FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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Chapter 17

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I followed Jovani and my father towards the market place, feeling rather uncomfortable in my outfit. I had decided to go all out, wearing the jacket Jovani had picked up when we first went to Garibaldi's and a pair of fitted black leather pants. It felt restricting, I wasn't used to wearing such tight fitting clothes, but the under wear were definitely helping with any potential chafing between the legs.

"You look quite dashing." Kaldor said with a smile. "You'd better be careful or some female will snatch you away." He chuckled.

"Well someone already asked me to marry them."

"Wha...!?! WHO?" Kaldor seemed... not surprised but worried.

"Never found out their names."

"NAMES! There was more than one?"

"Two... I think they were sisters, they finished each others sentences."

"Ah... that'll probably be Bova's girls. Very pretty, just come of age if I remember right." Kaldor mused. "He is very protective of them, likes things traditional, so if you do want to marry them make sure you ask him for..."

"I'm not planning on marrying them!"

"Are you sure? It's not everyday you get the chance to marry sisters." Kaldor chuckled.

I found it strange that his worry was now gone. Perhaps his worry was something more political... god I hate politics. Anything that's meant to be simple gets complicated very quickly when politics are involved.

"If I'm going to marry someone it's because I like them, not just someone that I can fuck to have kids with." I said bluntly.

"Well said."

I knew that he would understand that sentiment. And it was probably a good thing that he knows that just in case he decided to set me up in some form of arranged marriage. Xavier had mentioned that his marriage had been arranged when he was barely out of his mothers womb... scary. I wondered if I should ask Kaldor about any expectations he had for me to marry, or would he care if I chose not to have cubs with anyone since we were on the subject, but after thinking about it I would prefer to have that conversation in private.

As we got closer to the market place I could hear music playing and smell food cooking, the hustle and bustle was louder than normal. When we rounded the corner the market was swamped, the usual stalls had been taken away and dragons were busy cooking or putting up decorations. I heard some girlish laughter and a looked to my right, there were a group seven of young dragonesses, including the two that had asked me to marry them. They all looked at me bashfully, fluttering their eyelashes at me and giggled when I looked at them. One of them even blew me a kiss. I blushed and kept moving, trying my best to remain composed.

Kaldor was greeted by the usual flood of welcomes and polite small talk that he always seemed to encounter when he appeared in public. I wasn't so surprised that he didn't come out that often, I was tired just listening to it.

"MALAKYE!" I heard a familiar voice shout from beyond the crowd of dragons that had stopped to speak to my father.

It was Laguna. I politely pushed my way through to see him. He was with Roxis and Tristen, they were all dressed up in formal clothes like myself, but I felt a little embarrassed that I was bit more over dressed than them.

"Looking sharp!" Tristen whistled.

"I'll say!" Laguna smiled, his eyes glazing over slightly as he looked me over.

"So how have you guys been?" I asked, trying to move the topic away from my clothes.

"Doing good!" Tristen gave a thumbs up. "Been whipping Roxis's tail left and right at training."

"Liar!" Roxis sneered. "I'm the one who's been beating you!"

"Oh yeah!?"

"YEAH!"

The pair of them got up close and personal, their fore heads pressed together as they tried to overpower the other in this childish display. Suddenly I remembered they were just like this back during training.

"So how's your training going?" Laguna asked excitedly.

I noticed that he had a slight bruising round his left eye, I wondered if he got that at training or if it was from when Havani... I clenched my fists as I remembered. That ass hole had tricked us and then attacked Laguna.

"You okay?" He asked.

"Oh... yeah.. sorry. Yeah! It's going okay. Still trying to get a hold of everything... it's a lot to take in." I said.

"Yeah, but I'm sure you'll master it in no time!"

I laughed at how sincere he sounded. He made it sound like I could do anything. If only that was true, my life would be a whole lot easier. Meanwhile the fight, if it could be called that, between Roxis and Tristen had come to an end. They wouldn't make eye contact with each other or look in the others direction.

"We were thinking about going gliding. Want to come with?" Laguna asked.

"Uh... I'm not very good... but I guess practise makes perfect right?"

"Yeah!"

"Finally something that I might be able to beat you at!" Tristen laughed.

I had to remind myself that these guys were younger than me, they were a good three of four winters younger, some of the things they said or did just seemed so childish. But this is the thing I had missed out on when I was their age, doing all the things that dragons would do. I decided that at least for a little while I would enjoy what it was like to still be a kid, even though other dragons my age had families or were fully fledged warriors with duties. If I was going to stay here in Zangar, I would enjoy everything that I had missed out on growing up with the wolves.

I followed them through the tunnels, listening to them ramble on about who they were better than, females and sex. I didn't say much, I just listened and smiled. They were very much like the wolves that are the same age. I guess being different species doesn't change the things you think about being a male.

"She does not!" Roxis exclaimed.

"Oh yes she does!" Tristen boasted. "She fancies me! Do you not see the way she flutters her eyes at me?"

"She probably had something in her eye!" Roxis teased.

"What ever dude! I'm telling you she wants me. And have you seen her rack?! Oh god I'm getting hard just thinking about it!"

"Down boy!" Laguna chuckled.

"So what about you Malakye?" Tristen asked. "Got your eye on any females?"

"Uh... there are some pretty ones." I said. And while that was true, I didn't have my 'eye' on any of them. "Don't know their names though."

"Hey... umm... have you ever had sex?" Roxis asked timidly.

"Virgin!" Tristen teased, giving Roxis a shove.

"Shut up! You've not sex either!"

"Who says I haven't?"

"Me! Cause I know for a fact that you only got a blow job off Roxanne!"

"A blow job still counts!" Tristen countered.

"NO IT DOESN'T!"

"YES IT DOES!"

"DOESN'T!"

"DOES!"

"Forget it! Let's ask Malakye!" Roxis said, as if I would settle the argument.

"Well..." I wasn't quite sure how answer.

"Of course Malakye has had sex!" Laguna chirped. "You're just jealous!"

"Shut up! You're no better than Virgin here!" Tristen snarled, obviously upset that the conversation wasn't going his way.

"Says you!" Laguna laughed.

Thankfully the conversations attention drifted away from me. I listened to them talk, they had known each other all their lives and it showed. I had no one like that in my life. Sure I had friends, but I had only had those friends for mere months, that made me feel a little sad. Eventually we arrived at the cliffs. Like the ones Xavier had taken me to there was a steel door leading to the outside. The wind was brisk but unlike when I trained with Xavier the wind here was more constant rather than periodic gusts.

The wind was cold, sending a biting chill through my clothes and into my scales. The clothes were not as warm as the furs that Xavier had given me, but the cold was mostly from the wind, not the air itself. I summoned my nen, allowing the bubble to surround me. As I hoped the bubble broke the wind, the wind flowing round the bubble like water would a stone.

"Okay then! First one to the upper cliff and back again wins!" Tristen declared, pointing to the cliff far above us.

"Wins what?" Roxis asked.

"Uh... how about the loser has to do what ever the winner says for the rest of the day!" Tristen grinned. "If you agree then, by your word and honour, we are honour bound to fulfil the agreement!"

"You are so on!" Laguna smirked.

"I'm in!" Roxis chirped.

"I guess..." I said unsure.

Sure Xavier had taught me the basics but I don't know if I was ready for a race. The stipulation for the loser was pretty steep, the severity of the losers punishment depended on who won. As long as I don't come last everything would be fine. I didn't expect to win, this was my second time gliding, I just didn't want to come last.

"Okay then, are you all ready?"

I watched everyone brace themselves, the race was about to begin and suddenly I felt very nervous. Anything the winner says? The fear of being a slave the rest of the day gripped my chest. I spread my wings as we waited for the next strong surge in the wind.

I closed my eyes and felt the wind, I could feel it coming. But it wasn't going to come at us directly, it was going to come from below. God this was scary, if I wanted to use that gust I was going to have to literally throw myself off the cliff! Should I do it? Should I do it? If everyone else does it and I miss it I was probably going to lose. I had to remember that even without the wind I could just glide safely down to the next ledge. Xavier had taught me how. If I jump I wouldn't die... so long as I wasn't thrown against the cliff face by a rouge gust, but my nen bubble would stop that from happening.

It was now or never. If I was going to use my nen to stabilise myself I was going to have to concentrate. I had to reduce the bubbles size to allow the wind to reach my wings. I leapt into the air the split second before the wind reached me and flexed my wings. The wind caught my wings like a sail and sent my hurtling upwards. I yelled in excitement and fear, my nen bubble expanded as I lost focus and struggled to keep my balance as he currents rocked my body.

The others seemed to be caught off guard by my sudden action, they couldn't sense the wind coming like I had. A split second of hesitation was all there was though. They threw themselves off the edge of the cliff like I had, with more practised ease they chased after me. Realising that they were catching up, and may over take I shrunk the nen bubble and allowed more of the current to my wings. The gust slowly ebbed away, leaving us all mid air, half way to the cliff that was our target, another fifty feet and we would be there, only now we had no way to push ourselves upwards.

Tristen was futility trying to flap his wings to gain height. He was succeeding in nothing more than slowing his decent, but if he wasn't careful he would exhaust himself trying. I looked down and suddenly lost all feeling my my legs. We were so high up! I closed my eyes and tried not to think about it, everything would be okay!

I prayed silently to the deities to allow me the strength to survive this. This was truly terrifying, I had never gone this high during my training with Xavier. I regretted doing this. Why had I agreed to it? I thought I could handle this but I can't... I just wanted to feel solid earth beneath my paws once again... the sensation of flying was just so alien... and yet so familiar.

As my panic began to slowly disappear I realised I felt... happy. I was having fun! I laughed, I don't know if it was out of fun or sheer disbelief, but I laughed. And looking round at the others, their brows furrowed in determination, but they were all smiling as well. Suddenly I realised, this was as natural to dragon as it was breathing.

"I guess we're not going to make it this time" Roxis whined.

"Fuck!" Tristen swore.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Only a handful of dragons have ever made it up to that cliff." Laguna explained. "Everyone tries to make it, but few ever do."

"Then why are we doing this?"

"For fun." Tristen grinned.

"The last dragon to reach the cliff was Xavier." Laguna said.

Suddenly I felt more determined to reach the cliff. It was possible to reach so why couldn't I get there? Xavier undoubtedly used his bending ability to propel himself up there. I couldn't do that, I wasn't confident enough in controlling my bending yet, and doing so would reveal the fact that I was a wind bender when I had asked Xavier to keep that fact a secret.

I forced my nervousness into the pit of my stomach and closed my eyes in focus again. There had to be a way. There was another gust coming, this time it was coming from our right. It would simply blow us off target. That's when I noticed it, the gentler currents were going upwards as the struck against the cliff face. Normally I wouldn't be able to use them without hitting the cliff, but if the stronger current did the same. I moved my wings so I began to drift slowly towards the cliff.

"Malakye? Where are you going?" Laguna called after me.

"I'm going to reach that cliff!"

"Give it up! We would need another upward gust, and we can't predict the wind!" Tristen scoffed.

But I couldn't help but smile. I could predict it, or at least I hoped I could. I could feel how the air shifted, could feel the gust coming. I hoped I was right about this. The gust came, everyone else rocked in the air and fought against the current, adjusting their wings to remain level. I expanded mine out as widely as possible to catch the current. And just like I had hoped the current of air rushed upwards when it hit the cliff face. I was propelled higher and higher my heart pounding hard in excitement and nervousness, but my excitement quickly faded when I realised that I was not going to make it!

Desperate to make the last few feet, as the wind began to ebb I placed a foot-paw on the cliff and tried to propel myself upwards; reaching out for the edge of the cliff. I grabbed the ledge and my body slammed against the rough stone. I scrambled for purchase, my right foot managing to find a foot hold before I lost my grip. I looked down and felt my stomach clench, I was so high up now, the ledge we had started on looked so small. Knowing that I wasn't going to be able to keep my grip for much longer I began to pull myself up.

Once I lifted myself up far enough I was able to use my elbows to support my weight I was able to pull myself up with relative ease. I rolled onto my back and laughed, I had made it! Suddenly I was glad to be a wind bender, I never would have reached here if I hadn't been. I had achieved something that so few had done before. I heard the hoots and hollers of my friends, I looked down at them and smiled.

They were cheering for me. As happy as I was to be back on solid ground there was only one way down. I leapt and spread my wings, summoning my nen bubble to surround me so that I would be unaffected by wind currents on my decent, the bubble blocking the gusts of wind from reaching me.

Laguna, Tristen and Roxis ran up to me as I finally landed. They couldn't believe I had done it, and couldn't stop expressing their disbelief. But then another thought occurred to me, one I had nearly forgotten about, one that I was going to have a little fun with.

"So I won right?" I asked with a knowing smirk.

"Uh... oh shit!" Tristen cursed as he realised. "Fuck..."

"What?" Roxis asked.

"You really are dumb!" Laguna giggled at Roxis's naivety.

"He won the bet..." Tristen muttered. "That means..."

"The loser has to do what ever he wants for the rest of the day!" Laguna chirped.

"But..."

"We all lost. Only Malakye made it to the cliff and back!" Laguna grinned.

I found it a little strange that Laguna was so happy about it. He didn't seem to mind the fact when Tristen and Roxis seemed like it was the end of the world. But no matter, I had won. I was going have some fun with this!