FSE

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Synopsis: A dragon and a human have to work together to switch back to their usual body forms after getting accidentally transformed into each other's species.

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Bending down, Mason made one last adjustment to the summoning circle. He flipped through his documents one last time, then he adjusted his sorcerer’s robes and took a deep breath.

“Kurzadakathan! Accursed Destroyer, Twisted Fiend, Being of Nightmare and Deceit! From the Otherworldly Plane, I thus invoke thee! ”

Called by Mason’s words, something unnatural took form in the middle of his summoning circle. Strange many-sided geometric shapes appeared in the ground, and the distinct smell of lightning filled the air as a monstrous abomination burrowed out of the dirt, pulling itself up using eight long limbs with too many joints. Once fully summoned, Kurzadakathan resembled a horrible cross between spider and slimy octopus, with a huge gaping mouth right in the middle of its body filled countless worm-like tentacles that wiggled and squirmed.

“WHO DARES SUMMON ME?! DIE!” Kurzadakathan leapt forward but was stopped by the invisible barrier at the edge of the summoning circle. It reached out its legs and pounded the circle in all directions, but it was confined entirely within the small dome of magic. Realizing that it could not escape, the demon screamed with rage and madness. “GRRAAAAAEEEEAAAAA!”

The deafening sound would have driven a lesser man to soil his pants, but Mason had come prepared. The sorcerer had already placed down a nullifying spell to dampen noise and protect his ears. This spell would also keep the sound from travelling too far, not that there would even be many other people this far from the nearest town. They were in the middle of the forest, so none but wild beasts would be here.

Kurzadakathan was still screaming—its jaws opened wider and wider as the sound got louder and louder. Eventually its maw was spread so wide that it had turned inside out and resembled a ball of wriggling pink tentacles pointing in all directions, but still it continued to scream. “AAAAAAAEAAAAAAAAAAEAA!”

Mason walked back to his chair and sat down. He had set up a small folding table next to the summoning circle. “Are you done?”

“AAAA—” The demon suddenly halted its scream. It an abrupt twist of motion, it reverted back to spider form and turned all eight eyes towards Mason. “Oh, it’s you. You should have said something earlier.” There was another twist of motion and then inside the circle there was a tall man with jet-black hair and a clipped goatee, dressed in a well-tailored suit. He would not have looked out of place in a gathering of human aristocrats and nobles.

With one further twist of motion, Kurzadakathan created a chair (made from black wood) inside his circle and sat down on it. “Mason! You’re the only master sorcerer who uses my full name—it’s usually only the apprentices who bother. If I’d known it was you, I wouldn’t have bothered with the smoke and the tentacles and all that. So…how have you been?”

Mason didn’t answer the demon’s question. One of the most basic rules of sorcery was to never give anything for free—especially not the most valuable currency of all, information. It took a lot of strength for a demon to turn itself into something so closely resembling a human, and only the most powerful of demons could act with intelligence and rational thought. Kurzadakathan might have been acting friendly, but it would be a fatal mistake to treat a summoning as a casual event.

However despite the dangers, Mason was a master sorcerer and this wasn’t the first time he was treating with this particular demon. He slid the paper across the table, just far enough that the edge of the sheet extended into the summoning circle. “This is the contract.”

Kurzadakathan used the tips of his slim fingers to pull the paper closer. His eyes darted across the sheet quickly, then he flipped it over and read the other side. “My, my, my. What curious games are you playing, I wonder? Why do you want something like this?” he mused, stroking his goatee with his other hand.

Mason stuck strictly to business. “I will charge the circle with four morts of energy, in exchange for you creating the exact item I have specified. That is the contract. Take it or leave it.”

Kurzadakathan chuckled softly; a hissing, almost sensual sound. “Hehe. No bargaining? But I so love bargaining. What about if we set the price at…say…three and a half morts of energy? Does that sound good to you? The only catch is you have to tell me what you want this artefact for. What a great deal. Hmm?”

Mason shook his head firmly. “No. No bargaining. Take the deal or I will banish you and try another demon.”

“So direct! Haha… But I accept.” Kurzadakathan snapped his fingers and a pen made from gold suddenly appeared in his hand. He turned the paper over to sign, but then he paused. “Oh, Mason! You were so thorough with your contract that you forgot the most important part—the end! There is no space for either of us to sign.”

For the first time, Mason smiled. To most normal people, his grin would have looked equally menacing as anything the demon had done so far. “Don’t be ridiculous. That’s not the contract, that’s just the executive summary.” Reaching down to the briefcase beside him, Mason took out a stack of papers that was as thick as three of his fingers put together. The whole table shuddered as he dropped the documentation on it. “This is the contract. I recommend you read through the terms and conditions to ensure you fully understand them before you sign. Failure to read documentation is not considered a valid excuse for errors in contract execution, and is considered an adequate reason for immediate termination of contract to your full disadvantage.”

Kurzadakathan took the thick stack of papers and hesitantly flipped through them. “Oh my gods, I’ve forgotten how good you were at this…”

Working with demons was all about being detail orientated and focused on the tiny things. Rushed contracts and vague terminology were a quick trip towards having your soul stolen, or worse, releasing a demon into the natural world, so good sorcery required the ability to read dense and highly technical documents all day. Mason was one of the best for one simple reason—he loved technicalities and tedium.

However, even though summoning was legal, what he planned to do next was not. But there was a plan, and it was full of detail.

Three hours later, Kurzadakathan was softly muttering to himself as he read through the contract. “Henceforth…shall be valid for a limited-time period as defined in section 7 subsection 9a, limitations of validity…notwithstanding Majestic Force limitations such as divine intervention by class 5 entities including but not limited to old gods… Failure to meet design specifications shall lead to immediate reversal of contract, unequivocally and absolutely resulting in…”

Meanwhile, Mason was calmly working a different document, editing the contractual framework for another sorcerer who had paid him to help check his work. Most of Mason’s work was helping out other sorcerers who weren’t as good with avoiding loopholes or closing technicalities. But for the few demonic contracts which he was planning to personally sign—putting his own soul or worse, his professional standards at risk—Mason made sure he covered every single possibility. He had specified exactly what he was paying Kurzadakathan and exactly how the artefact he was receiving would work in every imaginable use case.

Demons could not break contracts, but they could bend them if the terminology was ambiguous or the specifications were incomplete. Ask for a gold coin, for example, and you might get a gold coin the size of a single atom. Or if you said that you wanted a big gold coin, the demon might create a huge slab of gold which fell on your head and killed you. But if you asked for a gold coin that was the exact size, shape, and material composition of a standard unit of gold currency currently in use by the Imperial Treasury of the Marlander Empire which was indistinguishable from a genuine coin in any and all ways and which was to appear motionless on the ground in the summoning circle within no more than 5 seconds after the signing of the contract, then perhaps you might get what you wanted. Not that Mason was asking for anything so simple—the artefact he required would be powerful indeed.

Finally Kurzadakathan sighed and slapped the thick sheaf of papers against his face. “Alright, I’m done. I’ll sign it! Let’s get this over with. The summoning circle is growing stuffy.” The demon took his pen and scribbled Kurzadakathan on the last page of the contract. He slid the contract out of the summoning circle and onto the table, but Mason pushed it back in.

“You also need to sign on pages 19, 37, 61, and 142.”

Kurzadakathan did as he was asked, but not without complaining. “Damn you to the accursed realm, Mason! Why did you have to be a sorcerer? You take the fun out of being summoned.”

When Kurzadakathan was done, Mason took the paperwork and checked that the demon had signed everything correctly. He flipped through the papers to check that nothing was missing or misplaced, and then finally he put his own signature on the paper.

“It is done!” Kurzadakathan got to his feet and took a deep breath, raising his arms as he pulled energy from the summoning circle. His body glowed faintly as he absorbed the power, revealing lines and shadows under his skin with moved like snakes. “I received your payment, Mason Tolovius, and in return I grant you this artefact as specified! Our transaction is closed, master sorcerer.”

As Mason watched, the demon grew brighter and brighter until the entire summoning circle was a blazing sphere of light that was too brilliant to gaze at, and then there was an echoing thunderclap which brought darkness.

When Mason opened his eyes again he was alone in the forest. Kurzadakathan had returned to the otherworldly plane, leaving the summoning circle empty and inert, but remaining in the middle of the circle was a large white crystal the size of Mason’s palm.

The sorcerer slowly stepped forward and picked up the crystal, then he allowed himself the luxury of a smile. The plan was well underway.

After tidying up his paperwork and otherwise preparing himself, Mason sat on his chair again and used a special triggering spell to activate the crystal. “Morphus!” Instantly he could feel arcane power begin to flow from the gemstone, making his hand clench down as his muscles tightened involuntarily. His body suddenly felt like it was burning, but not from the baking heat of a summer afternoon.

All as planned, all as expected, all part of Mason’s grand plan. The sorcerer showed no signs of surprise as his flesh started to distort, his bones and muscles stretching and altering. He had even specified how long this process would take, and added caveats regarding pain (specified using units of pain as defined in appendix 5).

His arms shortened and pulled back towards his chest, while his fingers grew stubbier and less dextrous. His nails lengthened and extended into claws, while his hair melted into his head. Smooth plates exploded out all over his body, covering his skin with hard scales which felt surprisingly sensitive to the touch of air. His legs shortened but grew thicker, stretching out his clothing.

Mason stumbled to his feet, falling out of his chair and collapsing onto the forest floor. This was one part he had forgotten to plan for. He hurriedly kicked off his boots and tugged off his pants and tunic, moving as fast as he could, but still there was a ripping sound from his undergarments as a long, slender tail grew from his rear. His neck lengthened, as did his face, extending forwards into a pointed snout. A pair of smooth horns shot up from his head pointing backwards. The transformation seemed to briefly pause here, but then the most important part occurred—there was an intense itching pressure on his back, and then Mason felt a new pair of limbs burst from his shoulder blades. He now had wings.

As the transformation drew to a finish, the crystal tumbled from his paw (which had formally been a hand) and landed on the forest floor. Mason took deep breaths as he slowly got used to his new body. Everything felt different and unexpected, but it didn’t take too much for him to get used to his new form. This was also another thing he had specified—the crystal was to transform him, but he needed to use his transformed body right away without having to spend days or weeks learning motor control.

He had once been a human sorcerer, but Mason was now a dragon with scales of pale grey.

“Wow, I’m a dragon. Whoa… Okay? Okay. I can still talk. Follow the plan. I just stick with the plan…” Surprisingly enough, Mason’s voice sounded most the same as it had before, albeit with a subtle resonance that he could feel in his chest. Although his nose-to-tail length was much longer than his human height, and his wingspan was far greater than his arms could have reached, his dragon body was overall slightly thinner and far more slender than his human body had been.

At first he awkwardly tried to walk on his two hindlegs, before quickly realizing that it was far easier if he used all four legs. The drake slowly trotted around the clearing, and then when he felt ready he spread his wings and leapt into the air to test out his new form.

The sudden sensation was breathtaking. Mason was above the forest, flying low and fast and seeing everything. The air rushed past his scales and it was so easy to just flap his wings and fly. Mason wondered what he looked like from afar, and suddenly he felt naked and exposed without his clothes. But of course a real dragon would never wear clothes, and on such a warm summer’s day there was no chance he’d feel even the slightest chill from his lack of clothing. Looking over to the west, Mason could see a distant mountain range which marked the border between the Marlander Empire and the neighbouring country of Akosta.

Mason was a Marlander citizen, but he had never been particularly patriotic. In his educated opinion, the empire was a tyrannical regime seeking to conquer and subjugate nearby countries to grow its territory. The only consolation was that the emperor was openly transparent about his intentions to dominate the world and bring it all under his glorious heel, and the Marlander population seemed mostly content with this vicious expansionism as long as they remained prosperous and safe.

Until just recently, the much smaller neighbouring state of Akosta had chosen to ignore Marlander conquests and their campaigns of dominion. The two countries had strong trade and similar cultures, so there was little to argue about.

But then suddenly, just a few weeks ago, Akostan leadership had announced that their spies had discovered messages from the Marlander high emperor to his counsellors, discussing preparations for an eventual invasion of Akosta to add it to the lands of the empire. Whether these accusations were true or not (and the educated guess was that they obviously were), the emperor had pointed out that this announcement proved that Akosta had spies within the Marlander Empire, which therefore necessitated aggressive countermeasures. An embargo had been declared on many goods, cutting off trade between both nations.

This was when Mason had come up with his plan—he would smuggle contraband across the border using a technique no one would suspect, one which would allow him to bypass border security and all their checkpoints. Embargoes hurt the populations on both sides, but they were very profitable for smugglers.

His plan would go something like this:

Step one—summon a demon and obtain a transformation crystal.

Step two—transform into a dragon.

Step three—fly across the border and deliver Marlander goods as to the embargoed Akostans, for which they would pay good coin.

Step four—fly back to the Marlander Empire, bringing back Akostan luxuries which were also in high demand due to the embargo.

Step five—transform back into a human and sell all the smuggled goods, making lots of money.

Plan complete!

Dragons were intelligent beasts, but they were rare and cared little for the affairs of humans. No one would be suspicious of a drake who just happened to cross between the borders, because no one would suspect that this dragon had the mind and cunning of a human.

Mason flapped his wings as he came in for landing back at the forest clearing. In his normal human body he was a master sorcerer, but he doubted this draconic form was so skilled with magic. So as part of his contract with Kurzadakathan, Mason had specified that the crystal could be used twice—the first use would turn him into a dragon, and once he touched it the second time it would automatically turn him back into his previous human form.

Mason carefully walked over to the equipment he had left in the forest clearing. He took a small leather pouch and used it to pick up the crystal, then he left this pouch below his folding table. Part of him felt uneasy at the idea of leaving this crucial artefact behind, but he really had no choice. The embargo was enforced by more than words and threats; it was defended by an immensely powerful area spell which detected all enchanted artefacts passing out of the Marlander Empire and into Akosta. His smuggling itinerary specifically avoided enchanted objects which could trigger this spell, but this also meant he had to leave behind the transformation crystal—that special artefact which would return his humanity.

To mitigate this risk, Mason had already placed down a repulsive spell in the clearing to dissuade anyone from investigating his belongings while he was away. Furthermore, he was already so far into the wilderness that there would almost certainly be no one here besides him.

Mason put this worry out of his mind so he could continue with his plan. He walked over to where he had stashed a large backpack filled with various items, including refined telanium ingots, Greengrass salt, and other valuable but lightweight things which the Marlander Empire now denied to Akosta. Though his backpack had been made for a human to use, not a dragon, he had no problems with wearing the pouch in front of his chest. Dragons weren’t really very big creatures, all things considered.

Mason nodded, pleased with himself, and then he leapt into the air and flew for the border. It was a lovely summer afternoon, and his plan was going precisely as expected.

The dragon soared through the open air on wings spread wide. The late afternoon sun was warming the mountains she was flying lazily over, creating strong thermals which pushed her up into the sky with nary a wing beat.

Izagor was her name, and her flight had neither destination nor aim. As she flew, she simply rode the wind to see where it would take her. It was a good day to fly, and the simple pleasure of air sweeping under her wings was sufficient justification for her to take to the skies.

The summer sun caused rushing winds to blow from high in the mountains down towards the forested plains of the valleys below. Izagor was vaguely aware that the mountainous terrain was the territory of a human nation, while the forested plains were the territory of another different nation, but she cared little for the arbitrary borders drawn by the humans. She knew these facts in the same manner she knew that plants were green so they could absorb sunlight, or there were deep sea creatures under the ocean, or there were stars in space—she had the information, but it didn’t affect her at all. There was nothing stopping her from flying wherever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She was above it all.

As she was enjoying her flight, a flicker of motion in the distance suddenly caught her attention. It was not on the ground, but in the air—could it be? It was!

Another dragon!

What a pleasant surprise. Izagor changed her heading and started beating her wings to match her course with this new dragon who was flying from the plains and heading towards the mountains.

Her race was not as social as the humans were, so living a solitary life was especially common amongst younger dragons who had yet to take a mate. Izagor had no plans to settle down anytime soon—travelling and roaming was just too much fun, and there was so much of the world she had yet to see and explore. Nevertheless it had been many weeks since she had last seen one of her own kind, so she curiously flew over to say hello.

As she got within intercept distance, Izagor saw that the other dragon was a male, and he had scales of pale grey with an underbelly of white. The drake appeared to be about the same age as her, and he seemed healthy enough; his wingbeats were steady and smooth as he flew to wherever he was headed. Some sort of leather harness was wrapped around his chest, which might have been the craftsmanship of humans—how interesting!

Izagor let out a cheerful squawk just to let him know that her intentions were friendly, and she rocked her wings from side-to-side in a wave. “Skr-yah!”

This, Mason decided, is not according to plan.

The afternoon sky was free of turbulence and his flight to Akosta had been largely uneventful for the first hour, right until the very moment a wild dragon had suddenly appeared out of nowhere and started heading towards him.

Mason had not anticipated such a scenario. Dragons were rare creatures, so he hadn’t thought about what he would do if he somehow encountered an actual wild dragon. This wild dragon had scales of a reddish-brown like the colour of oak wood, with pale splotches on its side which looked like spots. Now it was flying along beside him and making squawking noises.

Mason had no idea what he was going to do. He didn’t know what this dragon wanted, so he just tried his best to ignore it and hoped that it would get the message—go away!

Izagor felt her neck crest drooping sadly as the grey-scaled drake refused to acknowledge her presence. They were flying too fast to talk—their high airspeed meant the wind would drown out more subtle conversation, so all she could do was try to draw his attention with squawks, chirps, and repeated waving her wings by rocking her flight pattern left and right.

She never got any response. In her travels Izagor had encountered grumpy elder dragons who roared at her to leave their territory and tried to snap at her tail, but this was even further than that—it was like she was invisible to this drake! Even if he was in a rush to go somewhere, he could at least just let out a quick squawk in reply. It was beyond rude to ignore someone like this.

Izagor let out one last warble, hoping that the drake would finally respond, but still he remained silent. He didn’t even rock his wings—the most basic of draconic gestures. Izagor let out an irritated sigh, then she rolled over sharply and pulled away. The acceleration tugged hard on her body as she rapidly turned, until she had reversed her course so that she was heading in the exact opposite direction. Fine! She got the message. Her presence clearly was unwelcome, so she would gladly leave this antisocial drake to go on his way alone.

Mason breathed a sigh of relief as the reddish-brown dragon finally gave up and stopped harassing him. He watched the wild dragon as they turned away and headed in the opposite direction, much to his delight. Mason continued to glance back over the next ten minutes or so, but the wild dragon continued on their course away from him.

“Good riddance!” Mason muttered, but his words were snatched away by the wind. He continued flying towards the Akostan border, heading for the mountain cave where he would stash his Marlander contraband and swap out his pack for a different pack of smuggled goods to bring back home.

The plan was back on track.

Izagor was feeling more and more dejected as kept flying. It must have been at least five weeks since she had last seen another dragon, but now this grey-scaled drake had completely shunned her for no apparent reason. Had she offended him in some way? Did he find her presence repulsive? Or was her appearance so objectionable that he did not even want to even look at her?

Izagor growled and snapped her jaws as her sadness flashed over into anger. “Jerk!” she exclaimed, yelling the words into the wind. What sort of rude person couldn’t even take the effort to rock their wings and respond to someone?

It didn’t matter. She couldn’t care less about some idiot drake. Izagor kept flying, but now it felt like her pleasant afternoon flight had been soured by this confusing encounter. Soaring on thermals and taking in the scenery just didn’t seem to bring the same joy as before—Izagor felt a sudden stab of loneliness, and she wished she were many leagues away, back in her clan’s home territory surrounded by friends and family.

Sliding her wings into a dive position, she spiralled down through the air, only straightening out her flight at the last moment to avoid hitting the trees. She had left the mountains now, and was clearly flying over forested terrain. Perhaps she could find a lake and take a swim.

Something down in a forest clearing caught her eye briefly. Izagor looped around to retrace her flightpath, and sure enough there was a strange marking on the forest floor, looking like a series of geometric shapes and patterns drawn in a burnt and blackened circle. This was mildly interesting, so she descended into the clearing and landed to take a closer look.

Once she had dropped out of the air and furled her wings up, Izagor realized that there were several other things in this forest clearing—human belongings? Was this a campsite? Trotting over, she went to take a looksee. There was what appeared to be a portable table and chair placed right next to the circle burnt into the ground. A set of human clothes was on the table, as well as an empty document briefcase.

Izagor nosed at the clothing—it must have been placed here very recently, since there was no evidence of exposure to the elements. Inspecting the burnt circular mark revealed it to be summoning circle, for consorting with demons. All dragons were naturally able to use magic even without training, but as a rule they did not dabble in the otherworldly plane—humans, on the other paw, had no such common sense.

Izagor idly speculated that a sorcerer had come out here to summon a demon, but maybe they had done something wrong which allowed the demon to attack and drag them back to the otherworldly plane. That would explain why there were all these things out here but no trace of the person who much have so recently brought them. This hypothesis also explained why there was clothing on the table—perhaps the sorcerer had tried to summon a demon to fulfil some perverse sexual desire.

There was also some sort of weak spell gently poking her scales. From what she could sense of the magic, Izagor suspected that the spell would cause humans to feel an instinctive desire to avoid this place, but as a dragon her magical blood rendered her immune. She didn’t feel a need to be cautious—there were very few spells which could affect magical creatures such as dragons.

As she walked around the clearing, Izagor spotted something else lying on the ground—a leather satchel was leaning against one of the table legs. The satchel was now lying open on the ground, and a large white crystal was resting on the forest floor.

_That’s pretty. _The gemstone was glinting in the late afternoon sunlight, almost like it was calling to her. Izagor crouched down and sniffed at the crystal. The moment it touched her nose, everything changed.

Lightning exploded out from the point of contact, running towards the ends of her wings and the tip of her tail. Izagor collapsed to the ground with a scream as her whole body began to convulse and twitch. Everything felt wrong as immensely powerful magic started to ravage her flesh, stretching out her forelegs into arms, while her hindlegs extended and grew closer together as her tail got shorter and shorter.

There was no place on her body left untouched by the transformation. Her scales shrank down until they had disappeared, leaving behind raw pink skin which seemed utterly inadequate to protect her from the elements. Her muzzle was pressed backwards and into her face, and her teeth shifted around and jostled as they too were changed. Her tail kept shrinking further and further until it had disappeared entirely. Her crest dropped against her neck and merged with it, and in its place came long brown fur which sprouted from the top of her head.

Izagor had no idea what was happening to her. She could see changes occurring on the outside of her body, and she could only guess at what terrible things were going on to her insides. The worst part of all was when her wings started to shrink. She had always been proud of her wings, proud of how graceful they looked and how they could draw the attention of drakes when she chose to show them off, but now her flight muscles were cramping horribly, compressing her wings impossibly tight against her back. Not her wings—anything but her wings!

This was finally too much to bear—without having to cast a spell, the magic that ran in her blood instinctually fought back against the power emanating from that cursed white crystal. The transformation halted for a brief second, then intensity gave way to pain as the crystal’s magic overwhelmed her. Izagor collapsed on the ground senseless; her strength gone and her body feeling unnatural and weak. The world faded into sweet darkness.

Mason was on the lookout as he flew back to the forest clearing. His journey across the border and back had gone mostly as planned, with the one exception of that reddish-brown wild dragon that had harassed him earlier. Now the sorcerer carefully watched the skies around him in case the wild dragon showed up again, but he made it back to the clearing without seeing any trace of the creature.

Feeling pleased with himself, Mason used a forepaw to pat the pouch strapped to his chest—he would be making good coin from this endeavour! There were few pleasures in the world like a careful plan perfectly executed. But just as he came in for landing, his heart turned to ice. There was someone else in the clearing!

It looked like…a woman? The stranger had long brown hair that covered the upper part of her back. She was lying right next to his table, on her front with her legs and arms awkwardly sprawled out, and head twisted to the side.

Mason was so shocked that he stumbled as he landed. Although he manged to skip forwards and avoid falling, he froze in position, not knowing what to do. They were so far from the nearest town! What was this woman doing all the way out here? He hesitantly approached to get a better look.

It was definitely a woman. She appeared to be unconscious—but why? And how had this woman even gotten here? The repulsive spells he had put on the place ought to have created a strong, dreading sensation that this was a place to avoid. Mason felt his tail swishing from left to right in nervousness. Perhaps this woman had somehow ignored his spells and walked closer until the magic had overwhelmed her and caused her to faint? This would conveniently explain why she was asleep.

However, it would not explain why she was naked.

Mason let out a soft mewling whimper as he tried to come to grips with the situation. He could still come up with a plan if he could just understand what had happened here. Maybe this woman was a nudist on a summer hike in the forest (did people actually do that?), and she had come across his summoning circle then fainted after exposure to his repulsive spells? Did that make sense?

No, that didn’t make sense. But then again, nothing made sense about this scenario.

Mason slowly approached the unconscious woman, moving as quietly as he could. He could at least confirm that the woman was alive and not a corpse—her chest was moving slowly as she breathed in and out, but her eyes were closed. Yes, it was definitely a woman; and yes, she was definitely naked. Mason felt a surge of embarrassment and he averted his eyes from the woman’s exposed form, but he could not avoid noticing that she was pretty. Her limbs were lean but muscled, and her hair was like a curtain of reddish-brown.

After another minute spent anxiously doing nothing, Mason had come up with a new plan. He needed to turn himself back into a human, hide away his pouch full of contraband, and then he could wake this strange naked woman and ask her what she was doing here. There was nothing inherently illegal about summoning—Mason was an accredited sorcerer registered with the Guild of Magicians—and the belongings left in the clearing did not give any indication that this was a smuggling operation. So this woman, whoever she was, would have no reason to suspect him of any wrongdoing.

Mason unbuckled the pack of smuggled goods from his chest and slid it under the table, and then he picked up his satchel. When he saw that it was empty, he frantically turned over the bag and searched through it for a few panicked seconds before he realized that the crystal was lying on the ground, almost in reach of the mysterious naked woman.

Mason bent down and grabbed the crystal with a forepaw, breathing another deep (but silent) sigh of relief. For a moment he had been terrified by the thought of forever remaining a dragon, but there was nothing to worry about! His contract with the demon had even included protections against such a rare event as someone else touching his artefact. Mason had specified that after the crystal had been activated the first time to turn him into a dragon, it would not have any effect when picked up by another human. The only thing it could do was if he touched it again—it would change him from a dragon into a human being.

Then Mason realized that nothing was happening, and all his calm shattered. He grasped the crystal more firmly with both forepaws, and even tried rubbing it against his chest and muzzle, but all to no avail.

“No, no, no! NO!” It wasn’t changing him back! How could a magical artefact created by demonic power not work?! His contract had been perfect! Yet the crystal had somehow gone inert as if its power had already been used. Was it something to do with this mystery woman? Well obviously she must be the cause of it—these two events could not be coincidences! But how? Was she a powerful magician who had somehow interfered with the crystal? Or a rival sorcerer intent on blackmailing him?

Right as Mason was thinking about her, the naked woman suddenly stirred. Her eyelids fluttered open, revealing irises of the same reddish-brown colour as her hair. His voice must have woken her, but Mason hardly cared if she saw him now. He had to change back—he couldn’t be stuck as a dragon forever! He had to fix this!

Izagor slowly blinked her eyes open. She had been in a strange nightmare, but now she came back to reality where things were…wrong. Reality was the nightmare. She couldn’t feel her wings or her tail, and all four of her limbs felt strangely proportioned. Her neck was far too short, so raising her head was a challenge. At first her vision was blurry and indistinct, but as things cleared she realized she was lying on the forest floor. The sight of her body was immensely disorientating.

Her forelegs had turned into lanky arms, and her forepaws had become hands with five dextrous fingers. Izagor ran her hands over her body, taking in the shocking sensation of smooth sensitive flesh where there should been scales. Her muzzle was completely gone, as was the crest fin that usually ran down her neck from the top of her head. The fur sprouting from her head kept irritatingly getting in the way of her face, and she had to brush it aside. Her long slender tail had been replaced by a curvy pair of buttocks which looked ridiculous, and there was fat in the most abnormal of locations—forming two strange lumps on her chest that felt even more sensitive than anywhere else. It was so…so different. She was in a body that got everything wrong.

Then she glanced upwards, and sitting right in front of her was that same, grey-scaled drake who had rudely ignored her before. Seeing him again made Izagor so angry she forgot to be scared or worried. “You!” she spat. Her voice sounded crisper than usual, lacking the rumbly harmonics of a dragon’s voice.

The drake stumbled backwards, apparently taken by surprise from her sudden intensity. He tripped over a tree root and landed on his side with wings half open.

“You!” Izagor tried to walk after the drake, but her body’s proportions were off and she tumbled to the ground too. Even though her forelimbs were longer than before, her hindlimbs had stretched to an even greater length, and it felt difficult to use them in unison. The dirt felt painful against her palms, as if they weren’t meant to be pressed hard against the ground. “Did you do this? What do you do to me?! Is this some sort of joke?”

Mason scrambled to his four feet and hurriedly backed away from the mysterious naked woman who was now proving to also be angry and crazy. Something about how she looked clicked in his head, and a horrible realization dawned on him. There was an alternate explanation for this scenario—one which seemed unlikely, yet far more probable than an insane masochistic nudist just happening to stumble upon his summoning circle. This woman’s reddish-brown hair was of a colour he had seen before—the exact same shade as the scales of that wild dragon he had encountered just a few hours ago. Oh no, she couldn’t actually be…?

His contract with Kurzadakathan had been almost flawless, but Mason realized now that all his dense specifications might still have had one tiny ambiguity. The mistake seemed so obscure that Kurzadakathan probably hadn’t deliberately tried to bend the contract; who could have known this might happen?

After being triggered the first time, Mason’s transformation crystal was required to immediately transform him from dragon back into his normal human body when he touched it a second time, but nowhere had he specified that this transformation must apply only to him. It had to transform the dragon who touched it into a human—but he failed to specify that this dragon must be him, and him alone.

And that was exactly what had happened. A wild dragon had stumbled upon his summoning circle, found the crystal, and accidentally been transformed into a human—a naked and very angry woman.

This was very, very not according to plan.

Synopsis: A dragon and a human have to work together to switch back to their usual body forms after getting accidentally transformed into each other's species.

“Ok I think I know… Makes sense, but I didn't consider… Just…just hold on for a minute here!" sputtered the grey-scaled drake, as Izagor got to her feet and advanced on him. Her new body was clearly designed to be bipedal, not quadrupedal, and somehow it was easier to balance on two limbs instead of four.

She wanted to growl, but the noise sounded more like a hiss and it wasn't anywhere near as threatening as she had hoped. “Rrrss! How did you turn me into this thing? Are you working with the humans? What did they pay you? I'll kill you for this!" Anger was running hot through Izagor's veins. She wanted to bite the drake's neck to throttle and shake him, but her mouth couldn't open wide enough for this to work. Instead she settled for using her hands to grab him by the horns. Despite looking thin and weak, her upper limbs now had excellent reach and surprisingly good grip strength. “You will turn me back, or I swear on my ancestors that I shall do everything within my power to make you regret the day you were hatched!"

“Waaaait!" cried the drake as she shook his head. “Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Calm down please! This was an accident! Just let me explain!"

Mason gasped as the woman (but she wasn't really a woman, she was a dragon) finally stopped shaking his head. She didn't let go of her firm grim on his horns, and his snout was pointed right at her exposed chest—in another situation he might have found this erotic, but now it was just terrifying. Though Mason had never ever imagined such a scenario, he now realized that it was entirely possible for one very angry, very determined, but completely naked woman to successfully intimidate and terrify a dragon, if that dragon was him.

“You had better have a very good explanation," snarled the angry, determined, naked woman.

“It was an honest mistake! I genuinely didn't intend for this to happen! You…you were a dragon, right? The dragon that I saw flying earlier?"

The woman pulled his horns painfully and leaned closer so she could glare at him eye to eye. “Yes, I was. I was a dragon, I am a dragon, and I will be turned back into a dragon. Are we clear on that?"

“Yes! Crystal clear!"

“Excellent. Now explain to me how and why you turned me into this disgusting human form. And while you're at it, explain why you completely ignored me earlier. I have never been treated so rudely in my life."

“I wasn't trying to ignore you! Ok, actually I was, but that was just because I didn't know what to do! I was just trying to fly to Akosta and back as quickly as possible." Mason swallowed nervously. “Could…could you please let go of my horns? You're hurting my skull!"

In response, the woman just tightened her grip and pulled his horns a bit more. Mason hadn't seen anyone so angry in a long time. “I said explain! EXPLAIN! This is the work of some human magician, isn't it? What sort of dragon are you, working with the humans to sell out one of you own race to them? Have you no honour?"

“I'm not any sort of dragon, and I'm not working with humans! I am a human! My name is Mason Tolovius; I'm a sorcerer! I summoned a demon and had it create a transformation crystal which could turn me into a dragon and back! It was only supposed to affect me, but I think the crystal must have worked on you instead. I'm really sorry about this!"

Izagor was so surprised by this explanation that she forgot to be angry. She released the drake's horns and took a few steps back. “You're…not a dragon? You're a human? But you look so…" She had been about to say “good", but Izagor decided she wasn't going to say anything which might remotely sound like a compliment. “Why would you do something like this?"

The drake, this 'Mason Tolovius', looked uneasy under her intense gaze. “I had a plan and a good reason for transforming myself into a dragon. The plan was to fly to Akosta carrying this harness full of, uh, stuff." Izagor got the feeling he had been about to say something else, but she didn't press for further details. “Then I would fly back and change myself back into a human, except that I'm guessing you touched my crystal first so it changed you into a human. That's where my plan went wrong, and how we both ended up with the wrong bodies."

Izagor nodded slowly. Mason's explanation made sense—he was just some idiot human sorcerer who had tried to change himself into a dragon for some stupid human reason, and now she had gotten caught up in his idiocy. “So turn us back. Make the crystal work again and undo this."

“I would if I could, but that's just not possible—whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down!" Mason hurriedly backed away when Izagor bared her teeth and advanced on him. “The crystal only works twice—one transformation from human to dragon, and one transformation from dragon to human. After that it's just a worthless lump of mineral."

“Then just make a new crystal! Summon that demon again and fix this!" Izagor demanded.

“Summoning isn't simple! I would need to draw up a new circle to summon the demon again and…and I would need to rewrite the contract again from my master copy, which is…uh…it's not here."

“Where?" Izagor hissed.

“I left it at home…"

“Where?!" Izagor thundered.

Mason hurriedly pointed a forepaw towards the south. “I don't live so close to the Akostan border; I live further into the empire, closer to the ocean. I'll need to go to the nearby town and take one of the trains headed south. The journey will take about half a day, so if you could just wait here for a few days I'll be right back—"

Izagor laughed at this incredulous suggestion. “Hahahaha, no. You think I'm letting you out of my sight? What guarantee do I have that I'll ever see you again?"

“I give you my full assurance that I will be back! But if you insist, I suppose you could come along with me and we do the summoning back at my house. I'll even pay for a ticket on the express train so that we can ride quickly and take the overnight express…um…" Mason's voice trailed off as he realized that this plan wouldn't work. “No, wait. I'm a _dragon—_they'll never let me on board. So if I can't ride the train, what are we to do? I suppose I could always walk all the way, but that might take quite a bit longer…"

Izagor wanted to slap Mason's side with her tail, but she didn't have a tail anymore, so she settled for shaking her head. “Walking? As a dragon?"

Mason didn't get it. His tail was swishing from side to side as he tried to come up with a better idea. “How else would I get home? Perhaps I might be able to find a horse carriage driver who could be persuaded to allow me to ride in his carriage for enough coin…"

“Or…you could just fly?" Izagor suggested.

Mason's tail went still. “Oh. Yes, I could do that. Right! That sounds like a better plan. I'll just fly us back to my house, and then I'll summon Kurzadakathan again, and then we'll get a new crystal which turns us back to our normal forms. Yes, I like that plan. Is this acceptable to you?"

Izagor could see no better alternative, so she agreed. “I don't think we have a choice, so let's do it. We can't be stuck like this forever. Since I can't fly, I guess I have to climb onto your back?"

“Yes, but let me just…" Mason trotted over to the table and put his harness back on—it was just a simple series of leather belts which went around his neck and his forelimbs, carefully avoiding his wings but allowing him to carry a pouch on his chest without using his paws. “I had this harness made to carry my goods. You can use it to hold on when you're sitting on my back." Izagor approached and reached out her hands, but Mason looked uncomfortable. He lowered his gaze so he was only looking at her feet. “Could you…clothe yourself? This is indecent."

“What?"

The drake turned towards the table and pointed at the set of clothes there. He seemed to be making a deliberate effort to ensure sure he did not look at her, just as he had ignored her earlier while they were both dragons and in flight. “You need to wear clothes. Humans wear clothes."

Izagor had long known that humans wore cloth or fabric garments to cover themselves, but she had never understood the reason for this. “What's the point?" She glanced down at her own body, taking in the sight of her chest, torso, and lanky legs. “Do you find me ugly? Is this body unpleasant by human standards?"

Mason was obviously very embarrassed. His eyes flicked up as he looked over her whole body, then he hurriedly dropped his gaze to only stare at her feet again. “No, it's not unpleasant to look at; quite the opposite, which is why you need to wear these clothes. It's just how things are! There are certain…parts of anatomy which should only be exposed in private situations, not in public. Please just put on those clothes. Those are supposed to be my clothes, but I think they should fit you alright. At least it's better than wandering around naked. I'll give you some privacy." He turned away and sat down with his back facing towards her.

Izagor still thought this didn't make much sense, but presumably Mason knew more about acting human than she did. “Very well, if you insist…" She took the clothing from the table and tried to figure out how it all worked. The most obvious piece of equipment was a pair of thick leather things made in an L-shape; clearly these were shaped to go over her feet, so she put these on first.

Without looking at her, Mason spoke again. “So what's your name? I already told you my name is Mason Tolovius, but you never introduced yourself."

“Izagor."

“Just Izagor? No surname?"

“What's a surname?" Izagor looked over all the rest of the clothing—why were there were so many different pieces?

“Never mind, I'll just call you Izagor then. Or is Izzy alright?"

“Don't call me Izzy. My friends call me Izzy." Now that the smaller pieces of clothing were settled, Izagor moved on to the larger things. There was a big T-shaped garment which was probably meant to go over her upper body, so she pulled that on. It took some trial and error for her to figure out how the buttons worked, but she soon got the hang of it. Even though her body was now all wrong, her human hands were much more dexterous than her paws had even been.

“Izagor, then." Mason was quiet for a while before he spoke again. “Are you done yet? It's been a few minutes."

Izagor was busy pulling a second T-shaped garment over her first one, except this second garment was white and had no buttons down the front. Instead it was just one large piece which made it more confusing to equip. Her head kept going into the wrong hole. “No, I'm not done. Don't you rush me, human! It's your fault we're in this mess in the first place."

“Sorry. Although…you were the one who touched my crystal, so this is partially your fault too."

“Oh, sure! I'm sorry for being curious! How was I to know that a human sorcerer was just going to leave a demonic artefact lying around unattended, or that it would turn me into this thing? I'm hideous now." Izagor was trying to put on one more piece of clothing—an inverted-U shaped loop of thick fabric which was probably supposed to go over her legs. The leather things over her feet made this difficult, but eventually she managed to push her feet through after some stretching and tugging on the fabric.

Mason was still looking away from her, but the tip of his tail twitched. “You're not hideous. It's kind of strange how pretty you are, actually. I would have expected the crystal to make you look more…draconic."

“Why? You look exactly like a normal dragon." Izagor picked up a pair of stretchy, white-coloured, one-ended tubes. Did these go over her head? But they came in pair, so they were probably meant to go over her limbs. She pulled one over each hand. She was mostly done now, although she realized there was one last piece of square clothing made from grey fabric. It had with two holes on one side and one hole on one side. “I'm mostly done now. I think. Where's this supposed to go?"

Mason turned around to look at her, and what he saw made his eyes go wide. His jaw dropped open.

Human or dragon, Izagor knew how to interpret this universal expression of shock. “Did I do something wrong?"

Mason hardly even knew where to begin. “Uh…you…uhh…that's… First off—why are you wearing my socks over your hands?"

“You mean these white fabric things? I don't know. Where else do they go?" Izagor pulled the socks of her hands.

“You're supposed to wear them over your feet."

“Ok, so they're feet covers? Do they go under or over the leather feet covers?"

“Under. The leather feet covers are called boots, and the fabric things are called socks."

Izagor sat down on the ground and pulled off the boots. She slid the socks over her feet, then she put the boots back on. “Like this?"

“You're wearing the socks backwards, but I guess it doesn't matter. You're supposed to tighten the bootlaces and tie them up. Just try to pull on the laces to make them more comfortable."

Izagor did as he asked, but this made things more uncomfortable. “No, now it's crushing my hindpaws! I don't like them like that." She pulled on the boots until they were nice and loose, just like before, then she tucked the laces into the boots so they weren't dangling out.

Mason sighed. He gestured at the rest of her. “You're wearing my undershirt backwards, and over my shirt."

Izagor tugged off the undershirt, but she stopped before taking of the shirt. It had taken her a few minutes to do up all the buttons, especially because she had gotten them misaligned at first. She didn't want to go through all that effort again. “Why does a human need two pieces of clothing covering their upper half anyway?"

“That's just how things are."

“Well that's dumb. I don't need two layers of fabric over my top. One is enough." Izagor dropped the undershirt onto the table, and Mason decided it wasn't worth the effort to persuade her to wear it. Hopefully they wouldn't need to speak or interact with anyone else on the journey home, because wearing just one shirt left the outlines of her chest rather…visible.

Picking up the last piece of square clothing, Izagor waved it at Mason. “So what's this thing? You haven't explained where it's supposed to go."

“That is underwear. You're supposed to wear it over your legs, but under the pants."

“What, you mean like here? Is it supposed to cover my genital slit?" Izagor pulled down her pants, suddenly exposing her crotch. Mason hurriedly averted his eyes out of instinct, even though it was quite obvious that Izagor had no shame. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see her using a hand to poke at her own anatomy. “Hey, how come there's fur down here? I thought humans were hairless except for their heads?" she asked.

“No, that's not true—we have hair in other places too, like under our armpits. Now please pull your pants back up."

Thankfully Izagor complied, pulling her pants back up and carefully doing up the button. She then reached a hand through the collar of the shirt, and started feeling around her armpits. “Huh…you're right—there's hair under here too. Weird. What's up with that?" She pulled her hand out and sniffed her fingers.

Mason was very grateful that dragons could not blush, or he would have turned completely red by this point. “I don't know. Now get on my back and let's go." He lowered himself to his belly, and Izagor climbed over his shoulders so that she was sitting on his back, with her legs around his neck. “I hope I can do this. I don't actually know if I'm strong enough to carry you," he admitted.

“What? Sure you are. I've hunted and carried prey animals which were far bigger than a human," Izagor replied. “Come on, let's go! The sooner we get to your home, the sooner we can turn back to normal. Up, Mason! Fly!"

Mason spread his wings wide, and then he leapt into the sky. They flew together—the dragon who was actually a human, and the human who was actually a dragon.

Izagor felt her breath catch as Mason leapt into the air. She had been flying all her life, yet it was different now that she was in this new body which could not fly. Instead of clutching her hands around the leather harness, she raised her arms so she could feel the air rushing by and pretend she still had wings.

“Yah!" Instinctively she called out, but her human body could only make an exhilarated yell which did not sound as majestic as a roar. She felt a natural desire to jump off Mason's shoulders and spread her own wings, but that would only result in injury or death—for now, she had to be satisfied with relying on this drake who wasn't a drake to carry her in the skies.

It didn't take long for Izagor to start criticising Mason's flying. “Hey! How come you're climbing at best angle of climb? Why not use best rate of climb?"

“What? I have no idea what you just said," he replied.

“You're going too slow. Since you've already passed the trees, just speed up. The way you're flying now is good for gaining as much altitude as possible over distance, but not for gaining as much altitude as possible over time."

“I…uh…ok…" Mason wasn't sure what Izagor was talking about, but he did as she asked. Doubtless she knew more about flying than he did. Turning until the sun was to his right side, he flew south towards the ocean.

Izagor would occasionally give advice or tips on how to fly more efficiently, such as by recognizing thermals so he could climb without beating his wings. She almost never sounded impatient or even frustrated—instead, it sounded like she just enjoyed flying so much that she couldn't help but share her knowledge and skill. Mason found himself entering a state of relaxed calm, listening to her words and learning how to use his wings properly.

It was nice to have someone to talk to as they spent the afternoon flying through the air, covering great distance as they headed deeper into the Marlander Empire. Towns and villages were interspersed in the forest down below; the buildings and people looked like toys from so high above. As he flew, Mason stayed on course by matching his flight path with the train tracks far below, retracing the course he had taken to come out here to the border of the empire.

After some time, Izagor could feel her skin becoming tight and prickly in the cool high altitude air despite the warmth of summer. It felt like human skin hardly provided any insulation compared to dragon scales, so perhaps it would have been a better idea if she had worn that undershirt after all. Without this possibility, she bent lower so her chest was pressed up against Mason's neck, allowing her some protection from the cold oncoming air.

Their conversation continued as they kept flying—instead of just talking about flight, Izagor started asking about the places they were flying over. Travel had always been one of her favourite activities, although she was more interested in beautiful scenery and spectacular vistas rather than human construction and architecture.

Mason was happy to share what he knew. Whatever questions she had, he would answer to the best of his knowledge. He told Izagor about the Marlander Empire and its tyrannical emperor, he talked about the cities and diplomacy, and then things started to turn more personal. He started telling her about his job and what he did as a sorcerer, and about his own life.

Izagor didn't approve of treating with demons, especially after what had just happened to them both, but she had to admit being fascinated by all that Mason could tell her. He talked about the academies of magic and learning where he had studied ancient texts and learned from wizened old wizards. He gave her stories of all the things he did on a normal day, creating demonic contracts and assisting other sorcerers with their own contracts.

Without even realizing what he was doing, Mason accidentally let slip the reason why he'd gone to all this trouble in the first place—that he had begun to dabble with smuggling things across the border. He swallowed nervously as he realized he didn't have a plan; he had just been talking because, to his surprise, he enjoyed conversing with Izagor.

Yet she didn't seem upset or even surprised by his less-than-legal activities. She seemed to find it amusing that he had created something as serious as a demonic contract just to carry a pouch of valuables over an arbitrary line which marked the limits between two governments. She laughed and smiled for these were all just the silly, mundane affairs of everyday humans—things which dragons cared little for as they flew above all.

Izagor was having far more fun than she would admit to anyone, even to herself. Mason was a strange conundrum—he looked like a drake, but his mind and beliefs were that of a human. And yet despite the fact their races stayed so separate, the things he said resounded in her as she realized they had more in common than she would ever have imagined. How strange that this human sorcerer might be so easy to speak with.

In turn Izagor began telling him about her own life and history—with her words she painted a picture of the towering mountain cliffs were she had hatched, where her clan, her family, and her friends were waiting for her when she finally got tired of roaming the world. She told him how they would fly over the highest mountains to ride the winds, or how they would soar to the coast and dive into the ocean to fish. She spoke about their stories and their legends—the tale of The Mountain That Could Fly, or the myth of The Dragon Who Flew Over The Sun—simple fables which she had heard as a tiny little hatchling.

Time flew by as they shared conversation and enjoyed each other's presence. The forested wilderness far below eventually gave way to buildings and paved roads as they entered the more urbanized areas of the Marlander Empire.

Prompted by a question from Izagor, Mason talked about the massive clockwork trains which rolled from city to city and town to town wherever there was track—he told her about how they had revolutionized the empire by allowing people and goods to move freely from one place to another, powered by tremendous metal springs wound up with so much energy that they could explode if mishandled. Industry and economy boomed thanks to these marvels of clockwork engineering, and people from all parts of the empire could travel far and free.

Izagor was intrigued. Freedom was something she took for granted, and it had never occurred to her that humans could not simply fly wherever they wished. Instead they were bound down to towns and homes and jobs, whereas dragons flew wherever they wanted and roamed as far as they dared. At her prompting, Mason flew slightly lower and diverted off course to go follow one of the many trains which ran across the empire. He slowed down and matched its speed, and Izagor watched with awe as the train powered its way across the countryside like a huge mechanical worm. Perhaps some of the train passengers might have spotted the dragon flying overhead, but Mason didn't care. It was worth it to see the expression of wonder and awe on Izagor's face.

Their flight, pleasant as it was, eventually had to end. The sun was setting and Mason was not confident that he could continue flying while it was dark. They were no more than an hour and a half from his home town, Klosk Harbour, but his wings were getting increasingly tired from all this activity.

“I don't think we're going to make it home by today," Mason admitted. “If I'm not wrong that's the township of Cinderfell over there. I could try to follow the train tracks all the way to Klosk Harbour, but it's getting a bit too dark. If I accidentally make a bad turn and follow the wrong track, we could end up lost in the darkness."

Izagor patted the side of his neck. “Alright. We don't need to risk it. Land and let's try to find somewhere to rest for the night. We continue our journey tomorrow."

Mason changed heading so he was flying directly towards Cinderfell. “I'll land just outside the town. You can go inside and try to find accommodation—I'll give you some coin to rent a room from an inn or something."

“And what about you?"

“I'll sleep out here in the hills, where people won't see me."

Izagor laughed, and Mason realized that he was increasingly enjoying the melodious sound of her voice. “Alone? Out in the hills? There's no shelter or anything—no caves to sleep in, and not even a tree to take cover under. Why don't we both go find a room in one of these inns?"

Mason halted his descent and flew in a large circle instead of approaching the town. “But I'm…I'm a dragon. I can't just walk in through the front door and ask for a room! Dragons aren't a common sight in the empire."

Izagor scratched at her clothing, which was beginning to itch against her skin. “Then don't. I'll walk in through the front door and ask for a room, and then I'll go to the room and open a window to sneak you in. They won't even know you're there—what's there for them to complain about?"

“Are you sure you're up to it? What if they realize that you're actually a dragon in a human body?"

Izagor waved away his doubts. “It'll be fine! Maybe I don't know everything about your society and culture, but how hard can it be to pass off as human? Let's do it." She looked over the town of Cinderfell and squinted at the many buildings. It was increasingly becoming dark, and it was getting harder to see. “Do you know which of these buildings is an inn? Let's land on the roof."

“The roof? I thought we were landing outside town?" Mason asked.

“Why? Do you want to walk further?"

“No, but I should avoid being seen…"

“The sun's already set, so I don't think people will be watching. But if you want to stay out of sight, just land somewhere dark where there aren't so many of those magical lanterns—how about over there?"

In the fading light, Mason could only just barely see where Izagor was pointing. She was gesturing towards a darkened alleyway between two office buildings which had closed for the night. This part of town seemed deserted, so he flew towards it.

Landing was a rougher affair than either of them expected. Mason was used to touching down with only his own weight, and Izagor's added mass made him land heavily. He stumbled once and let out a grunt, but his main concern was not himself. “Oof! Are you alright?"

Izagor patted his neck. “I'm fine." She tried to slide off Mason's back, but her legs collapsed and she dropped to the ground. “Oh! It's harder to walk than I remembered. My legs feel so tired—I think riding you was more tiring that it would have been to fly on my own strength." Izagor pushed herself to a squat, then a standing position, and she brushed of some dirt which had gotten onto her clothes. “Alright, now let's go find somewhere to spend the night…"

Izagor stared up at a large sign which read, “Imperial Hotel Cinderfell", and she smiled. “This looks like a good place. What do you think?"

Mason poked his head out from one of the bushes that was lining the side of the road. “Oh yes. I've stayed at the Imperial Hotel in Klosk Harbour and their service was quite good. A bit on the expensive side, but that's fine." He reached down for the pouch still strapped to his chest and took out a smaller pouch filled with gold coins minted with the Marlander seal on one side and the emperor's face on the other side. “I don't think they'll ask for full payment up front, but here's some money in case they require a deposit."

Izagor took the coin pouch and stared at the lumps of metal within. “Ok. So I just…give this to the person at the desk?"

Mason nodded. “Just walk in and go to the front desk. Talk to the receptionist there and ask to rent a room for a single night. If he requests a deposit, pay him with those coins. Otherwise he'll give you a key and show you up to the room. Once you're there, wait till he leaves and then come to the window and wave me in. I'll…I'll climb up somehow."

Izagor looked at the hotel thoughtfully. The building was well lit and was five storeys tall, and a restaurant was visible at the side—she had admittedly been most attracted to the smell of the food. But the building's exterior was smooth and free of pipes or ledges, aside from a series of balconies, which might make for a difficult climb for Mason. “I'm not sure there are many good pathways to climb up," Izagor said.

“Yes, I'll figure that part out. Just go rent a room and signal to me from the window, and then I'll get up there. Somehow." Mason ducked back into the bush as a horse carriage came trotting down the street, but it didn't stop at the hotel and kept going past them. “Good luck!"

Izagor passed the coin pouch between her left and right hand repeatedly. “Right. Ok." She walked down the street and turned towards the hotel's entrance. “I've fought a sea serpent, I've flown over the world's highest mountain…I can do this," she murmured to herself.

As she approached the glass front door, a man wearing neat black and white clothing frowned at her with a disbelieving look. He seemed to have hair coming from his chin for some reason, which Izagor found amusing. When she kept walking towards him, the doorman pulled the door open for her and beckoned her in with a bow, gesturing with hands covered in white gloves.

Izagor walked through the entrance…and froze. The inside of the hotel was all bright and clean—filled with warm lighting, tasteful artwork on the walls, and a soft carpet underfoot. Izagor wanted to take off her boots so she could feel the carpet with her feet, but instead she settled for kneeling down and rubbing a hand against the carpet. “So soft…" She bent even lower and rubbed her cheek against the velvety carpet.

The man who had opened the door for her was watching through the glass, and now he looked like he was wondering if he should have denied her entry. Izagor jumped to her feet and walked away before he could change his mind. She strolled up towards the large desk (the front desk, presumably) where there was another man wearing the exact same attire as the doorman.

As the receptionist looked up, his eyes went wide in a shocked expression that was becoming increasingly familiar. Izagor could see that he was looking over her with an incredulous face; Mason had said there was nothing wrong with her body and she looked like a normal human, so there must have been something wrong with her attire. Were all humans so obsessed about clothing that people would stare at you for wearing the wrong type? The clothes she was wearing (Mason's clothes) were only a little bit dirty from the few hours spent flying.

“Salutations," Izagor began by saying. She raised her arms and was about to rock them left and right in a wing salute, but then she realized that humans might not understand this gesture. She dropped her arms and just smiled instead.

“Good…evening! How…might I be of service to you?" asked receptionist, speaking slowly and frowning in a confused manner.

“Thank you for the offer, but I do not need you to service me. What I need is a room. To stay in. For tonight. Thank you!" Izagor tried smiling again.

The receptionist nodded and took out a piece of paper from a tray. “Certainly, ma'am. Now if you would be so kind as to give me your name?"

“My name is Izagor."

The receptionist wrote this down. “Full name, please?" he prompted further, looking up from his paper.

“What?"

“I need your full name for our recordkeeping purposes. May I know your family name?"

Izagor paused and pondered what she would do. Her full name was Izagor the Brown (or Izagor the Reddish-Brown if you wanted to be very formal), but this sounded a bit too much like a dragon name and not a human name. Also the man had asked for a family name—perhaps he was asking for her clan's name? Or the name of her parents? But those wouldn't sound like human names either. After a few seconds of quick thinking, Izagor decided that the safest bet was to just use the one human family name she already knew—Mason's. “Uh…Tolovius. My name is Izagor…Tolovius. Yes…"

“Of course. Excellent. Now, Ms Tolovius, we have several rooms currently vacant, including single, double, twin, triple, and suite. Which of these would you be interested in?" The receptionist picked up a flyer and showed it to her.

Izagor knew how to read and write draconic runes, but she had no experience with human written text—she couldn't understand any of the words written on the flyer. She just pointed a finger at one of the pictures which showed a room with a pair of beds, but then she realized that this might look suspicious if she was supposed to be alone, so she switched to the picture which showed one large bed. “Yes. This…this one."

“The double bedroom—excellent choice. Breakfast tomorrow is complimentary. Give the time of year, these are our standard rates here on a per night basis." The receptionist took out a separate piece of paper with more writing, but Izagor couldn't read it anyway, so she just stared blankly and nodded.

“Yes… Wait! Which way is the room? I need a room with windows facing…um…" Izagor suddenly realized that in becoming a human, she had lost one of her most basic instincts—dragons had internal compasses which helped them fly, but now her natural sense of cardinal direction was gone. Mason would be looking out for her to signal from one of the rooms on the hotel's front face, but she didn't actually know what direction this was. Instead she just pointed a finger over her shoulder. “That way. The windows need to be that way."

The receptionist took this request in stride. “I believe that can be arranged…yes, we have a room available facing the front street on level three. However, for new guests who have not stayed with us before, our establishment requires a deposit of two gold faces which will be refunded on checkout, minus fees."

“I have this…" Izagor opened the coin pouch and poured out all its contents onto the desk, forming a small pile of gold.

The receptionist raised an eyebrow. From the dozen or so coins, he slid two into a metal strongbox on the desk. “Very good, ma'am. Now if you could just sign here on this form, please."

Izagor took the offered pen, held it in her clenched fist, and scrawled randomly at the spot indicated. She normally used the tip of her tail as an ink brush if she needed to write, but her tail currently didn't exist so this would have to do. After some consideration, she put down the pen and began pushing her scattered coins back into the coin pouch.

The receptionist kept his face neutral. “All settled then. Your room is already made up and prepared. Do you also require dinner? Our restaurant will remain open for two more hours."

“Yes! Although first I wish to see the room, so I may inspect the windows and the balcony, and stare out of them at the sky. Please. Thank you." Izagor smiled again as the receptionist got to his feet and led her away. In her opinion, she had handled things very well.

The receptionist adjusted his collar and mentally added this encounter to the long list of strange and unusual guests he had handled. “Foreigners…" he muttered under his breath. “Ahem! This way please."

About half an hour later, Mason finally landed on the balcony where he had seen Izagor standing and waving to him. It had taken him longer than expected to find somewhere dark to take off so he could fly to the hotel room without getting spotted, but now he was here…and the room was empty. Had he gotten the wrong room? But the lights were all on, and the place appeared to have been recently cleaned. “Hello?" he called.

“Mason? In here!" came the muffled reply from the bathroom.

Mason poked his head into the bathroom and found that Izagor was staring at herself in the mirror. “Izagor…what are you doing?"

“Call me Izzy." Izagor was tilting her head to peer at her face from various angles, and she ran a hand over the freckles which covered her cheeks. “Look at this! That human in the mirror is…me. I'm so weird. As a dragon I did had a few spots, but they were on my side, not my snout. And now there's all this…hair. It keeps getting in the way of my face."

Mason found himself likewise captivated by his own appearance—he had never actually gotten a chance to see his own reflection, and now it was fascinating to see how much he had changed. His mouth and nose had stretched into a pointed muzzle, but his face was surprisingly still capable of rudimentary expression. He could still smile or frown, conveying some level of emotion. Two short white horns sprouted from the rear of his skull pointing backwards, and there was some sort of finned crest that ran from the top of his head down his neck. As he watched, his crest rose slightly; Mason found this amusing, which only made his crest rise up even further. He reached up to try and pat it down, but it kept springing up. The feeling was oddly pleasant. “This is very weird."

Izagor bared her lips and stared at her teeth. “So weird. Being human isn't as horrible as I first imagined, but I can't wait to change back to normal. Good thing we'll make it to your home town tomorrow, or we would have to teach each other how to use our bodies." Noticing Mason's current focus, her lips pulled back into a toothy grin “I see you've discovered your crest—don't play with it too much or it'll fall off."

Mason snatched his paw away, and he felt his crest drooping from that thought. “Really?"

“No. That's just a myth told to fledglings because they like to play with their crest when it first grows in." Izagor reached out her hand and gently stroked Mason's crest, which made it perk back up involuntarily. “Can you tell why?" Tiptoeing and leaning towards him, she licked the sensitive membrane.

Mason moaned softly as a tingle ran down his back, and the sensation seemed to echo into a warm pleasure in his underbelly. “Oh…! Uh, wait…"

Suddenly he felt very embarrassed, but Izagor seemed amused by his vocal reaction. “You like that, don't you? Haha, too easy. That's not the only place fledglings discover they like to play with…"

“Shall—shall we get dinner?" Mason suggested, trying to change the topic. “I'm rather hungry."

“Yes! Good idea. I am hungry too." Izagor agreed; her face lighting up at the thought of sating her appetite. “How do we get food? Are there nearby hunting grounds, or does the food come prepared by the hotel?"

“You can go to the restaurant downstairs and order some food from there. Bring some back for me too—since I can't be seen, I'll just wait here and maybe take a shower."

“Ok! I'll be back soon." Izagor left the room to go get dinner, leaving Mason alone.

Mason tried to take a shower.

The soapy suds and warm water still felt just as pleasant against his scales as they might have against his skin, but he soon discovered that even the hotel room's larger than average bathroom wasn't quite enough space for a dragon to take a proper bath. He could curl his tail around his legs, but washing his wings proved to be quite troublesome—there was only enough space for him to unfurl one wing at a time, so he had to stand outside the shower stall and stick his wing inside. This let to water bouncing off the flight surface and splashing everywhere.

Other than his wings, he could wash the rest of his body just fine, and Mason took this time alone to make a proper examination of his anatomy. His tail was unexpectedly dextrous, and he could actually use it to grab and pick up objects if he concentrated. He also discovered that his claws could retract into his forepaws, like a cat. One particular part of his body was even more unusual—under his tail and between his legs, his groin was strangely featureless other than a narrow slit which looked almost feminine. Mason didn't know if this was a normal trait for a male dragon or if the transformation had somehow altered him into a female, but he had no plans to clarify this with Izagor.

Turning off the water, he stepped out of the shower and started using towels to dry himself. His bath must have taken longer than he realized, for suddenly there was a loud crashing sound from the door which made him jump. It sounded like there had been an attempt to kick the door open, but who would kick a door before simply trying the doorknob?

The room door began to click and shudder as someone tried to open it—someone who clearly had very little experience using doorknobs. The door swung open seconds later, revealing a brown-haired woman carrying a large plate with food piled on top. Izagor was grinning widely, and her mouth and hands were stained with various sauces. “Did you know they just let you eat as much food as you want? It's called a buffet, apparently, and it doesn't make any sense. How do they pay for it all? Anyway I brought some for you."

Mason relaxed as the door swung shut behind Izagor, ensuring that no passing guests or hotel staff would notice there was a dragon in the room. “I feel like I'm starving. Thanks." He trotted over as Izagor put the plate down on the table. “Did you bring a fork and spoon?"

Izagor tilted her head. “A what and what?"

“Fork and spoon. Metal utensils you use to eat the food so that your hands don't get dirty," Mason explained, gesturing with his paws.

“Or so that's what those were for. Why not just use your paws to eat?" Izagor stuck out her tongue and licked her fingers. “Do humans not do this? Maybe that was why everyone in the food room was staring at me. Whoops. They also stared at me when I took all this food upstairs, but they didn't say anything."

Mason could easily visualize Izagor openly flouting social conventions inside the restaurant, much to the horror or amusement of the other guests and the wait staff—it was surprising she had even passed the dress code. He sat down beside the table and began eating. There were various kinds of meat and vegetables, and lots of bread and pastries. “Mm. This is madness—I'm a dragon who's snuck into a hotel, except you're the dragon who snuck into a hotel."

Izagor snatched a morsel from Mason's plate. “You see what happens when you mess around with sorcery? If you hadn't tried to make a deal with that demon, we would both be in our normal bodies right now. I would still have my wings, and you would still have your…hands or whatever it is you like about your human body."

Mason took a bite from a baked potato. “I thought you said you were an adventure-seeking traveller? Surely this counts as an adventure."

“I'm not complaining. If you hadn't been messing around with sorcery, we would never have met. And just look at this…" Izagor stopped licking her fingers and wriggled them instead. “I have fingers. Hahaha. They're so manipulative! I can poke things. It's actually kind of fun to be human. You all just go around eating buffets and riding trains and doing silly human things." She walked over to the room's sole bed and sprawled out on the large mattress. “This is so soft!"

“I'm glad you see the benefits of being human. And I have to admit that being a dragon has a certain…liberty to it, what with the flying. It's fun." Even as he ate the food, Mason was feeling contemplative. “Honestly, that might be why I even bothered with this whole smuggling nonsense in the first place. Because I don't… I'm not trying to brag, but sorcerers make good gold—it wasn't a shortage of cash which drove me to try all this…this transforming myself to fly across the border. I just wanted to do something more exciting with my life. You know what I mean?" Mason glanced over to the bed, and what he saw made him cough and sputter.

“Don't eat so fast that you're choking yourself!" Izagor said. She didn't seem to realize the source of Mason's sudden distress, which was the fact that she was unbuttoning her shirt.

After a few more coughs, Mason managed to recover. “Izagor, what are you doing?"

“You can call my Izzy." Izagor raised her head off the bed to stare at him. “I'm just taking off all these clothes. They are very restrictive." She shrugged off her shirt and tossed it over the side of the bed, leaving her upper body completely exposed.

Mason was almost completely speechless. He was trying not to stare, and failing. “But…"

“You said humans need to wear clothes in public, but this room isn't a public space. So I'm taking them off." After kicking off her boots and socks, Izagor pulled off her pants and tossed all the clothing onto the floor. “This feels so much better." After so many hours, it felt like a delightful relief to have her skin no longer constricted by the garments. She rolled around on the bed, enjoying the sensation of air and soft clean fabric against her nude body.

Mason dropped his gaze so he was staring at the plate, and he busied himself with finishing off the food. Whatever he had been saying before had now completely slipped his mind. “Uh… Anyway, it should just be a short flight tomorrow. My house isn't directly at Klosk Harbour; it's a short distance away from the town."

At the moment, Izagor was distracted by the bedside table. There was a control knob embedded in the furniture, and rotating this knob changed the brightness of the pair of oil lamps hung in the ceiling, apparently by controlling the amount of oil being sent from a central pipeline. She was finding it tremendous fun to mess around with the lights and make them flicker—even at the lowest setting the lamps still had small flames and didn't go completely out. Dragons didn't have much interest in architecture, but the few structures they did construct would have been lit by magical crystals instead of oil lamps. “Look at this! That is so fun. Hehe. What were you saying? Oh right. Is your sorcerer's tower on the beachfront?"

Having just about finished his food, Mason went to go wash his paws in the bathroom sink. “I don't have a tower. Not counting the Royal Academy of Magic where there's one big shared tower, only the richest sorcerers can afford their own towers. I just live in a house, but it is within a short distance of the coast, yes."

“Lovely. Maybe I'll go for a swim after I've gotten my normal body back. Not that I resent being a human. You seem like a pretty decent person, and all our conversation as we were flying was very interesting." Izagor stopped playing with the lights and lay back on the bed. “It's been a long and…unusual day. We should get some rest."

“Agreed." Mason sat down on all fours, lying on the carpeted floor. “I'll sleep here. You can take the bed."

“What? Why don't we both take the bed? It's a big bed." Izagor shifted to the side and patted the mattress beside her. “I can't take up all this space even if I wanted to. There's no reason to let all this nice softness go to waste. Since you're paying for this bed, you might as well use it." She reached down and tugged Mason's tail.

Because she wasn't human, Mason assumed that Izagor didn't know that two humans of opposite genders usually wouldn't share a bed unless they were married—this was a simple matter of modesty and protecting honour, but explaining these complex social concepts seemed like it would take a lot of effort. And although Izagor resembled a naked woman, she was actually a dragon, so Mason mentally shrugged and climbed onto the bed beside her. “Alright, fine. It is a big bed…"

Back in his human body Mason's habit was to sleep on his back, so he flipped over into the more comfortable position he was used to. He had to partially unfurl his wings so he wasn't crushing them. “Good night Izagor."

“Good night Mason." Izagor dimmed the room's lights. She snuggled up beside Mason and used one of his wings as a blanket, enjoying the somewhat familiar feeling of warm scales rubbing against her exposed skin. It felt good—when was the last time she'd met another dragon, let alone gotten the chance to touch them at such close range? It had been more than a year since she had enjoyed physical intimacy with other.

Izagor could remember that last experience clearly—she had fantasized back to it many times, as she relieved her pent-up tension with her own tongue or paws during her time spent alone roaming the world. Her last partner had been a drake with scales of muted copper, and she'd met him as they both flew over a mountain range just within the outskirts of her clan's territory. The copper drake had been young, eager, and proud; not so different from her. As they flew past each other and exchanged names, he had roared a challenge—first to fly to the peak of the range's highest mountain would win. The winner would get…well they hadn't bothered to clarify that part, but Izagor had gladly accepted the challenge. They'd sprinted up the mountain side, riding thermals and furiously beating their wings to gain altitude—it was a joy to climb so high and so fast, racing to reach the top of the world.

Since this was her home territory, Izagor knew the winds and where the updrafts would form; she had taken the lead, but at the last moment she'd slowed down just enough so that the drake could pull ahead of her and be the first to land. It was only polite to allow him the illusion he had bested her, and his thrill and excitement had been contagious. Before either of them realized what was happening, they were tussling and playing like hatchlings on the snowy mountain top. Then suddenly Izagor had gotten the bold idea to lick the copper drake's neck crest, and he'd licked hers in retaliation, and then the licking had become something else. It had been delightfully sensual as their bodies slid and rubbed against each other as they shared pleasure at the very top of the world. Her wings had kicked up snow as she beat them against the ground, lost in the trawls of ecstasy as she roared out in sweet orgasmic release…

Izagor suddenly snapped back to reality where she was not currently a dragon, but her arousal was undeniable. All her recollecting had left her feeling warm and restless. She gently pushed aside Mason's wing, and cool air swept against her skin. The space between her legs had gone all sensitive, as had the lumps of fat on her chest, but pressing her body against Mason's side helped sooth this itch ever so slightly. It was conflicting to think that she was actually cuddling up beside a human and feeling this way, but her body cared little for this fact—it felt like she was resting against a young healthy drake, and in every way except his mind, Mason was a young healthy drake. She found his body attractive, and in all their hours spent talking together, Izagor had come to like Mason—human or not, he was intelligent and meticulous, yet also curious and complex. All this flying across human territory had forged a certain comradery between the two of them, and it had simply been fun talking with him. They could just chat so easily; it was like they had somehow connected and understood each other on a deeper level.

If he had been a dragon like her there would have been no issue, but now Izagor felt conflicted and nervous. What did Mason think of her? Did he enjoy their time together as she did, or would he rather be rid of her as quickly as possible? What would happen after tomorrow, once they had changed back to their usual forms? Even if he did enjoy her company, was the fact they were of different species simply an insurmountable barrier? Did he feel that desire which she did?

Izagor wanted to ask, but now she found herself lost for words. The room was dark and dim with just enough light that she could make out Mason's form. His eyes were closed and it was impossible to know whether he was awake or fully asleep. Ever so gently, Izagor moved her hand and let it rest lightly against his chest. The scale plates felt smooth and regular as she slowly slid her hand, moving lower, and lower, and lower. All the while she watched to see if he would react, but Mason's eyes remained closed and his face expressionless.

Her hand moved until finally it bumped against something warm and rigid. Izagor turned her head to stare at Mason's underbelly, where his phallus had sprung out of his genital slit and was proudly jutting upwards. It looked exactly like how a drake's penis should look like—a long tapered rod of smooth scale-less flesh with a series of soft ridges, narrowing to a point, but with a small flaring ridge a short distance behind the head. The tip was wet with a tiny bead of natural lubricant, as were some of the ridges near the base where it protruded from the slit which normally kept it contained.

Not quite daring to think about what she was doing, Izagor let her grip slide onto this sensitive reproductive organ. It felt warm and slightly squishy under her touch, with a layer of soft skin and flesh running over a rigid core of blood-engorged tissue. Was Mason reacting to her touch and her close presence, or was this just an involuntary reflex caused by some dream state? Izagor glanced back up to Mason.

His eyes were wide open and he was staring at her. Not a dream state, then.

Izagor swallowed nervously. “Oh! You're awake…"

Mason nodded slowly. “I am. What…what are you doing?" His tail was twitching and his neck crest was raised, but it was unclear which emotion this was from—confusion, amusement, arousal, shock, or some combination of the above.

“I was just…ah…hmm…you know, that's actually an excellent question." Izagor bit her lip, but she didn't let go of the phallus she was holding. “You remember what I said earlier about us having to teach each other how to use our bodies? Are you open to a little…uh…exploration?"

Mason said nothing for a while, and the silence dragged on for a moment as he considered her offer. Perhaps he was going through the same thought process which Izagor had worked through—wondering about whether it was improper to be attracted to a someone who was not actually a member of your own species, even if they were in the body of one. Eventually he broke out into a grin, and he moved a forepaw to touch her side. “Sure, why not? If…if that's what you want, I mean…"

That was all that needed to be said. Izagor leaned into the contact, enjoying the sensation as Mason gently caressed her skin. She began to stroke his length up and down, using the newfound dexterity of her hands to spread the natural lubricant the gently dripped from his tip and his slit. She worked her fingers around all his ridges, quickly coating them with slick fluid and making him thrill as she focused on the most sensitive parts of his anatomy. “Yes, right there…" he moaned.

Then when she felt they were both ready, Izagor pushed herself upwards and straddled Mason's body, resting her knees on the bed just below his wings. She placed her hands on his chest to maintain her balance, then she began to slide back and forth, rubbing her genitals against his. Mason wasn't actually penetrating her yet, but she could feel pleasure beginning to well up in her body as she humped his rigid length. She moved her hands from his chest to his wings, holding the leading edge like a handle to help her move her body.

Mason reached up with his paws, but instead of grabbing her hips in a tight mating hold, he began to massage and touch her chest. Did humans consider their mammary glands an erogenous zone? Izagor didn't know what Mason was doing, but the contact sent to spark her arousal even further. She knew that drakes were very sensitive right on their penile ridges, and Mason was definitely beginning to buck and squirm under her continued motions. Each ridge set off a small pulse of pleasure as they rubbed against her vulva.

Eventually the desire became too much to deny—Izagor halted her humping and moved upwards, pulling her hips away from Mason's underbelly and his phallus. He let out a soft grunt of disappointment which changed into a pleasured moan as she sat back down and his tip entered her. “Aww…oh! Yes…"

That was it—they had done the deed. He was inside her, and they were mating.

“Izzy, this feels extremely pleasant," Mason murmured, his gaze half-glazed over.

“My thoughts exactly," Izagor agreed. She continued to lower herself slowly, gradually taking more and more of Mason's erection into her. His phallus felt warm and wonderful inside her, filling her up in a delightfully satisfying way as each ridge slipped in and sent tingles running through her body. Izagor kept going until Mason had fully hilted himself inside her, then she resumed her humping motions from before, rocking forwards and backwards to stimulate them both.

The pleasure was undeniable, and the sensations coming from her groin felt largely similar to those Izagor had enjoyed whilst being a dragon, despite being in a human body. It was the periphery which was different—she had no wings to spread, but her skin was all sensitive and Mason was touching her chest and rear in a distinctly sexual way. Normally Izagor would have entwined her tail with her mating partner's but now she had no tail and Mason's tail curled around her leg. There was a certain amount of exoticness that came with savouring sex through a body that was so different from her usual.

Mason suddenly blinked and swallowed nervously, as if he had only just realized what was happening. “What…what are we doing? I'm a human and you're a dragon, except that now I'm a dragon and you're a human… And we're…"

“Shut up and worry about it later." Izagor leaned forwards, bringing her head closer to Mason's. She had been meaning to lick his crest, but Mason surprised her by touching his muzzle against her mouth in a kiss—such a gesture was not unheard of amongst dragons, and she opened her lips and let her tongue dart against his. A human tongue was so much shorter than a dragon's, so his tongue seemed to fill up her mouth as she tasted him and he tasted her. “Mason!" she gasped. The pleasure was building steadily inside her, rising like a gradual tide which she knew was coming. Her release was imminent unless they slowed or stopped, but neither of them wanted to do any such thing.

Izagor used a hand to rub and caress Mason's crest, patting his head and stroking his neck. A dragon's crest was made of the same sensitive membrane which made up the flight surfaces of their wings, and it was highly sensitive to the touch, to the point of being an erogenous zone. Mason's eyes rolled back in his head and his tongue dangled out the side of his mouth as Izagor rubbed his crest, even as she kept moving her hips in rhythmic motions over his phallus. “I think…I'm going to…" Mason muttered, sounding almost surprised.

On her part, Izagor was in no position to reply. She was lost in the warmth and pressure and the slick smooth friction of their coupling. Finally a tidal wave of sensation hit and swept over her whole body, exploding out from her core in repeated bursts of overwhelming satisfaction. “Ah…" She gasped softly and collapsed against Mason, her hips dropping flat against his underbelly and forcing him as deep as possible, while she bowed over and her hands clenched down on his wing and his neck. Her muscles clenched up repeatedly, squeezing down on Mason's phallus with shuddering, squeezing patterns. Again and again her orgasm kept going.

Even as pleasure blew away all conscious thought, she could hear Mason repeating her name over and over. “Izagor, Iza… Izzy…Izzy…! Izzy!" His hips jerked upwards, driving him just the tiniest bit deeper than before as he obeyed simple biological imperative, and she could feel his ridges all trying to flare out as he too enjoyed the end result of their coupling. Mason let out a groan as he poured himself into her depths, his body emptying out glands and vesicles to fill her with his seed.

It was a brief eternity of pleasure for them both. Izagor felt her orgasm wind down first, and soon after Mason relaxed under her and dropped his head back against the bed. She pulled herself off his slowly deflating phallus which was retreating back into his genital slit now that its job had been thoroughly accomplished. The air was rich with the smell of sex and sweat. A mixture of their bodily fluids stained both their groins, especially Mason's, but both dragon and human collapsed against each other and held the other close. Neither of them moved to clean themselves up or do anything other than snuggle. The mind-numbing intensity of what had just happened had left them both too drained.

No words were passed. Responsibility and being rational could just…wait till tomorrow. Soon enough, they fell asleep in each other's arms.

The next morning brought with it unpleasant stickiness and awkward thoughts. Mason awoke before the sun rose; he rarely slept too deeply, and waking up early was his usual daily routine. What with him being a dragon, it was probably best if they washed up and prepared to leave before the sun rose.

Izagor was curled up into a ball and sleeping on the opposite side of the bed—even the simply act of looking at her made Mason feel uncertain and confused. He hopped off the bed and went to the bathroom to wash himself up. He went into the shower and let the water blast him clean. The reduced dexterity of his paws caused some trouble when he tried to grab a toothbrush, but eventually he got himself all cleaned up. All the while he was thinking through what had happened the previous night, replaying the memory in his mind and trying to analyse it.

What had they done? He wasn't a virgin who had never before tasted intimacy, yet none of his previous experiences compared to what he had felt with Izagor. The intensity, the passion, and even those delightfully pleasured sounds she had made—he wanted more of it, but she was a dragon! She was a dragon with the body of an attractive human female, but still a dragon nonetheless! He'd just bedded a dragon, and it had been the best damn sex of his life. He didn't know how to feel about it or what he really wanted.

By the time Mason was done, he found Izagor awake as well and standing by the window, peeking through the curtains at the darkened street outside. He wanted to say something to her, but the words just didn't come to him. Izagor stayed just as quiet; they both exchanged minor pleasantries and quickly discussed their plan for the day, but no words were passed about what had transpired between them. In silent, unspoken agreement, they both would need to take some time to think about what they'd done.

Izagor washed herself up, then she'd reluctantly pulled on Mason's clothes (which were somewhat dirty) and went downstairs to pay for the hotel room. The hotel receptionist was already sitting at the front desk, looking far more ready to face the day than she was. “Good morning. Is everything alright?" he asked her.

“Yes…I'm just…wondering if I should regret some things I've done…" Izagor paid the hotel's fee and returned the key, then she headed back upstairs.

Mason opened the door to let her in. They opened the window and stepped out onto the balcony. Mason was wearing the leather harness from yesterday's smuggling trip, and Izagor climbed onto his back. As the sky started to glow with the light of dawn, they took to the skies for home.

They didn't talk much over the course of the hour-long flight, yet this silence felt natural and easy. Neither Izagor nor Mason tried to force a conversation; instead, they watched the rolling hills pass below them as they sky slowly came alight.

For Mason at least, it was very different seeing the landscape from above compared to seeing it from ground level. He was in a familiar region now, being so close to home, and soon his house came into view. His home was in a small forest running along the coastline, connected via a dirt road to the nearby town of Klosk Harbour. It was just a simple cottage located a few hundred meters inland from the ocean, but this was where he had lived for the past few years. “Home again," he said, as he landed in the garden which was overgrown with tall grass and wildflowers.

“So this is where your territory." Izagor slid off his back. “Do you live alone?"

“Yes. I sometimes stay in the in the Royal Academy of Magic when I'm working on more complicated projects with other sorcerers, but this is where I go to relax at the end of the week." Mason walked up to the front door and took out his key from the harness he was wearing.

Izagor turned around slowly, taking in the quiet atmosphere created by the forested trees around them, and the wind blowing in from the coast. “This is nice. I can smell the ocean. You have a nice house."

“Thank you. I bought it cheap just a few years ago; I've been thinking of renovating or even rebuilding the place, actually. I have a plan all drawn up, but I just haven't gotten the time." Unlocking the door, Mason strolled into his home and beckoned Izagor in. The sun was already rising, producing enough brightness that he didn't bother to light a lantern. “Welcome to my humble home. Sorry that it's a bit of a mess, but I wasn't expecting a guest. This is the main room, bedroom over there, kitchen there, and my study is there."

Izagor walked into the living room and looked around briefly. The place smelled of paper and wood, and it seemed quite tidy and minimalistic, almost to the point of looking barren. “Alright, so…how do we do this? How do we change back?"

“It's a simple plan. I'll summon the demon Kurzadakathan again and have him make a new transformation crystal. Come to my study—I do all my work there. I have a summoning circle in there too."

Mason headed into one of the adjacent rooms—the room was split into two. On one side was a desk covered with stacks of paperwork and various writing implements, while the other side was completely empty except for a couple of large concentric circles marked on the floor. Izagor sat on the cushioned chair behind the desk, while Mason picked up a thick stack of documents. “This is one of the copies I made of that transformation spell. I…uh…can't exactly hold a pen with these paws, but since the contract has already been written that doesn't matter."

“What should I do? I can't read those things," Izagor said.

“You don't need to do anything; I've done this many times before. Just sit back and watch the show." Walking to the other side of the room, Mason pointed a paw towards the two concentric circles on the ground. “The inner circle is the actual summoning circle which will create a portal to the otherworldly plane, while also acting as a defensive barrier which will contain the demon if it tries to act in a hostile manner. The outer circle is a separate enchantment which obscures the demon from seeing anything else in the room. It's not truly necessary, but it's extra security. I like to take that precaution just to make doubly sure the demon doesn't get to see any other contracts it's not supposed to." He took a deep breath, expecting it to be one of his last spent in this draconic body. “Are you ready? I'm going to summon Kurzadakathan."

Now that the moment was almost upon them, Izagor found herself even more conflicted than ever. Of course she wanted to go back to being a dragon, but at the same time she felt like she would miss her human body, and she would very much miss Mason when she flew off. “I…I'm ready. Let's change back."

Mason nodded solemnly. He glanced to a poster stuck to the wall, which contained the standard list of instructions for summoning a demon—he had memorized how things worked until he could do it with eyes closed, but looking to his list helped him get into the mood. Though he had summoned demons countless times before, he had never done it as a dragon, and the flow of magic through his body felt subtly different from usual.

The sorcerer stepped into the perimeter of the outer circle. He sat down on his haunches and raised a forepaw to point at the inner circle. “Kurzadakathan! Accursed Destroyer, Twisted Fiend, Being of Nightmare and Deceit! From the Otherworldly Plane, I thus invoke thee."

Izagor held her breath as Mason said the ritual words. She leaned forward over the desk, anxious to see what the summoning would look like…but nothing happened.

“Hm. Did I say that wrong? Uh… Kurzadakathan, I thus invoke thee!" Mason repeated, but still there was nothing, so he tried again using an ancient magical language which was preferred by certain sorcerers (mostly the elitist snobs). “Kurzadakathan. Kurzadakathan. Kurzadakathan. Vanokepo cica tella delliriz simat cica. Kurzadakathan. Vigta."

But still nothing. Mason's neck crest drooped flat and he turned to Izagor. “This…this isn't working for some reason."

“Is it me? Should I step outside…?" Izagor suggested, wondering if her presence was interfering with summoning spell or perhaps Mason's focus.

“No, it can't be you. Usually I get it right on the first time, but after six calls? Something else is wrong. The circle isn't even glowing. There's no energy transfer at all." Mason tilted his head. “Can't be the summoning circle, and it can't be that the otherworldly plane is suddenly closed for business. Even the local overworld flux can't interfere with a summoning circle of this classification. So it must be something with my magic? But I…oh I get it. I think I understand."

“What's the problem?"

“The summoning circle is calibrated for my body as a human. It won't respond to my magic while I'm a dragon. The problem is obvious when you consider the dimensional differential equations—they won't sum to zero." Mason shook his head. “It's a bit of a paradox—I can't use my circle until I transform back, but I can't transform back until I use my circle."

“So what do we do?"

“Let me just think about this. Maybe I could modify the circle and recalibrate it? But that would require fully recalculating the wavefunctions since the general solutions are no longer approximately valid."

Dragons used magic intuitively by channelling their willpower to focus the power that ran through their blood; in comparison, humans used verbal spells, special hand gestures, and some even used wands or staffs to access the realm of the arcane. Therefore, Izagor wasn't sure what Mason was talking about. “And…can you do that?" she asked.

“It's not impossible, it's just the sort of thing which the academy would devote an entire research project to. If I had ten weeks and a couple of graduate assistants helping me, then sure I could recalculate this summoning circle to work for a dragon. But that's far too long. There has to be a simpler way." After some consideration, Mason realized the simplest way forward. “You have to do it. You've got a human body, so the circle will accept your power."

Izagor wondered if she had misheard. “What? Me? I'm not a sorcerer! I can't do it."

“You can. All you need to do is say the same words I did, then talk to the demon and get it to carry out the contract. The two main challenges in sorcery are drawing the summoning circle and preparing a proper contract that is rigorous and unbreakable—I've already done both for you."

This sudden idea—that she would need to be the one casting the spell—made Izagor uneasy. “Are you serious? You want me to summon a demon and deal with it? That's human magic!"

Mason nodded. He walked over to the desk and put the contract down. “Exactly. You're a human right now, but I'm not. I'm completely serious about this. Summoning is much easier than you think. I'll be right here outside the outer circle—you'll be able to see me, but the demon won't. The only catch is that the contract has to be written by you for it to be valid, so you'll need to copy my documentation onto fresh pieces of paper."

“Mason, I can't read human runes or script!"

“But you can write, yes? Then just use your natural language—dragon speak or whatever. The demon will understand it as long as you do. I'll read off this contract and explain to you everything so you can write it down."

Looking over the thick sheaf of paper, Izagor wasn't convinced. “All this? That would take us days, if not weeks to transcribe and copy all that over."

Mason took one single sheet of paper from the top of the stack. “Alright, maybe you could just copy over the executive summary. I've summed up all the important parts of the contract, and there's a minor clause here which requires new contracts to follow previous similar contracts if ambiguity is involved. Here, take this pen. I'll just read out the summary to you, and you pen down the words. We can do this."

Working together, they started copying over the demonic contract. Izagor had to write slowly, moving the pen in deliberate strokes as she grasped it with her dextrous but untrained hand. Speaking calmly and slowly, Mason went over the whole contract with her, explaining what it did, as well as the requirements and failsafes it included. It took them almost a whole hour just to copy over the two paged document, translating human written language into the flowy characters of draconic script. Looking back over the contract she had just created, Izagor felt that her writing was ugly but still barely readable—draconic characters were meant to be written with smooth strokes of the tail, not by a pen clutched in the hand of a near-illiterate human.

Mason had her read out the contract and explain to him what it did, just to be sure she had done the copying correctly, then he nodded and gestured for her to step into the outer circle. “I think that'll be sufficient. Let's try this again. I'll be right here beside you just outside the circle—the demon won't hear or see me, but you can. I'll talk you through the process."

Izagor stared at the contract she was holding, then she turned to Mason. “What do I do?"

“Summon the demon, then order it to carry out the contract. It might try to threaten you or coerce you, but stay firm and ignore it until it agrees to carry the contract. Once the contract is signed, the demon will draw some energy from the circle, create the crystal, and return to the otherworldly plane. At no point should you offer it information or promises of any kind—just insist that you want this contract carried out."

“Ok, ok." Izagor crossed her hands and steeled herself. She stepped into the outer circle. “I can do this. Let's do this! What was the spell supposed to be?"

“Raise your hand towards the inner circle," Mason said.

Izagor raised her hand, and suddenly a surge of magic rushed out of her body. The circle began to glow, with the inscriptions written into it beginning to shimmer and shift. “Is that normal?"

Mason remained outside both circles. “It's normal. That's the summoning circle energizing by taking some of your magic so it can create the defensive wards which will contain the demon. Now when you're ready, just say the demon's name—Kurzadakathan. Pronounced as ker-zah-dah-kah-than."

“Kurzadakathan," Izagor said, and instantly the summoning circle flashed in response. Tiny motes of light appeared inside the circle, floating around like dust.

Mason nodded his approval. “You've done it. The demon is coming. Just remember what I told you—no new deals, no bargaining, just the contract exactly as written."

The light flecks began to spin and swirl as if caught in a whirlpool—they coalesced and collapsed into a sphere in the centre which glowed like a miniature sun. Beams of energy shot out from this glowing sphere, spinning round and round like a lighthouse sweeping across the room. Izagor found the sight beautiful yet otherworldly.

Suddenly the sphere of light became a sphere of flesh—Kurzadakathan took the appearance of a gigantic, horrible-looking, bloodshot eyeball which floated in the air. The beams of light swept together into a single particle beam focused directly on Izagor, tracing her movements even as she tried to avoid it. The summoning circle stopped the beam before it touched her. “Is that supposed to happen?"

Mason didn't even blink. “It's normal."

“Ok…"

“He's trying to kill you. Typical demon behaviour."

“What?" Before Izagor could clarify further, the giant eyeball stopped firing the particle beam and rolled itself passive-aggressively. Then abruptly everything went dark and there was a figure in the middle of the inner circle, sitting on the floor with legs crossed—Kurzadakathan the demon.

Compared to the spectacular display of light, Izagor found the demon almost underwhelming—it looked almost like an ordinary human in every aspect, wearing a long-sleeved shirt and pants that were completely black. “A new voice calls me, and I answer." Kurzadakathan looked up and stared at Izagor. “I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting. Your summoning circle is most impressive. What is your name, mighty sorceress?"

Mason spoke quickly before Izagor could say anything. “Don't answer that. Demons can instantly discern the names of mortals—he's testing you to see how much you know about summoning and how cooperative you're going to be. Just order him to sign the contract. Let the edge of the paper pass into the inner circle."

Izagor felt incredibly unnerved by this whole activity, but Mason's advice helped calm her down—she didn't turn to look at him, but knowing he was standing right behind her gave her strength. She raised her hand, holding up the demonic contract she had written. “I have a contract for you to sign."

Kurzadakathan smiled, but the gesture showed a few too many teeth. “I see that, Izagor the Brown, I see that. Come let me take a closer look." The demon took the paper from her and peered over it. “My, what strange handwriting you have. This is the language of…dragons…? Yes, dragons. What an interesting choice. Many sorcerers like to use the ancient language of magic, but writing a contract using the language of dragons is not something I see very often. Ah, and I see what this contract is for! I see why you wrote it so—it is only fitting that you would learn the writing of dragons if you want to turn yourself into one." The demon flipped over the paper and read the other page. “Why would you want to turn yourself into a dragon?"

“Don't answer that either. You can threaten to banish Kurzadakathan if he doesn't want to sign the contract," Mason said.

“I'm not telling you that. Sign the contract or I'll banish you," Izagor told the demon.

Kurzadakathan was still sitting on the floor, cross legged. He tilted his head in amusement. “Will you really? So impatient! I'll sign if that's what you want. I see you've specified a payment of…four morts of energy from the circle. How boring! I can get energy from anyone. Why don't we trade in information? Surely you know that information is far more valuable commodity. Would you like a free sampling?"

Izagor crossed her arms and tried to look insistent. She didn't know exactly what a 'mort' was, but Mason had said earlier that it was just a unit of magical energy. “I'm not telling you anything. The contract says four morts, so…so that's what it's going to be."

“Really? Is that what you want?" Kurzadakathan snapped his fingers and suddenly a pen appeared in his hand. He placed the contract down on the floor and put his pen on the line, but he didn't sign it just yet. He started twirling the pen around his fingers, then suddenly he pulled back his hand but the pen remained in place, spinning in the air. “That's not what I see in you, though. Your soul is so complex—I see many things in it, things which even you may not know. I can see that this particular contract is of particular, personal, importance to you, not merely some hired work done for gold or favour. But yet I also see something else—your desire is conflicted. What do you really want?"

Neither Izagor nor Mason said anything, and the demon smiled again. “Young sorceress, I can see insecurity in you. You don't like your body as it is, so you wish to change it because you think it will be better if you alter yourself into another form. Yet…you have other desires too. You are attracted to someone, and you worry that in changing your form you might lose any chance of him being attracted back to you. Am I reading you right?"

It took all of Izagor's effort to keep her face still, and not to glance behind her to see Mason's expression. “The contract…says…it says you can take some energy from the circle. That is the payment."

“That's what it says, but that's not what you want. No, you don't just want a transformation crystal; you also want information on whether to use it. I could tell you what you want to know—does your acquaintance like you for who you are, or for what you are? Will you be happier using this crystal, or not? Is your body that important to you, or is love?"

Irritation suddenly flashed across Izagor's mind. Who was this twisted creature from the otherworldly plane to lecture her on how she would live her life? It was patronizing beyond belief for Kurzadakathan to act as if he could understand what she truly wanted better than she herself could. “I said: sign the contract or I'll banish you and try again with some other demon that doesn't talk so much!"

“Deny it if you want, but know that you are only lying to yourself." Kurzadakathan shrugged his shoulders. “So be it. We can do it your way, boss lady." He snatched his pen out of the air and scribbled his name on the signature line and slid the contract back out of the summoning circle. He offered his pen to Izagor, but Mason spoke up quickly.

“Don't take that. Don't even touch it. Just use your own pen."

Izagor used the pen she'd written the contract with and signed on her own line.

Mason breathed a silent sigh of relief. It seemed that he and Izagor had some serious things to discuss with each other, but only once the demon had held up his end of the deal. “That should be it. Kurzadakathan will create the crystal and then return to the otherworldly plane. Hand him the contract and we should be done here."

“I must say—this is a very detailed contract. Very efficient, but so detailed. Few sorcerers are so meticulous." Still sitting on the floor cross-legged, Kurzadakathan took back the contract from Izagor. “I had a contract just like this one only a few days ago…or was that a few years? Time is such a mortal concept. But now it's time to hold up my end of the deal. First, my payment…" The summoning circle flashed with energy as the demon pulled energy from it. “And then your half." Kurzadakathan clasped his hands together and crushed up the contract into a paper ball. When he unfolded it, a pale white crystal tumbled out and bounced onto the floor. “There you have it. This is what you wanted, isn't it?"

Izagor saw that the crystal looked just like the one which had transformed her into a human, but before she could relax, Mason drew in a sharp gasp of breath. “Something's not right," he realized, “the demon should have been banished once the contract is completed."

Kurzadakathan was still sitting inside the summoning circle. “No," continued the demon, “actually this crystal is not what you wanted, but it's what you asked for. Or to be more precise, it's what you thought you asked for. You had such a good contract, but you forgot one basic thing. So basic I could hardly even believe it when I first read your contract. Do you want to know what it is? Here, watch me repeat this trick—take a closer look." The demon crumpled up the contract and created a second crystal, identical to the first. The summoning circle flashed again. “Still no clue, you clever sorceress? Pay more attention. Let me show it to you again." The scrunched-up ball of paper collapsed into a tiny glowing pin-prick of light, and the summoning circle flashed as Kurzadakathan created a third crystal, appearing out of thin air and landing on the floor.

“What are you doing? Stop that. The contract said one crystal." Izagor was no expert on summoning, but even she could realize that something had gone very wrong. The summoning circle was flashing continuously as Kurzadakathan created more and more crystals, forming a small pile on the floor.

Mason felt his skin (his scales) grow cold. An uncontrolled summoning was the sort of thing every sorcerer had to be prepared for, but which they all hoped would never happen. “No, no, no. Our contract was wrong somehow. Get out of there, Izagor!" He scrambled to the side of the room, where a crossbow was hanging from the wall. In the event that a summoning went wrong, the weapon could be used to perform an emergency banishment—the crossbow was loaded with a bolt cast from an alloy of telanium and silver. The projectile would have no special effect if fired at humans or other mortals (beyond the standard effect of inflicting high-speed penetrative ballistic trauma), yet even the slightest touch of this metal would instantly banish a being of the otherworld.

“The contract said one crystal, but the contract never said it could only be done once. Perhaps you should pay more attention to such technicalities in the future. In another life, perhaps." Each time a new crystal was created, the summoning circle flicked as four morts of energy was drawn from it—slowly weakening the defensive wards every time. Although originally completely transparent, the half-dome which formed the summoning circle was beginning to grow cloudy as it ran out of power to sustain itself. Now it looked like Kurzadakathan was sitting behind milky glass, creating more and more crystals.

Mason's paws were unwieldly as he held the crossbow, and he had to awkwardly balance on his hindlegs. It was hard for him to work his fingers into the trigger mechanism, and even harder for him to properly aim. “The demon's breaking free! Get out of the circle now!" When Mason tried to pull back the charging handle, the weapon slipped out of his grip and tumbled to the floor. “Izzy!"

Suddenly realizing the danger, Izagor tried to step backwards out of the outer circle, but Kurzadakathan was faster. In a motion that was inhumanly smooth, he twisted to his feet and slammed his clenched fist against the barrier of the summoning circle. The spell shattered with a tremendous rumble, shaking the whole house as a crack appeared in the floor and splitting the summoning circle into two. Mason had been trying to pick up the crossbow, but he dropped it once again as the floor shook. Izagor also stumbled and dropped into a half crouch, but Kurzadakathan stood upright and unshaken.

“Contract complete," snarled the demon. He opened his fist and gestured. A flash of white light flew from palm and sent Izagor flying back across the room. She crashed against the wall and tumbled to the ground, and the world went dark.

Out of complete blackness came an explosion of meaningless colour, swirling around in lines and strange patterns. Izagor's eyes were open and she could perceive shapes and colours, yet somehow she couldn't actually see anything. A huge swatch of light blue colour took up most of her vision, but it took a few long seconds for her to realize that she was staring at the open sky. More objects started to resolve themselves—green and brown lines turned into trees, and a moving mass of grey turned into a drake who was leaning over and shaking her body. “Oh, no, no, no… Izagor? Izagor, can you hear me? Please, please don't be dead."

“I'm not dead. Are you dead?" Izagor murmured. She glanced around and realized that she was lying on the forest floor. She could smell the sea breeze again, but strange rumbling noises were coming from somewhere nearby. “Mason? What? How…?"

Mason let his forehead rest against her shoulder. “Thank the emperor. I thought you were gone for sure. I think…I think you stopped breathing for a moment when Kurzadakathan hit you with that death spell. It should have stopped your heart instantly."

“Only a fool would try to kill a dragon with magic. We're mortal, but still creatures of magic. It's like trying to drown a fish." Izagor glanced down and remember that she wasn't actually a dragon at the moment. A stinging, tingling sensation was running through her whole body from the magic that had tried to kill her, but perhaps some innate part of her still remembered that she was a dragon and not a human. “Did the summoning go wrong?"

“Yeah. Generally, the demon shouldn't be allowed to try and murder the sorcerer. Sorry. I must have forgotten a clause relating to the demonic contract termination, and that allowed Kurzadakathan to break the summoning circle. It's a rookie mistake."

Izagor patted Mason's neck. “It's ok. It might also have been my bad writing. To be honest, I half-expected something like this to happen."

“Regardless of how it happened, I should have… I had a plan even for a failed summoning. There was a plan. I always have a plan for everything…" Mason shook his head—a failed summoning was highly dangerous, but also very embarrassing for a sorcerer of his experience. “I had a crossbow made using a telanium alloy which banishes demons on contact. It was supposed to be my backup plan in the unlikely event that a demon breaks free, but these paws are too… I couldn't aim. Then when you got blasted I just…ran. I threw you over my back and ran out here as fast as I could. We're out in the forest, just a short distance from my house."

“We're both alive and uninjured. It could be worse," Izagor said, trying to sound optimistic. “What's that noise?"

Mason turned to stare into the forest where repeated booming noises were coming from; the closest sound Izagor could match it with was stones being smashed against each other. “Kurzadakathan has, ah, he's broken completely free of the summoning circle. He appears to be in the process of demolishing my house." Mason chuckled quietly, but there was little humour in his tone. “Hmm. At least he's focused on my property and not the nearby town. Once the guild hears about this, I'll probably have my sorcery licence revoked for allowing such a dangerous demon to escape."

“Well we can't have that, can we?" Izagor got to her feet and brushed herself off. “So what's the plan now? You always have a plan, right?"

“There is no plan." Mason shook his head. “Or at least, it won't be my plan anymore. I'll fly over to the town and contact the local Magician's Guild office. They'll dispatch a hunter-killer team to handle Kurzadakathan."

“Why do we need to rely on them? Why do we just banish that demon ourselves? We can do it."

Mason looked uneasy, but he didn't immediately refuse this plan. “Trying to fight a demon is dangerous."

“A bit dangerous, maybe, but you also said you would lose your licence if this heard about it, so it seems to me the solution is we banish that demon before anyone from your Magician's Guild realizes what's happening. Simple enough."

“There's nothing simple about banishing a freed demon. The guild rules are that they will overlook minor demons escaping if the sorcerer acts quickly and banishes them right away, but this is not minor. Kurzadakathan is not some imp or low-level creature; we are talking about a seriously powerful demon—"

“Who has tried to kill me once, and failed," Izagor pointed out.

“All the more reason to not give him a second chance."

“Alright, how about this—let's go back to your house and see if we can grab that banishing crossbow you were talking about. If it's too dangerous we'll back off, but at least we can see if there's a chance we handle this situation on our own. We summoned the demon, so we should be the ones who banished it. Does that sound like a good plan to you?"

“I don't know…" Mason said, but this didn't sound like a refusal.

“Alright, let's do it. We can get some…uh…assessment of the situation. Reconnaissance. Here's the plan! Get the crossbow, banish the demon, save your house. Onwards!" Izagor started creeping back towards Mason's house, moving sneakily (or at least, trying) from tree to tree. Mason shook his head, but he followed after her regardless.

As they came to the forest clearing, it quickly became obvious that one part of the plan had already failed—Mason's house was in ruins, having been quickly reduced to rubble by Kurzadakathan. The demon was still in a vaguely humanoid form, although now its whole body was wrapped in fire and it stood more than thrice as tall as a normal human, rising up out of the building like a flaming giant.

Hiding behind a tree trunk, Mason and Izagor got to watch as Kurzadakathan punched and kicked the remaining walls of the house with lumbering brutish rage; not content with merely knocking apart the structure, but apparently intent on reducing the whole place to dust. “There's not much house left to save," Izagor muttered.

“At least he's so focused on demolishing my house that he hasn't noticed us." Mason spoke too soon, for right at that instant the demon grabbed something out of the rubble and flung it in their direction.

“Watch out!" yelled Izagor. She and Mason both scrambled out of the way as a stony chunk of wall crashed into the bush they'd been hiding behind.

Mason darted behind a tree for cover, but when he glanced around he realized that Izagor had run in a different direction. “Izagor! Let's back off!" He hurried pulled back his head as another piece of rubble impacted against his tree, shaking it.

Izagor did not back off. “It's okay, we can do this! Mason, I need you to breathe fire and keep that demon distracted!"

“What?! How? I can't breathe fire!"

“Are you an ice dragon then? Just breathe something at him!"

“I'm not an ice dragon either! I'm human, remember? I don't know how to breathe anything!"

“Oh." Izagor brushed her hair away from her face as she considered this. “When this is all over and we've banished that demon, remind me to teach you."

“Banished the…? I thought the plan was to play it safe?" yelled Mason.

“Change of plans! Just keep him distracted." Izagor leapt out from behind her tree and darted from point to point, quickly sprinting around the forest clearing to try and circle Mason's house.

Kurzadakathan was bellowing out barely-coherent curses as he flung bits of rock and rubble at Mason, but it appeared that the demon's focus was entirely on the dragon. “He's got a good throwing arm," Mason muttered to himself. Leaves and branches pelted him from above as the tree took impact after impact, until finally it could take no more and began to topple over slowly. Mason hurriedly sprinted to try and find some new cover; he dodged left and right as Kurzadakathan continued to toss debris in his direction. With a tremendous crash, the falling tree landed on the forest floor.

Izagor had circled around the clearing by now. Kurzadakathan was facing away from her and still busy with Mason, so she sprinted into the remains of Mason's house and searched for the room where they'd done the summoning. “Come on, come on…" It was hard to tell rooms apart with most of the house demolished, but backtracking through the path of the demon's destruction led Izagor back to the original point where Kurzadakathan had first been summoned.

Finally she spotted the glint of metal on the floor—she hurriedly pushed away rubble to uncover the crossbow…which was snapped in two pieces. The telanium bolt was nowhere to be seen, and the crossbow itself was an unusable wreck. Izagor dropped the broken weapon. “So much for that plan…"

Suddenly she heard Mason yell. “Izzy!!"

It appeared the Mason was having difficulty with holding Kurzadakathan's attention. Izagor hurriedly ducked away as a floor lamp came spinning through the air to crash into where she'd just been standing. She had to vault and climb over the debris as she scrambled to get out of the house, but Kurzadakathan started chasing after her, taking wide steps and making loud roaring noises as he kicked his way through the rubble.

“This might have been a bad idea…" Izagor muttered. She glanced over her shoulder and saw that Kurzadakathan was almost on top of her. The demon raised two giant fists wrapped in fire and swung them down towards her. But just before the blow connected, Kurzadakathan suddenly stumbled forwards and missed.

Mason had come running up from behind the demon, carrying a large tree branch in his jaws with which he had just smacked the back of the demon's knees. The leaves on the tree branch immediately smouldered and began to catch fire on contact with Kurzadakathan's burning body; Mason tossed aside the branch and dashed forward towards Izagor while the demon was still trying to recover. “This isn't working! Let's leave!"

“Good plan." Izagor hurriedly climbed onto Mason's back, clutching onto the harness which he was still wearing. The drake leapt up into the air and spread his wings. Flapping as hard as he could, Mason desperately tried to gain altitude and leave the forest clearing. He was focused on flying, but he did spare one brief second to glance behind and see what Kurzadakathan was doing—the demon was angrily chasing after them with both arms raised, but even in its massive form it couldn't catch up to a flying dragon.

“Uh, Mason…the demon's picking something up…" Izagor warned. Mason had almost made it over the tree line, where the forest would shield them from anything else Kurzadakathan threw, but suddenly Izagor screamed and pulled on the harness. “Watch-out-watch-out-watch-out! Tuuuurn!"

Without looking back, Mason instantly rolled sharply towards the left. A huge object came flying through the air, only narrowly missing him. Then they were past the treeline and out of Kurzadakathan's sight. The last projectile crashed back onto the ground some distance away, with paperwork appearing to explode out of the impact site. “I think that's my desk! He threw my desk at me!" Mason exclaimed. “Are you alright?"

“Are you talking to your desk? How does it talk back?" asked Izagor.

Mason almost laughed aloud. “I'm not talking to my desk; I'm talking to you, obviously. Are you alright?"

“Ah! Right…I just…thought that maybe desk been enchanted with sorcery or something. Like maybe you had a pet demon secretary inside it that does your paperwork? Is that a thing?"

“That's not a thing."

“Oh, ok." Izagor adjusted her position so that she was riding Mason more comfortably. “I'm alright—a few new scratches, a few new bruises, but nothing serious. Are you alright?"

“I'm not injured. Physically, that is," Mason confirmed. “Mentally I might be slightly traumatized, and I'm now seriously considering a change in careers. I don't think I like sorcery anymore. Let the Magician's Guild handle that demon—I don't care if they suspend my licence."

Izagor let a sigh and slumped forward, resting against Mason's neck. “If that crossbow hadn't been broken, I bet we could have banished that demon. Oh well. Plan failed, but at least we tried…"

“We tried," Mason agreed. He turned and flew towards the nearby town of Klosk Harbour, but then he changed course and flew down towards where his desk had landed. “Actually, now that you mention it… I might just have another plan."

Pushing herself back into a sitting position, Izagor glanced backwards to check if Kurzadakathan was still following them, but from the sound of it the demon had gone back to pulverising Mason's house. “Oh? You have a plan?"

Mason flared his wings as he came in for landing right next to his desk. The desk was burnt from where Kurzadakathan had held it, and badly dented from the impact with the ground. “If I remember correctly, my desk should have a backup to my backup…" He trotted over to the desk and started pulling open drawers. Izagor slid off his back and also helped him search.

“What are we looking for?"

“That crossbow was actually a new replacement I just bought a few months ago. Before that, I had a different weapon—also made from telanium-silver alloy, capable of instantly banishing demons on contact…"

Izagor found something buried in the dirt, which looked like it might have been attached to the bottom of the desk—a large hammer. “Is this it?" The hammer had a plain wooden handle that was about as long as her leg, but the blunt head was made from iridescent metal.

Mason stopped his search and nodded. “Yes. That's it."

Izagor clenched her hand around the hammer's handle, wondering how she would get close enough to swing it at the demon. “I'm all for trying to banish that demon ourselves, but how would this work? This hammer is too heavy to throw, and we can't engage at range like we could with a crossbow. That demon is coated in magical fire, so if I get close I'll end up scorched."

Mason opened and closed his mouth a few times, debating what to say. Finally he said, “Do you trust me?"

Izagor nodded. “Heck yeah! What's the plan?"

Mason still looked hesitant. “The safe play would be to go to town and call for a fast-response demon slayer team."

“That would be the safe play. But if that was your only plan you'd have flown us straight to town, not landed here," Izagor pointed out.

“I…do have a new plan," Mason admitted. “It could probably work, but it's dangerous. It's definitely not as safe as running away and calling for help, so I don't really like this new plan. You should talk me out of it and say that we ought to play it safe."

Izagor made a few experimental swings of the hammer to get used to its weight. “I should, but just tell me your new plan anyway."

Mason told her his new plan.

Izagor smiled. She raised the hammer and let it rest over her shoulder. “I like this plan."

Kurzadakathan was having the time of his life. It had been far too long since he had last been granted free roam in the mortal realm, not that time meant the same thing to demons as it did to the fool sorcerers who tried to summon them.

At the thought of the latest fool who had incorrectly wrote a contract with him, Kurzadakathan felt rage bubbling through the very core of his being—that insolent sorceress, Izagor! Such a pathetic, despicable lifeform! Abusing her contract to break free of the summoning circle had been wonderfully pleasing, and killing her had given him such grand satisfaction as he returned balance between the two realms. Since he was now roaming through the mortal realm, it was only fair that there ought to also be one less sorceress wandering around. Kurzadakathan was now pounding away at the remains of the building which had failed to contain him. He intended to keep going until the entire structure was nothing but dust and ash.

In some strange twist of fate, that foolish incompetent sorceress had somehow created an immensely strong summoning circle that had almost managed to contain him. Even as he had smashed through the defensive spells, the circle had reversed his power and almost banished him right there and then. He was now in a greatly weakened state—his current body was large and threatening, but it had nothing but brute strength, along with a basic cloak of fire for defence. It was infuriating that he had been unable to kill the two other mortals who had come across him—some random human and a random dragon—but Kurzadakathan was sure that soon enough he would recover enough strength to take a more deadly form. Soon he would march for that miserable human town he could sense nearby, and turn that to ash as well. Soon…

But not too soon, for first he had to finish destroying this house. Everything had to be destroyed, so as to restore the universe to its chaotic state of primordial perfection.

Out of nowhere, a tree branch dropped out of the sky and struck his head. Kurzadakathan reacted with rage, bending down to slam punches on the insolent branch until it had been reduced to cinders. Then he looked up and saw where the branch had come from—a dragon was rapidly flying away from him, but he disappeared past the treeline before Kurzadakathan could throw something back.

With infinite patience, Kurzadakathan tried to resume his demolition of the house, but less than a minute later another branch dropped onto his head. This time such an act could not be ignored; Kurzadakathan swatted the branch away and charged towards the dragon. He left the forest clearing, chasing after the dragon even as it turned tail and tried to fly away. The fires that surrounded the demon set the closest trees on fire, and he angrily batted aside any other trees which got in his way.

A human being (or other sentient creature) might have wondered why a dragon would fly so low and so slow instead of climbing high where the demon could not possibly touch it, but Kurzadakathan did not think in such a manner. Close…so close. He was quickly catching up towards the dragon, and Kurzadakathan reached his hands up to grab it out of the sky and crush the life out of it.

Just when he thought he could grab the dragon, the forest vanished and Kurzadakathan found himself running over sand, then suddenly there was seawater around his legs. The ocean hissed and bubbled around his lower limbs, quenching the fires around his lower body, but Kurzadakathan was solely focused on that irritating dragon. The dragon was flying out further to sea as if trying to bait him, but the demon decided that enough was enough. Raising two hands, he channelled magical power and created a huge swath of flame that he flung towards the dragon. The grey-scaled dragon barely managed to dodge this attack, but Kurzadakathan threw another fireball, then another, and then another. The dragon hurriedly kept changing its flight path to dodge, but it could not remain evasive forever.

Kurzadakathan was so focused on the dragon that he failed to notice a small figure pop her head up from the ocean, where she had been hiding behind a nearby rock cluster, and raise a long hammer made from metal which glinted.

Without much ado, Izagor slowly waded through the water until she was right behind Kurzadakathan's legs, which were now all cooled down from the sea water. She raised the banishing hammer and swung it with all her might against the demon's kneecap. Instantly an electric jolt ran down her hands, making her drop the hammer, but the weapon stayed frozen and embedded in Kurzadakathan's body. “That's for…uh…trying to kill me! Ha!" she spat.

The demon let out a high-pitched scream as it began to collapse, imploding towards the point of contact where the telanium-silver alloy had touched it. The flames on its upper body went out, and its limbs started to shrivel and wither even as the demon folded inwards. The hammer's head had vanished, replaced by sphere of blinding light—for one brief instant this brilliance outshone then sun, and then all of a sudden there was darkness and quiet.

Kurzadakathan was gone, and Izagor found herself standing in the ocean all alone. All that was left of the hammer was its handle, floating over the sea; the weapon's head had vanished along with the demon it had just banished. Izagor picked up the hammer (which was now just a stick) and stared at it, then she let out a soft laugh. “Haha…I didn't actually expect that to work."

Mason landed on the beach as Izagor strolled out of the ocean. He sat down on his haunches. “You did it!"

“We did it," Izagor corrected. She sat down on the beach, leaning back against Mason's side. It was almost midday, and the ocean was glinting beautifully in the sun. All of a sudden it was just a warm summer's day. She took a deep breath of the salty air as the sea breeze ruffled her hair. “First I got to be a human, then I also got to be a sorceress, and now I get to be a demon hunter. This is the adventure that keeps on giving."

Mason was almost lost for words, but he definitely agreed with this sentiment. “We just banished a demon! This is one hell of an adventure! It's…it's almost over, though. We've still got one last thing to do."

“What's that?"

“To change back, of course." Mason nodded back towards the forest, where there was a trail which led back to his house. This small trail was normally marked only by a series of wooden signposts, but Kurzadakathan's rampage through the forest had left a trail of fallen trees. “Before he broke out of the summoning circle, Kurzadakathan did complete the contract. We've got a whole bunch of transformation crystals to change us back to usual."

“Oh, yeah. That. Let's go do that, just give me a moment. These clothes are sticking to my skin. What's the point of clothing if it just absorbs water? Why not make clothes that are waterproof?" Izagor wondered.

Mason was no longer surprised when Izagor began to pull of her soaked clothing. “Don't ask me, I'm not a fashion designer. Should I bother mentioning that wet clothes or not, this is still not one of those situations where nudity is socially acceptable?"

“I'm immune to your judging, Mason." Izagor kicked off the last of her wet clothing, and she got to her feet. “Alright, let's go back to your house. We can…let's transform back."

Mason picked up Izagor's wet clothes (which were actually his wet clothes), but he had to toss them onto his back and balance them between his wings. He led the way back to his home. “I miss having hands…"

A drake who was not a drake and a woman who was not a woman sat together in the ruins of a destroyed house. In between them, a small pile of white crystals sat on the floor.

“Fifteen. Fifteen crystals made by that demon," Mason said, after counting them all. “But we only need one. You take one crystal and activate the spell—that'll turn you back to a dragon. Then I'll take that crystal and activate it a second time to transform myself back into a human."

With far more trepidation then she would have ever imagined, Izagor picked up one of the transformation crystals. The short walk back to Mason's house had given her time to calm down after the adrenaline rush from banishing Kurzadakathan, and now she was feeling indecisive again. “Alright…"

“As per the contract, the activation keyword is morphus." Mason nodded calmly. “Just hold the crystal and say the word when you're ready."

Izagor stared at the crystal she was holding, but she didn't say the word just yet. “So, Mason, what…what are you going to do? After we change back to normal, that is."

“Good question. I don't really have a plan for that. I've been meaning to have my house renovated, but now that it's been completely demolished I'll have to get it rebuilt. I do have the funds for that, fortunately. But I don't think I'll stick with professional sorcery; at the very least I need to take a hiatus from all this demonic stuff for a while. And you, Izagor?" Mason glanced away, and his neck crest drooped. “I suppose you'll just…fly off and keep travelling the world."

“I am. The open sky calls, and I miss the feeling of air under my wings. Although…" Izagor crossed her arms nervously. Her next words were said so softly that Mason wasn't quite sure if he had misheard her. “Mason, you could…come with me. If you wanted…"

“What did you say?"

Izagor snapped her gaze up. “I said you could come with me! I wouldn't mind a travel companion." She gestured to the pile of transformation crystals. “Look at all these crystals—think about what we could do with them! After we change back to our normal selves, I could carry you on my back and we could go see the world together. Or we could both be dragons—we could fly wherever we wanted, and I could teach you how to soar. I could take you back to my clan's mountain range so you could see my home and fly over the tallest mountains. Or we could both stay as humans and…and go see all the marvels of your empire! All your buildings and technology and clockwork—I want to ride a train."

“Izzy…" Mason began to say, but Izagor kept talking. She was babbling now out of nervousness.

“Unless…unless you don't want to do all that. I just thought that maybe…after everything that's happened, I felt like we had some…a shared experience. Like a connection between us."

“A connection?"

“I don't know! We've just had an adventure together, and I thought…it was fun and dangerous and exciting and new. I don't know if you felt that way too, but I…I like you, Mason. It's nice to talk with you. You're interesting with all your human ideals and opinions, and I just thought that maybe you might like me back… But if you don't like me, then I completely understand. I'll just…I'll fly off and we'll never see each other again. And you can go back to your mundane human things, being a sorcerer and all that; if that's what you want. But it's your choice, so let me know your answer. Make it quick and simple—Mason, will you fly with me? Yes or no."

Mason's neck crest had perked up. “Izagor, I…"

Izagor shushed him before he could say anything more. “Shh, don't…don't say anything yet. Just think about it for a moment. Don't turn me down right away." Grabbing the transformation crystal, she spat out the activation word. “Morphus!"

The transformation began to take effect immediately. Magic poured out of the crystal and into her hand, and Izagor could feel her whole body begin to shift and twist. It was the reverse of what had happened to her before—instead of pain, she felt relief as her usual form began to take shape. Scales erupted out of her skin, returning her usual sense of touch and sensation. Hair fell off her head in clumps, vanishing into dust before it touched the ground.

Izagor dropped down into a crouch as her arms and legs shortened, but then her tail extended out of her rear; how she had missed having a tail! She flicked her tail and heard the air swish around her limb. And when her wings stretched out of her back, she couldn't help but gasp in relief as she flapped her wings and felt the air move around her. It hadn't been an actively unpleasant experience to be human, but things just felt more right now that her usual draconic form was returned.

As the transformation began to wind down, Izagor felt the crystal slip out of her paw. She looked over her whole body, taking in the reassuring sight of things as they ought to be. Her reddish-brown scales were back, as were the light coloured splotches on her side. Izagor reached up and touched her face, feeling her neck crest and her usual pointed snout. Standing up, she realized she was back to walking on four limbs instead of two; she did a quick twirl to test her legs.

“Wow. Watching a transformation is quite a sight, even though I've done it myself." Mason had a shocked expression on his face as he looked over Izagor's new body (or her old body, rather). “Izagor, you're…a dragon! Haha, of course you are."

“I am." Being back in her usual body made her feel more comfortable and confident, but Izagor was still waiting for Mason's answer. Her tail curled around her legs. “Now, about my offer?" she asked. Izagor fluttered her wings, then she folded them neatly onto her back and sat back on her haunches. Impulsively she suddenly reversed this action, unfurling her wings to show them off—she had always been proud of her wings, and drakes liked a dragoness with a slender tail and good wings. Then again, Mason was a human who probably wasn't attracted to the conventional draconic ideals of beauty. Honestly, he would probably just reject her…

Mason nodded. “Yes."

Izagor let out a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. “Yes? So that means…"

“That means I'll fly with you." Mason opened and closed his mouth a few times, as if struggling to find the words he was looking for. “I'll…I'll fly beside you, or ride on your back, or whatever it takes because for everything you said, I agree. Perhaps I'm insane for thinking this way about a dragon, but Izagor you are incredible. It would be a great pleasure to travel with you."

Izagor laughed, then she walked over and hugged Mason. The mechanics of this gesture were different from how Mason was used to it—Izagor pressed her chest against his and flipped her wings forward to wrap halfway around his body, then she let her neck entwine with his. She said nothing, but the level of sudden physical contact said enough about her happiness.

Mason tried to return the hug, but he wasn't quite sure where he was supposed to put his wings. The partially-used transformation crystal was still sitting on the floor, out of reach. “I do need to transform back into a human first."

Izagor didn't let go. If anything, she tightened her hold and started gently nuzzling under Mason's chin. “Do you really? Why don't we just…fly off right now into the blue?"

“Because I need to go to town and arrange for my house to be rebuilt, then I need to write to both the Magician's Guild and the Royal Academy of Magic to tell them I'm going on hiatus from my sorcery. Then I'll need to pack all these crystals up, and we should probably search my house for the gold I keep stored here, as well as some clothes for travel and whenever we decide to roam as humans…"

“Mm. How responsible…" Izagor turned around and started rubbing her side against Mason's, savouring all the warm physical contact as she brushed her back against his underbelly. Any drake—even a human who didn't quite have every natural dragon instinct—could understand this particular offer.

In response Mason unfurled his own wing and grabbed Izagor, holding her still against his side. “Do tell—are you teasing me on purpose?" he growled, his voice a soft rumble that made a shudder run down Izagor's back.

“I thought that was obvious." After all the excitement and danger of fighting Kurzadakathan, not all of the adrenaline had faded away. Izagor pulled herself free and took a few steps away, then she bent down her forelegs and straightened her hinds. She waved her tail from left to right, and a quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that Mason's gaze was locked on her rump. Finally she raised her tail invitingly, sweeping it out of the way to give him an enticing look at her underbelly. “I was just thinking—before you transform back, maybe we should have a little fun since we're the same species. You can test out your equipment as it was meant to be used. Interested?"

“Surprisingly enough, I think I am." Mason moved forwards and placed a forepaw on Izagor's rear. “Izzy, you damn dragon. Look what you've done. I'm a human and I'm supposed to be attracted to women, but now you've got me thinking all these deviant things about you." Following base instinct, he started licking and sniffing at her slit, taking in her scent and smell.

Izagor let her tail slide between Mason's legs until the tip of her appendage reached his underbelly, where it quickly became obvious that he was becoming just as aroused as she was. She coiled her tail around his the tip of his growing erection, teasing and lightly squeezing it to coax it out further. “That's funny. I don't recall you making any complaints last night when we were doing this…"

“That was different. You were a human woman then, and there was nothing wrong with me getting aroused," Mason muttered, in between licks. He didn't sound displeased at all.

“From a certain point of view—mff!" Izagor gasped as Mason suddenly slipped his tongue inside her slit, using his oral musculature to explore her insides. “I said, from…from a certain…point of view, what we're doing now is less deviant than what we did last night, because now we're just two creatures of the same species satisfying each other's needs. Last night that was bestiality since I was a human and you were a dragon. But now we're both dragons, so this is just going to be normal sex."

By now Izagor was feeling quite ready for things to escalate a little further. She wasn't looking for a prolonged, slow courtship—right now what she wanted was a good quick pounding. She uncoiled her tail from around Mason's phallus. The drake took a few steps forward so he could mount her, resting his chest against her back and clutching his forepaws around her for balance. There were a few moments of eager, budding anticipation as his length kept poking her haunches, until finally his tip found her genital slit and he lined himself up.

Instead of pushing himself in, Mason let only the very tip of his erection touch Izagor's slit. “You know, I see your point, but it depends on whether you consider a person as a certain species based on their original body or their current body. If we take it to be based on original body, then what we're doing now is equally deviant as what we did yesterday since I'm always a human and you're always a dragon. However, that's not the case if we consider personhood based on current body. Yesterday you had a human body when we had sex, so arguably it wasn't deviant if I was attracted to you. It's normal for me to be attracted to other humans."

“Uh, no, I disagree. You just said it yourself—if yesterday you were thinking of me as a human because I had a human body, then that means that you should have been thinking of yourself as a dragon because you had a dragon body. Therefore you already were having deviant thoughts, haha." Izagor tried to grind her body backwards, but Mason held her still. “Nngggh. Are you going to mount me or what? Philosophy is interesting, but it's not what I want right now…"

Mason leaned forwards and gently licked Izagor's neck crest, making her shudder. “It is really interesting to talk to you," he murmured in a soft voice. Then in one smooth motion Mason thrust forward, plunging his phallus into Izagor's slit. Both of them moaned in pleasure at the sudden exquisite sensation of sensitive flesh sliding against flesh. “Ah, wow. You're warm," Mason murmured.

Izagor pushed backwards, delighting in the wonderfully warm organ that was pushed into her and filling her up. “Yes… Take me." From his position on top of her, Mason had far more control over the speed and depth of their coupling—for Izagor, there was something deeply arousing about surrendering control in this manner.

For his part, Mason was almost shocked by how quickly he'd embraced such simple, animalistic action. He was rutting Izagor with quick, efficient strokes which sent steady pleasure running through his whole body. Without thinking about it he found himself unfurling his wings and wrapping them around the slender, brown-scaled dragon who was crouched beneath him, holding her in a firm embrace. Remembering what Izagor had done to him last night, Mason now imitated those same gestures to excite her draconic body—even as he thrust into her, he started licking and gently nibbling on her neck crest. “Mine… You're mine," he growled, his mind clouded with lust and desire. He wanted her—he wanted not just her body, not just his own pleasure, but her.

Izagor coiled her tail with Mason's, and she rocked her body with his to enhance the motion of his thrusts. She felt herself slipping closer and closer to her release, pushed rapidly towards orgasm by the deeply intimate feeling of another dragon (Mason!) mating with her. Her moans choked off into a drawn-out gasp, then an all-out roar as she hit her first peak. “Raahhh!" Wonderful pleasure washed across her body, and her muscles reacted automatically—her tail pulled against Mason's and briefly prevented him from pulling out, even as her slit clenched down on his length repeatedly. Her claws drew grooves in the ground as she pawed at the floor. It felt unbelievable wonderful to have Mason mounting her and to feel his length pressing at sensitive spots deep inside her body. Waves of pleasure swept over her body, and Izagor gasped.

As her pleasure began to wind down, Izagor felt her body relax slightly, and Mason began to pick up his pace again as he built his own pleasure up towards orgasm. Izagor found herself making incoherent noises now—halfway between a moan, a laugh, and even a purr. “Haha, hmmrr, nrr…. Yes… Mason, I want you to…to fill me up with your seed. Put an egg inside me…"

Abruptly and with deliberate force of will, Mason halted his thrusts. With his phallus just barely into Izagor, he forced himself to supress his lust and reengage some intellect. “Wait, is that actually something which could happen?"

The sudden stop in sensation made Izagor snap her eyes open. “Huh? Did I say something wrong?"

“Should we be taking precautions?" Mason asked. “Is there actually a chance that of you becoming pregnant if I take this experience to its conclusion?"

“Huh! Good question, actually." Izagor flapped her wings to get some air moving and to cool them both off—it was a warm summer day, and things were really heating up between them. “That's another conundrum for us to worry about—theoretically, can we actually somehow produce an egg between the two of us? What happens if you get me gravid then I transform into a human? Will the child be a human, or a dragon? Hm…"

“Izagor, I really like you, but I am not quite ready for that level of commitment and responsibility," Mason said. “I can pull out and just…finish myself off with a hand."

“Oh, well that's not a concern right now. You can't put an egg inside right now because I'm not in heat anyway. Don't worry about eggs, I was just trying to…uh…talk sexy. I guess that remark slipped out. Go ahead and shoot inside me." Izagor began rocking herself back and forth, encouraging Mason to pick up the motion again. “You know you want to…" She began nuzzling and licking the underside of his neck.

“Whether or not I want to, I'm not going to have much choice if you keep doing that." Through it all, Mason's phallus had remained fully rigid and desperate from contact, and now he gladly slid himself back into Izagor's warm, wet depths. He had almost hit his own peak from Izagor orgasming and shuddering against him. No more than half a minute later, the pleasure building up in his underbelly became overwhelming.

Mason pushed forward and shoved himself as deep as he could go, pulling Izagor against him as the ridges on his phallus flared out to lock her against him. He moaned out her name, but unlike her, he didn't roar. “Izzy…" His snout scrunched up into a grimace and his neck crest rose as far as it could. For a few wonderful seconds it was just warmth and wetness and that snug friction everywhere around his most sensitive organ, then Mason jerked as blinding pleasure wiped away all his conscious thought. Nothing mattered at all except holding Izagor close and feeling his penis twitch inside her, delivering his seed deep inside her. With each twitch he would feel his pleasure spiking, as he poured a fresh spurt of his semen into her slit.

As his orgasm slowed, and finally ended, Mason opened his eyes. Lost in the trawls of pleasure, he had thrown his wings open and knocked aside what was left of the furniture that still remained inside his summoning room in the demolished ruins of his house. Still holding Izagor, still with his partially erect phallus penetrating inside her, Mason suddenly began to laugh. It started as a giggle, then quickly escalated into a series of chuckles which he couldn't control. “Mm. Heh. Hehe. Hahaha!"

Izagor snorted in amusement. “What's so funny?"

Mason barely managed to control himself. He tried to explain. “It's just so funny. You, me, haha...us! We're dragons! And we just…fucked!" Whispering this last word as if it was something he didn't want to say too loud, Mason broke out into even more hysterical laughter. “Hahaha… Imagine if…just imagine if someone happened to hear the demon as he was demolishing my house…and…and they came to investigate! But instead of a demon, they…they find two dragons sitting in…in the middle of my destroyed house, and the dragons are just fucking each other! Ahahahaha!" Mason was laughing so hard he tumbled off Izagor's back and landed on the ground. “Without clothes! We aren't wearing clothes either!"

This just made Izagor laugh as well. “Hehehe. Clothes? You silly human! But you're not quite a human, and you're not quite a dragon either. Silly Mason." She curled up against Mason and started licking his snout, using her tongue to clean his scales as dragons did with their friends. Or with their mates.

Mason finally managed to control his laughter. The whole situation was completely ridiculous, but it would have been a lie to say that what had just happened might have been the most intense experience he'd ever had. He licked Izagor on her snout just to acknowledge and return her affectionate gesture, then he rolled to his feet and walked over to where Izagor had dropped the transformation crystal.

Izagor sat up and watched him carefully. “Going back to normal?" she asked. A grin spread across her muzzle.

Mason grinned back at her. “There's no going back to normal, even if I have my human body again. Not after I've met you, you crazy dragon, you." He picked up the transformation crystal, and magical power rushed into his body.

END

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