Ralff & Lilith & Grainger & Annie ~ A Dragon Tale
Ralff twisted in pain as his scales shed themselves one by one, to lie discarded on the ground. As he shed, his form writhed and wilted and in the end, he emerged, pale and weak and two-legged. Casting a lugubrious eye upon his former skin, Ralff moaned piteously to himself, “There, that’ll show her. She’ll know how much I love her now. She’ll know, but I’ll be gone. I’ll find a fair maiden and we’ll live happily ever after and all that.” He wasn’t quite sure what “and all that” really was, but it had to beat being a male dragon ignored by the only female dragon on the continent.
And so he went and became gone.
Later, much later after Ralff staggered away, Lilith – the object of his dragonly desires – awoke and gazed in mild speculation at the pile of scales that lay at the entrance to her den. Later still, she idly held one up to gaze through, and caught her breath in wonder at what she saw. Casting her eyes about, Lilith soon perceived the footprints of the two-leg; pulling them back in, she extended her snout and smelled the prints.
“A shape-changer.” she rumbled. “No one ever told me that Ralff was a shape-changer.” It angered her that she had lost a wondrous opportunity, and she determined to catch Ralff and have her way with him.
Ralff, meanwhile, wandered for days before encountering his fair maiden. At least, he assumed she was fair and a maiden. That was, after all, what all the tales said, that a dragon shed of his skin would find first his fair maiden, and then his true self. Being Ralff, he was timid upon encountering her; being a male dragon, sexually frustrated and a shape-changer to boot, he made certain to engorge himself enough to impress any fair maiden.
Annie – the object of Ralff’s desire – being no maiden and no longer fair, and never ever timid, was mightily impressed and made no bones about taking advantage of the dragon, his nature, and his engorgement.
Five times, in fact.
Nights later, Lilith was still tracking, still seeking Ralff, and still speculating upon his ability. She forged on through the winter cold. Dragons are nothing if not tenacious when their appetites are aroused. By now, though, Lilith was angry, she was hungry and she was endlessly aroused by her dreams of Ralff and his potential. It was in this nasty state that she encountered the woodsman. He was tall, bearded, mightily muscled, axed, and he smelled. Lilith didn’t mind all that, she was hungry.
Grainger, the woodsman, did mind and took himself away from Lilith at a mighty pace. Given the density of the obligatory mighty oak forest that woodsmen inhabit, he stood a fair chance of losing the dragon if he just kept running. So he did.
Hours later, tired but buoyed by still being uneaten, Grainger crashed into his fair maiden’s clearing and tripped over the man taking advantage of her. At first, stunned both by his fall and by the sight of her spread beneath the stranger, he took no notice of Annie’s vote on the matter. Then, as he stood with axe raised high deciding just where to strike, he realized that his fair maiden was cooperating mightily well for being ravished, and in fact was chanting in a great whooping voice, as well.
“Forty, Four. Forty-one, Four. Forty-two, Four. Go for it boyo! Forty-three, Four. Oh, my God, Five! Five! Five!”
Ralff convulsed. Annie convulsed. Grainger swallowed, and stared down at Annie. Annie stared up. Ralff, meanwhile, looked around in surprise at Lilith who, her fanged head snaked well into the clearing between two mighty oaks, swore like a sailor.
It was, to say the least, an awkward moment.
Dragon males only mate once, after all, and Ralff – although his five efforts were stretching the point (and Annie) a bit – had just mated. That meant that Lilith could have no further interest in him, so she vowed revenge upon Annie and began to look for a wider path into the clearing.
Grainger, who had mated many times and most recently with the miller’s daughter who was fair and had once been a maiden, had decided to give up being a woodsman and take up milling. Thus, he had no interest in Annie and had been on his way back to tell her so. Still, he was mightily upset at Annie for her enthusiasm for ravishment and began to bellow his objections.
Annie, however, had already decided to leave that place, and was gone; no fool she.
Ralff, who after the nature of male dragons who have just mated, was even more aroused, but who was also now female – took advantage of the situation to enhance her attributes. She soon found that the Grainger was just as likely to take advantage of a fair maiden as Ralff had been, but first Ralff made Grainger bathe.
And so Ralff and Grainger lived happily ever after, and all that. Lilith learned why it is never wise to ignore a male dragon, and Annie, well, Annie had a great story to tell and memories that kept her warm though many a cold night before she died of a stubbed toe fleeing Lilith, three years later.
And that, fair reader, is my story and I’m sticking to it.
Thee Ende
