatch roof, tree trunk supports, long and over-all primitive construction, this building looks as though it was built by a civilization with a completely different culture and architectural philosophy. However, its primitivity tones down many of its structural differences and makes it look like a locally constructed homage to something much more grand and exotic.
Your guide proceeds to push open - with his fore-paws - the large double-doors leading into the stables. They look immensely heavy. On your way through, you can make out little carvings in the frame of the door. Some are inlaid with metals, others with inset crystals and others, still, with dark brownish-red stains caught within the whittled lines and curves of the design. You turn to your captor and ask {{what are those....}} you try to get your thoughts out, but, all of a sudden, it feels as though your head has been stuffed with cotton balls. Your mind feels fuzzy and it's hard to focus on your intended target for conversation, so you try to broadcast yourself {{What's going on?}} your thoughts still sound muffled to you as you attempt to clear your head by shaking it as though you're trying to clear water-logged ears.
{{Did you not see those runes you passed under as you entered this place?}} a reply, though distant sounding, came to you from your erstwhile captor. {{Those carvings are part of a ritual that dampen the ability to speak telepathically and prevent anyone from reaching out to someone else beyond our little home here}} Even though the greater dragon is almost beside you, it sounds as though he's speaking from a mile away. {{It is merely a security measure put in place to ensure your privacy and safety, although it works both ways and dampens broadcasts to those within the confines of this place as well.}} So, that explains why you couldn't find Dizzy via your broadcasts, there's no way your telepathic shouting could have broken through this magic barrier. Also, magic.
{{So, Kobolds do practice some sort of magic?}} Your muffled inquisition just barely registering in your own mind.
{{Yes, just one of the many ways these clever creatures make up for their various shortcomings}} You're plodding along behind Blunt-snout as you pass stall after stall, many looking lived-in with small home-y comforts and tchotchkes decorating their interiors. The drake continues {{It fascinates me endlessly just how capable these diminutive scale-kin are and it's this fascination that has led me to conducting my own projects and experiments to see what their limits actually are and how much of a boon they may be to dragon society! but I am getting ahead of myself, just be sure that I have my role to play and, soon, you'll have yours. For now, you may reunite with your partner while I fetch the others. He's in the last stall on the -}} you don't even let him finish, you're already bounding to the far side of the long building.
You find you're using your wings just as much as your claws. Your hind-claws dig into the stable floor as your haunches coil and spring forth, launching you into the air as your wings cup and scoop the air, forcing it behind you and propelling you forward, farther and faster. {{Dizzy!}} you reach out as far as you can with your muffled mind {{Dizzy, I'm coming for you!}} It's like screaming into a pillow.
Then, from somewhere off in the four corners of the earth, a reply comes to you. A thought pattern so familiar and comforting to you, it makes you want to cry. And you do. With joy. {{Is that really you? My love? My Amber-fields!}} There is a burst of movement and a flurry of activity in front of you as a blue bolt of lightning shoots out from one of the adjoining stalls. Dizzy-tail is scampering towards you with all the excitement of a hatchling seeing his mother return from an overly long hunt, his tongue lolling out the side of his maw. It's not long before he is forced to use his wings to slow down to meet you. You unfurl yours to parachute yourself as well, but wince in pain remembering that they are still damaged from earlier. You instinctively pull your wings into your body to mitigate the pain, but all that succeeds in doing is aid you in bowling over your smaller and helplessly over-eager mate. You're now just a ball of wings, scales, tails and tongues. You are both rolling over each other in an eager attempt to entangle yourselves further, locking jaws and pressing tongues trying to get as close as two creatures can physically get. Soon, you're both panting hard into each other, you look into your loves face and you can see the trails clearly marked in the dust on Dizzy's muzzle. Tear tracks that highlight how he has missed you, how he has longed for you to be wrapped together once more in an embrace that could last forever. {{I've missed you, I thought I'd never see you again}} he pouts just a little.
{{And I, you, my one and only}} you reply. You lean in for another kiss and press your tongue aggressively against his snout. He does the same and soon both your tongues are wrestling and intertwining and attempting to dominate the other. This dance does not go on for long before you feel a very prominent pressure pushing against your abdomen. {{I see you're not the only one who missed me...}} you project with a smile as you start to grind your own stiffening dragonhood into his own blunt monster. Your emerald scales are flush and hot with your coursing lust and his Kyanite blue form is just as ready from anticipation. You stare into his beautiful, glimmering eyes and say.....