Beautiful little story... one of your best, I think. Good to see you writing here again, and thanks for sharing.

Thanks. I do quite like how this one came out

This was quite well done, the writing was enjoyable and intimate

^^ I'm glad you think so

I really love how you always put so much detail into the psychology of such a relationship. Although I'd not have ANY trouble with that decision myself (teehee!) I greatly enjoyed seeing Robert weigh his options! It brings the story ever so closer to reality. Amazing job as always :D <3 <3

^.=.^ When it comes down to it, it's not so hard a choice, hehe, but I think everyone worries before a big decision, even if it's whether to stay with a beautiful dragoness or not

Wow I loved this story. I would be really to to get a sequel to this.

^^; not quite sure what your second sentence was meant to say, but assuming it's wondering after a sequel... it's possible there will be one, eventually, or maybe a parallel story of sorts, time will tell

Good thing you understood that. My typing to day has been terrible.

I really enjoyed the story; character development, emotional tension, dialogue, everything was incredibly well done, particularly for a short story. Though I'll admit, about two-thirds of the way through I started viewing their unit less as a benign pseudo-clan, and more like a sort of cult. Please forgive my ignorance, but I'm genuinely uncertain whether that was intentional, considering the tone of your other work.

Well... how it is viewed individually, is a matter of opinion. In some ways it could be called a cult, if a benign one. Then again, what we know as a cult, is generally a group of people duped into following a charismatic sociopath who has them serve as the path to some sort of divine retribution, or some such... and tends to involve nutritional, emotional, and psychological ways of breaking down the logic of the people, exploiting them to the point that they're pitiful to regard... it preys upon the desperate, the excluded, and the easily deluded.
There are some parallels with the situation here, but there isn't, nor is there intended to be the same sense of... exploitation. In the core of it, you do have one being who is near worshipped if not literally so, who all the human serve. Amid other aspects, I can see where the cult relationship came from, and in some ways I tried to keep it close to the line to keep it contentious... because in following stories, it may look upon those in the villages below, who do view it as a cult... I'll admit, in some regions, in hindsight... I wish I'd written them differently, but it's meant to be very benign. I hope that answers your question... let me know if it doesn't

Ah, I see. I can appreciate the different frame of mind (it certainly isn't outrageous considering real-life sects), and you did really well to rationalize it. In suppose, in my mind, the final sequence seemed like a frightening curve-ball, and the lad's decision after witnessing the spectacle surprised me. It is all very intriguing, and I would love to see more!

Well... the rationale is that it's all done willingly, after having been noted of the very real risks, and the very real benefits... it is going to be the reality that they live longer, healthier lives there, happier too... and they can freely see if they like, they are allowed to visit the villages as much as they like. And whether reader would believe it truly true or not, it's considered truth in that realm, by those with her, and those not, that when eaten they're taken up body and soul

I liked it much! I felt it a very unique take on dragons, a nice plausible one with a decent trace of realism, the pondering over mortality and relations between two so distinct races like humans and dragons. I even felt the religious ceremonial aspects quite fitting, enriching the setting, giving the impression of some ancient tribe with its adored god who happens to be living with them. You balanced it nicely by how the dragoness also respects the established rules, her "worshipers". I can't know whether it was intentional, but this way it could even relate to real world religions as sort of a comparison, a "what if" scenario, like what if people could really make contact with their god(s), and not only other people (shamans, priests, clerics, whatever depending on religion) pretending to be the chosen representatives of them.

A small apparent flaw for me was Jacob's person, his relation with Robert. In such a small community like which you portrayed and which is supposed to be quite stable by the concepts of your story, they should have know each other very well, much like in any tiny rural village (I don't know where you live, maybe you had no source to have this in mind. Where I live memories of that age are still vaguely present).

Otherwise, just to emphasize a bit, I liked much the realism aspect, how mortality is looming over humans, how the dragoness has her place in the ecosystem as a predator, and how the two intelligent races try to negotiate these differences in a "civilized" manner. It conveys hints of a "cruel world" in which she tries to stay a benevolent godlike figure for her tribe. To some degree it really make me wish to get away from this wretched "today", a peaceful certainty, no matter if it is to end one day in my chosen dragon's belly.

(A bit of technical. The format was a bit nasty on me, a Linux guy right now unable to get OpenOffice for network constraints; I had to rip the story text out from the XML files. I see you might have quite decent writing skills, but I couldn't much judge since the text might have been jumbled up here and there)

^^ well I'm glad you liked it, and I appreciate such elaborate feedback. I wouldn't say, in this piece, I was making any specific notations to standard religion, though it's a topic I do touch on frequently enough. Though of course... regardless of whether choose to believe in deities or not, not my place to judge, the major religions we see today have been bred and bend into means of control... some exceptions to the rule, but the majority. Some offending far worse in this regard than others.
Though, in many ways, I do see this scenario as appealing to a great many ^^ we're built to delight in the attention of the important and powerful and respected. It's been like that since before we were humans, and is fundamental to our minds, and I suspect to the very reason we have religions... humans crave something to fill that... alpha role that we abandoned when we left primate culture, and no human can truly fill it, not even leaders hold that same deference. Heh, so a dragon sitting in that role is a concept I adore depicting, and I use that basis of our minds to rationalize how... easily they fit into their role with her.

As to the flaw you were mentioning. I'm not sure I entirely understood what you wrote... and if what I say now doesn't answer it, please let me know, but if I try to understand... I'd say that it's true I didn't make much of the between human relationships he had in his community, they were much a side note... I might defend it by noting that within the time of this story, Robert was somewhat withdrawn from other people since he wasn't sure if he'd be leaving them or not... and partially due to his troubled nature, I think I was writing him as something of a loner, content with his own company, or more to the point, Ivy's. I suppose I was trying to paint him as something of a devotee of her, possibly even beyond the norm of his community.

I can only agree with you. Human is so much expecting to have someone to fill the confident alpha role that things could even go tits up if there is no such alpha to lead. Well, to let off a bit off steam... I would so much wish to have a wise dragon with iron claws to rule and not those imbecile thieving bastards ru(i)nning this place elected by our narcotized stupid crowd. So yes, this Ivy was truly sympathetic for me, people do just so many things much worse to each other than ending up in a dragon's belly, especially if that only happened when it was the end anyway. This sure leads far, on the fields of murky theology and politics, but these are aspect I like to explore and witness having explored. Honestly on the beginning of the story I was kind of expecting it just revealing to be an inverted men - cattle relation, but the way you fleshed out Ivy's character and the whole setting it truly revealed some deep meaning, showing good controversies in to ponder over. It has its true quality in this: you wrote about something definitely worthy to get on paper! In this regard I think it is balanced just right!

For the flaw I understood that Robert was someone preferring to be alone, what didn't fit in my opinion is that in Jacob's case you emphasized this by your writing while other cases you simply skimmed over human relations which pass okay (this is a short novel in which you couldn't afford detailing more, I think otherwise the way you managed it was the right approach). I felt like even if Robert was rather solitary, he should have known everyone by face and name just for his situation (He didn't even much seen anyone else than his tribe. For a bit of plausibility, you could compare him to yourself, how many people you recognize even passively. You will likely be stunned by how many!). The problematic part is actually a single paragraph, the one beginning as "Robert had to admit...". In such small tribes having no connections with the outside world (like those villages I mentioned), family relations are exceptionally important, from his parents he should have learned those as well. It would have worked better if you rather skimmed those, introducing Jacob in a different manner kept equally short. Hope you see, sorry I got it this long!

Eh, I could understand him being so passionate, dragons can be awesome! :) (for me that's a wyvern though, but guess no problem until keeping proportions big and reasonably scaly ;) )

Heh, well when I said alpha, I meant in primate terms, not our cultural "alpha". In apes the alpha is treated practically as we treat our deities... the leadership we find in humans is never so deep, due to the fact we are pack not clan.

And, well... you say to look to myself, but that is likely the issue... You could show me people I've known for years of my life and I'd fail to name them... I'd also note, for the case of the name he didn't know, often to my experience in small groups, children might know adults as, "somebody's uncle" or something, not know the adult's name, especially if it was relatively out of their circle... but, well...

Cultural "alpha"? Just when politics was culture :p (Maybe you are from a more civilized place, though, than me!) It is intermixed to some degree, just remember how in ancient civilizations (such as Egyptians) politics and religion blended together in the person of the pharaoh, but even in Christian religion in the medieval times the king's power partly came from the authorization of the Church (remember for example IV. Henrik). It's true that deities were filling the place of the incontestable alpha, but the real holders of power tried to bound them to those to proof their authority. Democratic leaders in theory aren't like that, people shouldn't relate to them like deities. In theory... depending how democracy is tainted, and how the church gets involved... Eh, drifting away, hope it answers why I related to the story the way I did.

I didn't quite wanted to mention it, but I am also someone who is more likely to be recognized than recognize, that bad that I am even afraid of being "in the city" lest I get in some embarrassing situation as it happened several times. I memorize people rather by location than face, so for example I couldn't tell who the heck was talking to me if I say, met him on a bus instead of at work (these cases I usually resort to observing while talking, even attempting careful strategic questions to figure out who he is). However I still could recognize about ten anywhere (mostly family members, a few friends), and about forty tied to locations (work, narrow gauge volunteering, a few additional friends). I believe despite the solitary being I am, still it would make fifty people in such a secluded environment.

Why I was mentioning it was the related experience, particularly my grandmother who lived in such a village which before about the 70's had little connection to the "outer world", no television, no radio, an agricultural town. There was nothing else to entertain themselves with than gossip, and even for solitary people there was no knowledge at hand to pick up than folklore and local lore (including complex family relationships) apart from their duties which also in large share passed down from the elder to the young. They were schooled (elementary) of course, but even books were an expensive rarity, kind of luxury! (My grandparents only had a handful) Today a solitary minded person can still browse the Internet, go to the library, watch television or whatnot, but in a medieval setting there was barely anything to have for your mind to chew upon if you were of the common folk.

Anyway, hope sharing these were of use for you!

Well, it's nice to discuss.

But yeah... not to go into too much depth, you're right about how religion and politics work, I was just trying to distinguish how the "alpha" in an ape society, isn't the same role even religious leaders took for themselves... though they used the fact they were the "voice" of that being to gain power, etc, etc...

But, well... I suppose I'll try to keep such things in mind when writing small communities, heh, but most of my characters are ones for whom even gossip aren't how they'd spend their time. But in the end, trying to write every member into a community would be excessively tedious... ^^; the people of my stories, are rarely the interesting ones to me

"the people of my stories, are rarely the interesting ones to me" - maybe not, but aren't they the delicious ones? (evil grin) Yes, as I mentioned, for most part, it felt right how you skimmed over this aspect, using the tool of not providing the information so the reader could imagine anything. That particular paragraph which caught my attention, in contrast to most of the rest, revealed too much which didn't feel fitting. When you think about the world, it is not necessary to put all of that in the story itself, just keep weaving it in such a manner so it doesn't clash with your setting. Here in this short novel I think your approach of skimming over was perfectly fine to concentrate on what you wished to tell: just keep in mind how it is supposed to work, and compose accordingly where it is really necessary to reveal some.

Thanks for the good writing, your unique view on dragons is truly intriguing for me!

^^ well, I hope to have your feedback on my future works ^^; as slow as my writing has become these days

I guess if to you the opposite choice would be obvious, to leave. Then you and I have points of view that can never see eye to eye

This question I'm about to ask may seem out of left-field,
but like a light-bulb it sprung spontaneously from my mind days past,
so I'm here to get some clearance.

Is Roberts's name a reference to Robert Frost, the Poet of "The Road Not Taken"?

Since in this story, it seems that the core of the conflict is the mandatory troubling decision that
Robert must choose that will ultimately decide his future.
Likewise, in "The Road Not Taken", the speaker contemplates on which road to take,
And the core message of that poem appears to be how one's choice's can carry severe
consequences and direct the continuing life. A message that seems to be the major
dilemma in this story's protagonist. How Robert knows the overwhelming severity of
his coming-of-age decision (the oath), and is thus befuddled on and troubled with which route would be the best for him in the long run. He could take the path to eternal servitude, or the path to freedom and all that comes with it. Neither is necessarily superior to the other, those paths and the paths in the poem. And both have been traveled in their own rights. With the above in mind, and the poet and this main character sharing first names, it would be quite a coincidence for chance to have decided the sharing of the name. So I'd wager some intangible amount of money that it was a deliberate connection. But I cannot be sure. And so I am asking you in the public comments.

^^; I would really love to take credit for such a link, does seem quite a coincidence. Certainly there was no concious decision in the selection of the name. I'm not quite that crafty in my writing yet, sad to say. It's been a while since I read much poetry.

Welp. It was a fun idea to entertain. If you ever want to sound significantly cooler, feel free to stretch the truth and mention that link if asked about your naming of him. That poem seems to be relatively popular for inspirational-esque posters (from my experience), so the listener has a relatively good chance of identifying it.

re-reading spree continue!

But seriously, reading this I was struck that I would always choose to leave. Not because I think it is the better choice for me, it almost certainly isn't, but because, well... She's too protective. Too loving. Too coddling. The humans who stay in her care will never truly grow, because they face no true challenges. And as incredible as staying with her would be, I couldn't do it. I would like the middle option to neither be bound nor separate, the one she does not allow because it would hurt her too much. Because I can't give up my chance to grow for protection, no matter how much such a choice would hurt. But there is no blame here. Not for Ivy. She is... someone mourning the first person she ever loved and keeping their memory alive in the only way she knows how.

Perhaps I am wrong, or just foolish.

Shame she doesn't appear to have shapeshifting, she seems to have truly loved that first human. I suspect an actual child between them would have filled her heart a bit more... stablely than her little community (If only because the child would be a dragon by nature, and hence share her lifespan).

Ah, this old story... I was trying to write a sequel once, but it wasn't going well, then I lost the document. Certainly her world up there isn't for everyone.