A Tale of Two Lives || Chapter 4 — Regrets and Reconciliation
#4 of A Tale of Two Lives
Sorry this one took so long to get out, I really wanted to make sure this one was good...
Crystalia was sobbing when she got home, which immediately attracted the attention of her parents, who rushed to follow her as she ran into the secondary bedroom. Deep inside, she knew they just wanted to help, but Crystalia pushed her parents away with a deft shove of her tail, and they respected her desire for space, backing up and eventually turning around and exiting the room, shutting the door behind her. Just before the door latched, Crystalia was able to make out her mother asking her to holler when she had gotten enough time to calm down.
Crimsa immediately knew something was wrong when she saw the small figure run into the side-room they had carved out for Crystalia, and she immediately recognized the scent when it hit her. It was her daughter, and she was upset... and that male... That worried her, that her upset daughter had on her the scent of a male, so she rushed to follow Crystalia, ready to soothe her however necessary. Crimsa was slightly hurt when her daughter curved her tail near the tip and used it to push them away, but she understood the emotion that her actions conveyed. They screamed, "I need space to think!", and so that is what Crimsa gave to her daughter, leading Relid out of the room and almost closing the door before stopping, suddenly, to address Crystalia again, "Sweetie, just holler when you're calm, we'll be waiting." Then, without further word, Crimsa silently shuts the door and returns to the master bed with her mate, who was visibly disturbed.
Relid found that his whole body was shaking as he walked back to his side of the bed he shared with his mate, and he had to quickly adjust more than once to keep from falling over from the sheer force with which he trembled. Only after he had practically crawled to bed, did Relid so much as look at his lover, who he had been painfully close to taking a roll in the hay with before his daughter came running in, forcing him to quickly hide his body under the covers. Now though that he was back in bed with her, Relid searched Crimsa's eyes, hoping to find the lustful spark in them once again, to no avail.
Crimsa had no time to decide if she was going to be upset with her mate for as he practically begged her to get back to where they had been, because her mind drifted immediately to the same thoughts. Her life hadn't been the easiest after she had given birth, and so, deep inside, she yearned to have things as easy as letting her lover play with her body- she needed, at some level, to have some mindless fun with her mate, and she hadn't had him within her for going on a year now. She silently cursed herself as she held back her desire even as she began to feel the warmth growing between her hind legs, but she was waiting for Crystalia to call out, and she couldn't let herself give into her instincts yet.
Relid sighed defeatedly as he looked around the room, looking idly for something to watch and fill the time until his lover was finished dealing with their daughter. He had hardly laid eyes on the small, poorly carved wooden sculpture of a dragon that he had made as a simple toy for his daughter when she was only a year of age when he heard a weak, raw voice calling hoarsely from the second bedroom and his mate leaped to her feet and ran over, stopping only momentarily to motion him to stay put before she vanishes into the room, closing the door behind her.
When Crimsa heard her daughter's hoarse call, she jumped off the bed, landing on her feet, and taking off running all in one fluid motion. She only stopped at the entry to the room long enough to wave her tail side to side once, which her mate would recognize as her silently telling him to stay put, and then she opens the door slightly and effortlessly slides in before pushing on it gently with her tail to close it behind her. Once her eyes adjusted to the dim light in the room, Crimsa easily spotted her daughter lying on the bed, her head buried under her paws.
Crystalia, after her tears had once again become manageable, and she was no longer gasping for air, called out to her mother in a low growl, for it was all she could muster after abusing her voice as she had while she was sobbing. She called out, and heard paws hitting the hard, stone floor before hearing her door opened slightly. She didn't see who came in, however, as she still had her snout hidden under her forelegs and paws. She didn't dare look up, even when she felt a soft lick on her left forepaw, and smelled the scent of her mother- it was embarrassing to have come home like this, and she didn't want to see what her mother thought of it.
Crimsa gently lapped her tongue at her daughter's paw, trying to get her to look up, and to no avail, so she changed tactics and crawled up on the bed with her daughter before pulling her into a warm embrace. She wrapped both forelegs loosely around Crystalia's neck, then she closed her wing over the smaller form, cooing nonsense all the while. Cuddling in close as possible to her daughter, Crimsa starts aggressively licking her forehead in a third attempt to get her to lift her head and look around.
Crystalia didn't know when her mother had gotten in the bed with her, but she knew she must have when she felt a pair of legs hug her around the neck and a wing fall over her side. She had to squeeze her eyes shut when her mother starts to use her rough tongue to lap incessantly at the soft hide on her forehead, scratching it and leaving it raw within minutes. Eventually, Crystalia gives in and lifts her head, growling lowly at her mother in an effort to get her to stop licking, which succeeds, and only then does Crystalia turn to face her mother, who releases her from the embrace to allow her free movement.
As she licks at her daughter's forehead, Crimsa worries for a moment about the abrasions she might cause by continuing this, but she doesn't get very far in her worries, as her daughter lifts her head and growls at her, at which point she stops. Then, letting her daughter free from the embrace, the older dragoness shifts to watch her move as Crystalia looks up at her, her visage etched with uncertainty, still glistening from the tears that had fallen down it all to recently. She smiles at her daughter and gives her a few seconds to gather herself before speaking, "Crystalia, sweetie, what happened? What's going on?" Of course, Crimsa already knew half the answers to those questions- her daughter had been with the young male again, she knew by the smell, so she guessed that something had likely gone down with him to have her this upset.
As she gathers her thoughts, Crystalia forces back her tears, and she finally speaks only after her mother. "I...Mom- I lost him...." After she had finally gotten those words out, Crystalia let the tears start to flow again, as it took a great deal of effort to hold them back and she didn't have the energy to do so for much longer than she already had. She hurt, both physically and emotionally, so it was nice to let her emotions out.
Crimsa immediately began to put together the possible situations, and how they could've unfolded, but, with the little information she had, she expected nothing she could imagine would be right. Her only two hopes would be the possibility of randomly guessing the correct situation, which was unlikely, or to get more information from her daughter, which would be difficult. Taking a deep breath, Crimsa calms her mind before speaking to her daughter, "Crystalia, sweetie, can you tell me what happened? I don't know what I can do for you unless you tell me."
Immediately when she heard her mother say that there wasn't much she could do for her without more information, Crystalia realized how true it was, and she frantically searched her memories for the last thing she could find with Nolaltro. When she found it, though, she found holding onto it to be quite taxing, as it was a painful reminder of the love she had lost. It takes her quite a while to get herself to the point where she can actually talk about it, and it was somewhere around thirty minutes of silence before she could manage to choke back the tears and say, "I... said something, and it hurt him, and I lost myself... then I was suddenly real close and I think I was about to... to kiss him- like a lover." Crystalia pauses then, waiting for her brain to catch up, using the moment to take a few gasping breaths before continuing, "I-I didn't know what to do, so I ran away and flew home... but I realized on the way that he- that he... probably thought I was rejecting his love." After she finished, Crystalia let herself start to cry again, and she felt as each tear slowly worked it's way down over the rough hide of her cheeks before falling off of her face in small droplets.
Crimsa gasped sharply at the news, as she had never thought that her daughter would find herself with a, seemingly good, potential mate so quickly- she hadn't found hers until she was twice her daughter's age, and only then because a mutual friend introduced her to Relid. It took her a minute to recover from the shock, but, afterwards, Crimsa quickly places a paw on her daughter's left shoulder and starts to rub it gently. Only after she heard her daughter's groans of relief did Crimsa speak, though she still didn't cease rubbing her shoulder. "Crystalia, my little wonder... I'm so proud of you for finding yourself a good, potential mate, and I hope that you'll listen carefully here." Crimsa takes a moment's pause to let her words sink in before she continues again, "I want you to go back tomorrow, to wherever you last saw him, at the time you found him. Then, I want you to walk up to him and pull him close and give him the kiss you didn't today. Make sure it is firm, but loving when you do- don't make him feel that he is forced to do it, but don't be sloppy so he thinks you're just doing it out of obligation." With a smile, she stops rubbing her daughter's shoulder and leans down to lick her head gently, then she simply waits for Crystalia to respond.
Crystalia was awestricken by her mother's words. She had just been instructed to go back and actually kiss Nolaltro, though he wasn't mentioned by name; she had never expected her parents to be accepting of her relationship with him, but she knew right away that she would do anything to get Nolaltro back, so she immediately turned to look her mother in the eyes and smiled and nodded, before wiping her face with the backs of her forelegs. With a quiet sniffle, Crystalia curls up on the soft, sturdy fabric of her matress and closes her eyes, letting sleep consume her as the aches and worries all fade away.
Crimsa crawls off the bed carefully, as to not disturb her daughter's drifting to sleep, and she watches the rise and fall of her daughter's chest and belly, waiting until it becomes slow and rhythmic. Only after ensuring that Crystalia's breathing was slow and her sleep was settled did Crimsa even think of opening the door and leaving the room, which she does quickly and quietly, slipping out into the main bedroom that sat in the mouth of the cave. Only after she exited Crystalia's room, in which the window had been covered by heavy blackout curtains, did Crimsa realize how long she had spent soothing her daughter, as she found it to be after sunset. Careful not to make too much noise with her claws on the hard stone floor, Crimsa lowered her stance and slunk over to the bed and crawled onto it beside her mate. As it was already quite a cold night, Crimsa was grateful when she crawled under the covers and nestled herself against her mate with her head resting against his neck and her chest pressed to his.
. . .
The next morning, Crimsa awoke to the early morning sun shining through the entrance of her cave and she nudges her mate's chin with her snout, taking in his subtly sweet, earthy scent as she did, which, thanks to her still-raging libido, she found completely irresistible.
Relid awoke suddenly as he felt a nudge under his chin, and his drowsy confusion wore off almost immediately when he realized that it was mate's hot breaths that he felt washing over the underside of his snout. Not only was the feeling comforting, but when it was soon joined by Crimsa's sweet, flowery scent, he couldn't help but feel his mating drive starting to kick in. Pushing it to the back of his mind as best he can, Relid nuzzles and licks his mate's snout, enjoying the moment as he possessively tightens his curl around her. It was at moments like this, when Relid felt the most thankful for finding the mate that he had, and he nuzzles her to show his affection and appreciation.
When Crystalia awoke on her bed, in her blacked-out room, she slowly got to her feet and walked over to poke her head through the curtains, looking to see what time it was. To her surprise, she had awoken quite early, before the sun had even fully arisen, so she pulls her head back out of the curtains and closes them before crawling back into bed and going back to sleep. Crystalia was going to go back to see Nolaltro later, and she wanted to be certain she was her best self when she did, so she could do with a little extra sleep.
Crimsa feels her mate's breaths growing labored, and she eventually notices his pungent musk growing stronger in the room around them, which causes a warmth to start growing between her thighs, and she blushes deeply. Quickly, crawling out of her mate's curl, Crimsa hurries to the small, private room they had carved just off the end of the kitchen. Opening the door, she gently pulls a box off of one of the shelves that sat on the floor, pulling from it a small, lavender-scented cylinder. Then, using the little space she had, Crimsa rolls onto her side and spreads her hind legs, pressing the cylinder into her slightly slackened slit, which tightened automatically to hold onto the object. It took a few minutes, but Crimsa noticed faintly her own scent as it aired out of the room, and the cave.
Relid was slightly jarred as his mate hurriedly crawled out from his curl, knocking his snout with her tail multiple times, and he groaned as she quickly headed to the kitchen. It took him a few minutes to figure out why she was going that way, but he eventually realized what she was likely getting, and so he simply laid there, waiting for her to return.
Before she returns to her mate's side, Crimsa takes a couple minutes to loosen up after her emergency, which also allows her to figure out how she would deal with the situation from here, as she realized now that she was in heat. She knew that would not bode well for her mate, as she was acutely aware that he was extremely susceptible to her scent, and she worried what he might do if he had caught enough of it to set off his instincts. When she returned to Relid's side, Crimsa sighed her relief as she realized that he hadn't succumbed to his instincts, and she crawled back on the bed with him and they laid there, together.
. . .
Crystalia woke again just when she had hoped to, in enough time to get her flight fabric on, say goodbye to her parents, whom she found cuddled together on the bed, and get to the river a few miles away. It took her only an hour to bathe sufficiently, then she was headed to the forest where she had met Nolaltro and his sister. On the flight there, Crystalia found that she was warm only by virtue of the sun shining overhead, because when she arrived at the edge of the forest, the few leaves that still clung to the trees blocked the sun enough to have her shivering constantly to fight the chilling wind. It took her an hour, as usual, but it felt to Crystalia as though it took all day, and she was shivering so hard by the time she made it to the place where she had met the siblings that she hardly noticed them when she walked into the clearing. All she wanted to do was get warmed up, but there was still not sufficient sunlight under the long-reaching branches, with leaves still clinging to them, that covered the clearing.
Lasia watched in awe as Crystalia came, shivering, into the clearing in which she had been standing with her brother. She honestly hadn't been expecting the other girl to come back after the previous day, and she really thought it unlikely given the weather, but she was happy to be proven wrong. "Crystalia! What're you doing out here in something like that? It's too cold to wear something so light!" Lasia nearly has to yell to make herself heard over the screaming winds as a sudden, chilling gust blows its way through the forest.
When he hears his sister yelling the name of the dragoness he had loved, Nolaltro's head snaps up and he scans the clearing as something inside him told him it would be worth it to look. When he found what he was hoping to see, he could do no more than stare in awe at the sight that greeted him as he looked near directly across the clearing. There, only a few yards away, Nolaltro saw Crystalia, the dragoness he'd fallen so deeply in love with, and who had rejected him only a day ago. He thought of leaving then and there, until he noticed how she was shivering hard enough to make her unsteady on her feet, and he was overcome by a wave of pity, so he hollered out to her as well, "Crystalia, follow us! We live just outside the forest, and you'll find our place is nice and warm!"
Crystalia heard Lasia holler to her, but she didn't register what was said over the sudden gust of wind, but she was certain that her name had been mentioned, as Nolaltro's head shot up and scanned the clearing until his gaze came to rest on her. It took her a moment to realize that he was speaking to her, as most of her energy was going into keeping her warm, but she managed to catch the majority of what he said, and it was an offer to go with them to warmth. Normally, Crystalia would've been skeptical about the offer, but she currently had no energy for anytning more than the shivering her body was doing to keep her as warm as possible, so she simply walked over towards Nolaltro, who took the clue and started running off into the forest.
As soon as Crystalia started approaching him, Nolaltro knew that she was taking him up on the offer to go with them, and so he took off into the forest at a brisk pace. He made sure to check that Lasia was following, and that Crystalka could keep up, both of which he confirmed before continuing forward. He knew the route well, and it only took fifteen minutes for them to reach the edge of the forest where his family's cave laid.
When they approached the door to their family's cave, Lasia rushed forward and held the door open while her brother helped Crystalia make it in, as she was being to grow stiff from the cold, and she worried that the dragoness might have gotten frostbite while they were heading back. Once Crystalia was safely inside and in front of the fireplace, Lasia runs to the adjacent cavern, which they had fashioned into a kitchen, and looks first at her mother, then to the doorway, repeating that only a few Rome's before her mother gets the idea and follows her back into the other room.
As she follows her around the corner, into the entry room, Silvis spots a strange form on the floor in front of the firebox. Upon getting a closer look, she realizes this is a dragon, and, based on scent, a young female- who couldn't be much older than her son. Momentarily, she was angry with her children for bringing a stranger home, but she noticed something familiar about the scent; she couldn't place it at first, but, when she had walked up to the little girl, she realized that the scent was the same one that Nolaltro had come home with the last few days. She was about to ask why the stranger had been brought into her cave, when Lasia spoke up and answered her question.
Lasia lead her mother quickly into the entryway, and she waited to see the glimmer of recognition in her eyes before saying anything, as to hopefully make her more receptive to the story. "Mom, this is Crystalia... She found Nol and I a couple days ago, and well... they fell in love over time. Well, today, she came back wearing nothing but her flight fabric, and she was going to freeze to death if we didn't bring her home," Lasia felt uncomfortable telling her mother what Nolaltro's feelings were towards this dragoness, but she knew she was right and that her mother wouldn't do anything so brash as to chance loosing relationship for either of her children, so she knew it had to be done; and Nolaltro was peacefully sleeping with his body curled around Crystalia, so she didn't want to disturb him.
Silvis looks first from her daughter to the strange dragon laying on the floor, then to her son, who was not only curled lovingly around the female, but also sound asleep. Knowing she'd been had, the older dragoness lets out a sigh. She moves forwards and nudges Nolaltro with a forepaw to rouse him before speaking to both him and Lasia, "Please, I would like to have a private word with Crystalia, if you'd both go to the kitchen with your father." Only after she knew her children were listening from the kitchen, as children would, does Silvis turn her attention back to the still-shivering dragoness who laid afore her firebox. "Crystalia, my name is Silvis, I'm Nolaltro and Lasia's mother." Immediately when she introduces herself, Silvis notices the young female tense up, and so she tires to still the young girl's fears, "Don't worry darling, I won't hurt you... I just couldn't help but notice you're still shivering, and so I wanted to offer to let you use our indoor bath to warm up- of course, I don't feel comfortable letting you do so alone, as you don't seem steady enough to be safe at the moment, so I wanted to offer you a choice of companions... Would you like Lasia or Nolaltro to join you?"
Crystalia tensed up immediately when she heard an unfamiliar voice speaking to her, but she grew more tense when the voice identified itself as the mother of the siblings. A million thoughts flew through Crystalia's head, but none of them stuck, and she was soon addressed again by Silvis, as she had introduced herself. This time, Silvis asked a simple question- Which of the siblings she wanted to accompany her to the indoor bath to keep her safe. Crystalia knew her answer immediately, and so, through chattering teeth, she replied, "N-n-Nolalt-tro."
Even though she knew she wouldn't have needed to, Silvis calls out for Nolaltro after Crystalia replies and gives him a brief demonstration on how to best support her. After assuring he was capable of holding her up, Silvis lets her son escort Crystalia to the spacious washroom as she returns to the kitchen to assist her mate in preparing their next meal.
Nolaltro listened carefully to the words his mother shared with Crystalia, so he was ready to move when she called out for him. When he got to where his mother waited, Nolaltro knew he was ready to do anything necessary to prove himself worthy of this female's love, and so he focuses on his mother's instructions and manages to pick up Crystalia and support her on the first attempt. After that, his mother left them alone, and Nolaltro silently carried Crystalia down the hall to that sat across the entry room from the kitchen, arriving at the end of the hall, where the washroom was. He opened the door and had Crystalia lean on the wall as he went through the door before grabbing her shaky paw and helping her through the doorway before closing the door to give them some privacy.
Crystalia could barely think as Nolaltro carried her down the strange, stone hall, and helped her through the doorway leading to what Silvis had referred to as the washroom, and then closed the door behind them, giving them the privacy she knew she would need to kiss him as she wanted. That was the only thing on her mind as she removed her flight fabric and waited for Nolaltro to remove the clothing he hadn't when he entered the house. Nolaltro helped walk her forward towards the large bath that sat in the center of the room, and Crystalia would've laughed at his deep blush were she not so certain that any such effort would render her immobile.
It was quite difficult for Nolaltro to undress in the same room as someone else, let alone someone he loved as he did Crystalia, but he managed, and he soon found himself helping her to step over the small lip and into the built-in basin. Then, turning the single knob on the lip, Nolaltro started the warm water flowing and he let it fill up the basin slowly, filling the room with steam as it did. Eventually he turned it again, though this time to cool down the water so as not to burn Crystalia, and he kept with this pattern until the bath had been filled, the water coming up to Crystalia's shoulder as she curled her legs underneath herself and slipped down into the clear water until only her head was above the steamy surface.
Crystalia was greatly appreciative of Nolaltro's discression for her privacy, which only made her adore him further, and only served to drive yet another spike through her heart with yet another confirmation of how wrong her decision to run off had been. This and a thousand other thoughts ran rampant through Crystalia's mind, but she ignored all of them, instead focusing on the comforting warmth of the water around her. Eventually, after a long, ackward silence, a newly warmed Crystalia crawls out of the basin and, still dripping wet, walks to Nolaltro where he sat, facing away from the bath. Placing a paw on his shoulder, she waits for him to turn around before lunging foreward and leaning her head towards his, parting her jaws, which prompted him to do the same as Crystalia pulled the love of her life into a deep kiss.
It all happened so fast that Nolaltro didn't realize what Crystalia was doing until he saw her leaning her head forward and parting her jaws, then some strange part of his brain just took over, and he felt his own body replicating her movements. Nolaltro knew he had never felt anything so right before when he first heard her teeth clacking against his and felt her tongue dancing carefully along his front teeth, before he tasted her slimey saliva on his tongue as she wrapped hers around it. It was like a dream, no, it had to be a dream, but it was so blissful that Nolaltro didn't dare risk ruining it, so he just laid there to taste Crystalia's salty-sweet saliva as she coated his tongue with it.
She barely knew what she was doing, as the only things Crystalia knew were from when she had secretly watched her parents kissing before, but it didn't do anything to dull the growing tingling in her chest as it slowly grew painful and seemed to start sucking the air out of her lungs. Eventually, she needed a breath, and so, with a twinge or regret, Crystalia broke the kiss, opening her jaws further and rotating her neck backward, leaving a trail of their mixed saliva spanning the growing gap between herself and Nolaltro. Panting, Crystalia sought to regain in another way the sense of inner peace she had lost with the end of the kiss, and so she searched for Nolaltro's eyes, scanning his face until she managed to lock eyes with him.
Nolaltro was out of breath, but he couldn't bring himself to break away from this loving kiss with Crystalia because it was the purest act of love that he had ever experienced and it brought him a feeling of warmth like he had never felt before. It also made him realize that he was wrong to so quickly judge Crystalia's running off as a rejection, and he now realized that she was probably just as nervous as he had been. And then it was over. Almost as soon as it started, he felt, it was over and Crystalia broke away, leaving only a trail of their mixed saliva connecting them. He felt so empty, now that the kiss has ended, and he wanted more of her love, so Nolaltro looked for Crystalia's lime-green eyes, and that was where he locked his gaze when he finally found them staring into his own.
Something deep inside Crystalia insisted that she go further, that she take things all the way, but she didn't want to. She was happy with the way things were then and there, in the afterglow of a long, passionate kiss. So, choosing to ignore the part of her that pressured to go further, Crystalia turned around and went over to the basin to attempt to drain it. However, Crystalia didn't realize that in leaning down as she was, with her chest on the floor and her hind legs standing inadvertently put her soaked femininity on display for Nolaltro, and she was confused when she saw him blushing profusely as he walked up beside her.
Nolaltro watched Crystalia head over to the bath and bend down so her hind end was sticking up in the air. He felt his cheeks flush with blood and he closed his eyes when he saw Crystalia's tail swish just a little too far to the side, revealing to him her most private area. If he hadn't been raised as he had, Nolaltro may have given in to his instincts and jumped on Crystalia, but he wouldn't let himself fall apart at such an innocent mistake, so he simply walked forward until he was next to Crystalia. Once he was there, Nolaltro reached down with a paw and guided Crystalia towards the drain, as he figured that was what she wanted to do. It took no time at all for Nolaltro to show Crystalia how to remove the drain plug, and so they had it done within a minute. After the basin was drained, and the room had mostly cleared of steam, Nolaltro slips his head and chest out the door of the room, pulling back in with him two plain, white towels. He and Crystalia dried off together, and she even asked for his help in putting her tight-fitting flight fabric back on, then, after dressing himself, Nolatro opens the door and holds it for Crystalia, closing it after he followed her out.
Crystalia looked questioningly at Nolaltro, trying to figure out why he was blushing, but he either didn't understand what she wanted, or just didn't notice the strange look she was giving him, because he didn't answer. Instead, he leant down just as she had before placing a forepaw on her forearm, directing it to a small discolored spot in the bottom of the basin and having her turn her hand before pulling up. When she did, Crystalia was surprised to find that she was holding a rubber plug that appeared to have been sealing the bottom of the basin, preventing the water from escaping as it now was. After watching the basin drain, smiling at the feeling of Nolaltro's paw on her forearm until he left her side, heading to the door, and returning with two identical white towels. Although Crystalia hadn't ever dried her whole body off with a towel before, as her parents preferred to bathe in natural bodies of water and let the sun dry them off, she knew that Nolaltro would know what to do, so she simply followed his lead and had herself dried only moments after he had finished. Then, tentatively, she spoke to him for the second time since they entered this room, "Nol, c-could you do me a favor and help me dress? Were I wearing something less stubborn, I'd do it myself, but I'm sure you're familiar with how hard it is to put on a flight fabric..." To Crystalia's relief, Nolaltro accepted graciously and helped her dress, even closing his eyes without her asking when he helped her put her the band of fabric around her tail. In the end, it took them only a few minutes to get dried and clothed before they were headed out the door, which Nolaltro kindly held open.