Chapter 8

CHAPTER8

Opal should have stopped Tristan from leaving. He’d woken briefly, but he’d assumed Tristan had gone out to piss, and he’d fallen back to sleep. Only now it was morning, and Tristan was nowhere to be seen.

“Did he leave a note?” Opal asked the innkeeper.

The woman shrugged. “Nothing here. Your laundry’s done, by the way.” After a pause, she added, a little more sympathetically, “Some men are like that. Guess it doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman, they still fuck you over.”

“No,” Opal said with conviction. “Tristan isn’t like that. Yesterday was just… a bad day.”

The woman snorted in disbelief. “You keep telling yourself that. Now, you want your clothes back? If not, I’ll sell them.”

Opal took the clothes from her, packed everything up, and began his trek back to the main road.

That fucking swamp. The demon would have been easy to take care of in his dragon form, but he couldn’t do anything with Tristan there.

Maybe eating the swamp demon would have given him indigestion. But surely that entire adventure should have brought them closer together? Even if Opal had to be the one doing the rescuing instead of being rescued. These were the sorts of things that made people realize their love and how much they valued each other. That was how it had worked for his brother Jade, who’d had to do a whole dashing rescue for his treasure.

Opal had absolutely no desire to think nice thoughts about Jade though, since Jade was one of the reasons Tristan hated dragons to begin with. Going on a rampage and destroying a city just because his treasure had left him! Who did that? Fine, it was very romantic and highly understandable, but why did Jade have to destroy an entire city?

Opal was out of view of the village when he stopped at the side of the road and sighed. He had a general idea of where the compass pointed, and if he took to the skies, he could easily catch up to Tristan. But clearly Tristan hadn’t fallen in love with him yet, and he felt like he was floundering a bit. What was he doing wrong? Surely all the sex and adventures and confessions of feelings was enough?

He didn’t want to admit it, but maybe he needed proper advice. Not from Jade, even if Jade had the most success in keeping a human. And marrying him, in a beautiful and moving ceremony that had brought a tear to Opal’s eye.

Citrine knew humans pretty well, right? At the very least, her cats would know things about humans. Cats knew everything about humans.

Opal stripped his clothes, stuffed them into his bag, and let go of both the human illusion and his more humanoid shape. His body expanded, and he shuddered in relief to finally be in this form again. He hadn’t gone this long without shifting in years.

After daintily picking up the bag with one claw, he lifted off into the skies. The cool air felt wonderful against his scales, and he did a roll, luxuriating in the freedom of flying.

After they got things sorted, he’d take Tristan on a flight. He was certain Tristan would love it. They could have romantic evenings admiring the sunset from up here.

The daydreams kept him occupied throughout the flight, so much so that he almost didn’t notice the many cats gathered outside Citrine’s cave.

Not that cats around her cave were unusual. Citrine loved cats. But normally there weren’t thirty of them lounging outside.

Opal peered at one of the fat calicos curiously, and she mrow’ed at him and turned away. She was clearly upset about something.

“Citrine?” Opal called out, heading into the den. He made sure that his claws didn’t scrape the ground, because he wasn’t a savage.

There was a strange scent in the air, one that Opal couldn’t place. Sort of like a cat, but not. Strangely, no cats came to greet him inside the cave. Not even the big fluffy gray tabby that usually loved pouncing on Opal’s tail.

“Citrine? Hello?” Opal called again. “It’s Opal! I came to chat!” Or to complain, but that was essentially the same thing.

There was a rustling sound from deeper inside the cave. “Go away!” Citrine shouted back.

Well, that was just rude. Opal snorted and walked farther into the cave. “Why? I really need your advice. I am having the worst day, and Jade is part of the problem. I’d ask Alabaster, but all he ever thinks about is sex, and I don’t think sex is the solution here, and—”

Citrine jumped out from the nearby side cave, effectively blocking Opal’s path. “I’m busy,” Citrine said. Her yellow-orange scales gleamed with… oil? Was that oil on her?

“Busy? All your cats are outside,” Opal said, peering at her suspiciously. “What could you possibly be busy with?”

“None of your business.” Citrine stood taller, but she was still the youngest of Opal’s siblings and didn’t come close to Opal’s size. “What do you want, Opal?”

Opal sighed. Whatever was going on with Citrine didn’t matter, as long as she was willing to talk to him. “I met a human. And he’s perfect. But then he ran away, and this isn’t like with Jade and his human, my human is much better, but anyway, my human isn’t in love with me yet and I know he should be, and—”

Citrine let out a puff of flame, straight at Opal’s face. “I’m not giving love advice anymore. Why don’t you ask Mother? She knows all about ensnaring people.”

Opal groaned and lowered his head to the ground. “I don’t want to talk to Mother. You’re better at these things. You helped Jade! And…”

A strange mewling sound suddenly came from the cave behind Citrine.

Opal’s eyes widened.

“P-please… Citrine…” a feminine voice said. “I… I can’t…”

Oh. Well.

Citrine glared at Opal. “Like I said. I’m busy.” Her features softened a bit. “Seriously, go ask Mother. She’d love to give advice. Now please go away so I can keep playing with my new kitten.”

Kitten, sure.

“Okay. Have fun,” Opal said, a bit sadly. He awkwardly backed out of the cave, trying to tamp down on his jealousy. It wasn’t fair. Citrine didn’t even care for humans! She was all about the cats.

As soon as he was out of the cave, the cats outside broke out into a cacophony of meowing and yowling.

Opal looked at them sympathetically. “I understand how you feel. I wish I had my true love in my arms too. It’s not fair, right? That everybody else is finding their fairy tale romance but I’m the only one left behind?”

Some of the cats yowled back at him and flicked their tails, clearly sympathetic.

“I hope you all find your true loves too,” Opal told them, before taking off into the air once more.

Apparently, he would be going to see his mother.

* * *

Sapphire’s den was,as always, overgrown with plants. Opal was very, very careful about where he stepped, because crushing the wrong leaf was likely to get him in trouble. Thankfully, Sapphire was lying outside in the sun, her dark blue scales glinting beautifully.

“Hello, Mother,” Opal greeted respectfully.

Sapphire grinned widely at him. “Opal! Baby! It’s been… how long since I last saw you?” She sat up and bumped her head against Opal’s, then licked his face. “Have you been taking care of yourself properly? Your scales look a little dull.”

“Oh, that’s because of the swamp… ugh, no, never mind.” Opal curled up next to her, like he used to do when he was still too young to shift. “Mother… I met someone. But I don’t think he likes me as much as I like him, and it’s awful. I don’t know what to do.”

Sapphire huffed and licked the top of his head. “Have you tried baring your breasts at him? That usually works for me.”

“I don’t have breasts, Mother,” Opal pointed out. “And it only works because Father really, really likes your breasts.”

Although if Opal did have breasts, maybe Tristan wouldn’t have been so hesitant. But he hadn’t complained about all the sex they’d had, so the breasts couldn’t have been the real issue.

“He really does like my breasts,” Sapphire said smugly. “Tourmaline was in top form last time. Got in there really deep.”

Opal rolled his eyes. “Mother, please. I’m here to talk about my problems.” He nipped her jaw lightly, to which she knocked her horns against his. A faint spark of magic passed between them: the usual warm love she sent them.

“All right, all right. Tell me more about your person.” Sapphire smiled at him, and Opal forgot to be annoyed with her.

When she wasn’t being all horny for Tourmaline, Sapphire was pretty decent.

“He’s very handsome,” Opal said. “And dashing. He rescued me from some brigands—and yes, I could have done it myself, but he was there! And he’s brave. We fought a demon in a swamp, and he faced it head on. He also is very valiant. We didn’t have to fight a swamp demon, but he refused to let it go unchallenged.” Opal sighed dreamily. “Just the absolute perfect man.”

Sapphire hmm’ed to show she was listening. “What’s the problem, then?”

“Well.” Opal lowered his head to the ground. “He hates dragons.”

Sapphire burst out laughing. “Oh, sweetheart. I’m sorry. But… he’s going to notice you’re a dragon as soon as your clothes are off.”

“No,” Opal replied a little smugly. “He hasn’t noticed yet. Even with my clothes half-off.”

That drew more giggles out of Sapphire. “You’ve been fucking him, and he hasn’t even noticed? He’s not very attentive, your knight.”

“He is!” Opal protested, glaring up at her. “He’s very attentive! Just… not to my cocks. He’s more about…” Opal paused. “Well, he’s just not used to being with men. But I’m sure he’ll get over that.”

Sapphire didn’t say anything for a while, but she draped one of her large wings over Opal’s body. “Does he not… care about your pleasure?”

“He does! He asks!” Opal huffed, because he knew how it sounded. “He isn’t bad in bed. I’m always satisfied. And sure, he ran off, but he had a bad day. He was so brave; did I mention that? He fought a swamp demon.”

“You did mention that, yes,” Sapphire answered. Her voice was a lot more cautious than before. “Sweetheart… What do you like about your knight?”

“I told you! He’s handsome, and brave, and kind. And he rescued me from some bandits—”

“—that you didn’t need rescuing from,” Sapphire interrupted.

Opal glared up at her. “That doesn’t matter! He’s perfect, Mother. I just need to know how to make him not run off. I know I could ask Jade, but I’m mad at Jade right now, and anyway it’s his fault Tristan wants to kill all dragons and not just one.”

Sapphire nodded indulgently at him, but it was clear she didn’t agree with his assessment. “Do you want to know what Jade would tell you?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know. He’s the only one with experience with humans.” Except maybe Citrine now? Opal hoped that entire thing fell apart, if only because it wasn’t fair that Citrine got a human before Opal did.

Okay, he didn’t actually wish heartbreak on his sister. But she could have taken a few minutes to give him advice. Her human surely could have waited.

“Jade would probably tell you to go chase after him and kiss him until he stopped having silly thoughts about leaving.” Sapphire bumped Opal’s snout to stop him from responding. “But do you know how I got Tourmaline to drop everything and fuck me hard?”

“You lifted your tail?” Opal guessed, because that was her general course of action.

“No. I talked to him.” Sapphire nuzzled the side of Opal’s head. “Sweetheart, I know Tourmaline and I are always fucking, and it gives me great pleasure to show off just how amazing your father is, but at the end of the day, we wouldn’t have stayed together as long as we have, or had twelve eggs together, if we didn’t like each other as people. I enjoy spending time with him. I love listening to his songs, I enjoy making him happy. He ended up writing an entire song about my favorite flower once. And the way he doted on me after I’d laid the first egg… I knew I would want him with me for all of my children.”

“I’m not going to lay eggs with Tristan,” Opal pointed out. “Eggs have nothing to do with it.”

“No, but right now, all I know about your Tristan is that he’s a dashing knight, straight out of your treasured novels, and that he doesn’t give you much satisfaction in bed. What else do you know about him?”

Opal tensed, the anger roiling in his stomach. “I know him plenty. He had a brother—who is dead thanks to some other dragon. Maybe I should track that dragon down and kill them? My life would be perfect right now if not for them.”

“It wouldn’t,” Sapphire said gently. “Because you still haven’t told me who your knight really is. He’s not just a character in your stories, Opal. You don’t want him. You want a knight in shining armor, but those aren’t real.”

Opal recoiled at her harsh words and spat flame at her face. Sapphire didn’t even flinch, but she also didn’t try to stop Opal from leaving her embrace.

“He is real!” Opal shouted at her. “I saw how he fought that swamp demon, and how he rescued me, and…”

Well. Maybe Opal had had to help a little—a lot—with the swamp demon. And the bandits. And Tristan spent a lot of time drinking. And sure, he didn’t seem to want to touch Opal’s cocks, but that was actually convenient at the moment!

But none of that mattered! The important thing was that Tristan was a real, dashing hero, and…

Opal sent more howling flames at her. Sapphire took the brunt of it, but once the flame began to peter out, she shot forward to tackle Opal.

They wrestled in the clearing, tails lashing and claws swiping, but Sapphire was significantly larger than Opal. Soon she had him pinned to the ground.

“Opal. Listen to me. You know I want what’s best for you,” Sapphire said, still calm. “And this is the last piece of advice I’m giving you. You aren’t in love right now. You’re dreaming of a perfect romance, but those don’t exist. If you’re convinced this man is your treasure, then get to know him properly, and not through a haze of fairy tale dreams.”

Opal turned his head away from her and didn’t say anything. How dare she talk to him like that. She already had her fairy tale romance! The last time they’d met up as a family, she and Tourmaline could be heard for miles!

He should have visited Alabaster, who at least would have given him tips on how to blow Tristan’s mind during sex. And sex could lead to love, right?

Sapphire got off of Opal and nudged his neck. “Now get out of here. You’ve trampled enough of my flowers. Do you know how delicate some of these are?”

“You’re wrong,” Opal said, slowly rolling back onto his feet. “I’ll prove it to you. I’m going to marry Tristan. You’ll see.”

“I look forward to it,” Sapphire said indulgently.

Whatever. This was why he hadn’t wanted to visit Sapphire. She never told him what he wanted to hear. She thought being his mother gave her the right to dash all his dreams.

Opal took to the air, not bothering to say goodbye to her. The next time he saw her, he’d have a handsome, dashing knight on his arms, and she’d eat her words.

As he flew, Opal mulled over her words.

Then realized… twelve eggs? Opal only had ten siblings.

He almost turned around to demand answers on that front, but no, he was too pissed off at her.

So maybe when he introduced Tristan to his family, there’d be a new sibling too. Baby dragons were adorable. If Tristan still had a few misgivings about dragons by then, the baby sibling would remove the last of them.