Page 38 of Captured By the Dragon Warlord
I squeak a yes and the hand curls around me once again, placing me on my feet which wobble. I lift the blindfold to be confronted by Dexx’s huge dragon head.
We are in the mine, or at least in a huge excavated cave. Far, far above us is a tiny pinprick of light. It’s hot down here, like we’ve descended into hell. All around us, huge Sarkarnii are moving vast containers filled with ore through passages. There are lights but like the rest of Dexx’s empire, they are dim, only just enough for me to see.
“My apologies, little mate. I am no longer able to return to my biped form,” Dexx says. A huge hand extends towards me. Inthe center, looking particularly tiny, is a vid-pad. “I will need you to operate this for me.”
“It might be an idea to design something you can use in your…current form,” I suggest.
“If I felt it was necessary, I would have my tech warriors undertake such work,” Dexx rumbles. “But today I have you,” he adds with what could be mirth, only he’s a dragon and it’s difficult to tell.
Dexx extends a claw, pointing down one passage. “We need to go this way, my ember,” he says, motioning for me to go ahead.
The ground underneath us is studded with glowing lumps of the ore.
“How do you get star fuel from the gygement?” I ask, professional curiosity setting in. “I presume it’s inert in its current state.”
“It is. It requires crushing and processing,” Dexx responds. “Before it is passed through superviolet light to activate the mineral within.”
“Then what?”
“We form it into the necessary fuel rods. Our gygement produces the most efficient star fuel, not only in this galaxy, but in all the galaxies I have visited,” Dexx rumbles. “But even with this, we are still too far from our own galaxy to return.”
“You want to go back?” I ask.
Dexx makes a low noise in his dragon throat. It could be a growl, but I don’t think it is.
“Not like this,” he says.
He means stuck in his dragon form.
“Why?” I ask. “You are all Sarkarnii. You can all shift.”
“Being unable to control your shift is considered a failure in Sarkarnii society,” Dexx says. “If we were to return, we would be outcasts.”
DEXX
The early part of my enforced shift is usually the roughest, but with Scarlett by my side, it seems easier. I was surprised I could shift to my biped form at the top of the shaft when she needed me.
I’m not sure I could do so now, but it still feels easier than ever before. As much as I doubted being mated would change anything, it appears Dalsor was right.
The intense emotions I felt once the hoo-man females appeared were an indication something was changing within me. Especially as such emotions were never present with the Sarkarnii females.
My parents believed in strict training for their young. As such, the fear instilled into me about a female’s bite was overwhelming.
Mating had to be off limits. Until now.
Shifting back to my biped form might still be unlikely for many nova-hours, but I am comfortable in my Sarkarnii skin with my Scarlett by my side.
“Down here.” I guide her gently with the very tip of my tail into another branching passage.
“How do you know where to mine for the ore?” she asks.
“If you activate the vid-pad, it will show you our scans,” I suggest. “We regularly use self-propelling probes to burrow where necessary to find the skeins.”
“Wow,” Scarlett says quietly, as she looks at the pad. “This place is riddled with them, isn’t it?”
“It is,” I respond. “And our duty is to mine it.”
“Duty? Don’t you get paid?”
