"Shouldn't the Medallion of Eternal Chastity have made him...chaste?" Vaestro asked. As he looked up at the ceiling of the mess hall, which lay below the cabin where Anija and Vrackie slept, the boards shifted a few times, once more, as the two dragons above them changed positions. Soon enough, they were bucking rhythmically, once more.
Avelia rolled her eyes and smiled knowingly. "Its name refers to moral chastity, not to celibacy. The cult of Aset sometimes engaged in sacred prostitution, although only where it actually led to healing. Angelic dragons will always act with intentions of healing and kindness. In Vrackie's case, Anija just realizes...well..."
"Like I told you," Karyu said as he looked levelly at Vaestro, "hermaphrodites do usually have a little bit less than the libido of an average drake, but when they go into heat, they are almost dangerously insatiable, leaving them tormented." As yet another cry of orgasm rang out from above, he grinned. "Ninety-nine!" he gloated, tilting his great, vermilion-scaled head a little bit to the side and narrowing his fiery eyes. "One more," he reminded Vaestro, "and you will owe me fifty crown. A bet is a bet!"
Vaestro banged his fist on the table annoyedly. "You can't really hold me to that!" he growled. "How was I supposed to know that they would be..."
"Hey, guys, should I bring dinner out?" Luka said, peeking in. Luka had been working all day on a very special meal for the crew, to celebrate the crew finding the Blade of Nature. Since her feminine hormones had taken root in her personality, she had become obsessed with doing things to take care of the Crew, and cooking was one of her ways of doing so. At first, they had only humored her meals in order to spare her feelings, but she had worked hard to improve and gradually expanded her skills.
She was also attempting to make up for her and Karyu nearly ruining the mission, for as Rider, she was truly the responsible party. It had been a particularly difficult expedition, though. It had involved them having to contend with a Polynesian tribe that has been known, in the past, for ritual cannibalism. The incident that had almost ruined it had been particularly embarrassing for Luka and Karyu because they had, most impulsively, begun a mission of exterminating the entire culture.
Before they had been able to act on their deadly intentions, Anija had used the power of the Medallion of Eternal Chastity to quickly foil their plan, but this had led to Luka and Karyu being taken as captives by the tribe. Their attempt at genocide had greatly damaged the credibility of the Crew in the eyes of the cannibal tribes, and it had taken a diplomatic miracle for Anija to persuade them to release Luka and Karyu. After healing what had appeared to be an especially beloved wisewoman who had been stricken with blindness, Anija had managed to convince her that the Crew really had only the best intentions, and the wisewoman had made arrangements for them to stay briefly as guests of the tribes.
During that time--amid trying to figure out polite ways of refusing local delicacies of questionable merit--they had managed to get a medicine man interested in showing them local sacred artifacts, which had led to them being taken to a sacred cave. Anija, who had briefly been the least popular member of the crew, had been quickly vindicated at this point, for this was the location of the next great magical artifact that they had needed to find.
Vrackie's changes had begun in the instant that sie had stepped into the cave, and the first thing to change had been hir wings. Hir wing membrane had become thin and transparent, yet incredibly strong, and like Anija, sie had painfully sprouted a second pair of wings, which had made hir look a little bit like a dragonfly. In general, sie had taken on much more colorful markings, hir horns had become reminiscent of gnarled tree-roots, and hir gender had changed to that of a hermaphrodite. It was still unclear, though, whether the changes were finished or still progressing.
The medicine man had been suspicious about the changes at first, but when the rest of the crew had appeared to be just as surprised as himself, he had softened and come to realize that Vrackie's transformation was exactly the fulfillment of an ancient tribal prophecy. The transforming Vrackie had been presented with the Blade of Nature by the medicine man, and a wild celebration among the islanders had ensued.
The Crew had left the island covered in flowers, having brought a...not quite a peace, but perhaps it would better be called a temporary truce that might lead to future truces in future generations...to the normally warring peoples, and after a few repairs to their airship, which had taken damage upon landing, they had taken off on their return journey.
Queue the Final Fantasy VII victory fanfare.
As the two lovers cried once again in orgasm, Vaestro crossed his arms and put on a disgusted face, and Karyu made a triumphant gesture. "One hundred!" Karyu giggled.
"You still owe me that much for the card game you lost on our way out," Vaestro said icily.
"Then I guess we are square," Karyu said.
At this point, Luka intervened. "We will make sure you get paid, Vaestro," she reassured her comrade. Turning to Karyu, she added, "We will not be betting on our friends' rutting without their permission, Karyu." Before Karyu could protest (most likely that Vaestro had behaved just as badly by hustling him in a card-game), she said, "Speaking on!" Climbing onto the mess table, she reached up and banged on the ceiling. "Come down, you two! It is time to eat!"
Anija was the first down. Ever since he had become an angelic dragon, he had radiated cleanliness and nurture. Everything about him was soft. His feathers all over his body were soft. His pale, pink paw-pads, which tread softly, were soft. His eyes were soft, but they were soft in a way that could accuse savagely, making one feel dirty, guilty, and in poor taste. At the moment, though, his eyes blazed with hunger.
Vrackie, being noisier and slower and less obsessed with hir appetite, came down after him, grumbling, "There the fool goes, thinking with his stomach again." Morphologically, Vrackie was almost, although not quite, the opposite of Anija, hir body being built broadly and low to the ground. Also, where Anija projected cleanliness, Vrackie projected a sense of...potential. Fae dragons were creatures of the earth. They were forces for creative energy. Everything around Vrackie seemed to be alive. As sie entered the mess hall, the mess hall itself seemed to awaken with a personality of its own, with more colors showing in the wood, and it seemed like the ship itself might be alive and breathing.
"I lost fifty crown because of you," Vaestro scolded his dragon. Being a sport, he actually did intend to forgive Karyu's debt.
"Well, it's not my fault that you are a gambler," Anija said, taking his place at Vaestro's side. In spite of his sassy remark, he sat with his forepaws crossed, one over the other, like an obedient drake, his head raised up and alert as he looked around the table. "It smells like Luka's cooking, in here," he announced happily.
Avelia motioned sternly for Vrackie to take hir muzzle down from the level of the tabletop. "Bad manners, dragon! Down!" she called. Dragons were expected to eat on the floor next to their Riders, with their bowls between their forepaws. Table-manners for dragons were very strictly enforced.
"Yes, Rider," Vrackie said obediently, as sie complied. As sie assumed hir position, though, sie tilted hir head wryly at hir rider. "You didn't really let Vaestro take that bet, did you?"
"I figured the lesson would do him well," Avelia answered slyly. She explained, "I had felt that Vaestro was quite wrong to hustle Karyu in that card-game. This makes them even, although it was all really a farce."
At that, Luka banged on a triangle to signal the start of the meal. "Okay, everybody!" she announced happily in her peppy cheerleader voice, "I am very excited to have you all participate in this meal, and I am so very glad that Vaestro and Avelia's gorgeous dragons were able to make it. I feel like we worked very hard for this, and it is my hope that this repast will help heal our wounds, both inside and outside, and help us celebrate our victory. I will be starting with a bisque made with those wonderful lobsters that our kind hosts gave to us..."
With that, Luka's Merry Crew of Dragon Rider Corsairs began to dine in the highest possible style.