Commission for a Patron

Dragon Rider

Chapter 1: A Dragon Leaves Home

Fain paced around his home nervously, a red dragon stuck in what was feeling more and more like a dollhouse every day. His large quadrupedal form had a hard time navigating the hallways and rooms made for the bipeds that had raised him. He had apparently been found as an egg, abandoned, or orphaned, he didn’t know for sure, before being found hatched and raised by the sisters of the convent he had grown in. It had been almost his entire world, it and the small mountain village surrounding it at least. He knew little else, and it never bothered him.

Recently though he had started to change. His parents, the sisters, had told him he was coming of age. That he would be a full dragon now, and dragons rarely stayed still in one place unless it was their lair. He had felt the itch to move, the desire for something else, and a certain strange heat that seemed to emanate from him. He had first noticed it one day when he accidentally caught a few of the sisters bathing in a local stream. They were a trio of middle-aged panda women, like most of the inhabitants, and one could tell they were far from spring chickens, but that didn’t matter, or at least it shouldn’t have. He had seen nudity before, heck they had bathed him themselves when he was a hatchling, but for some reason this time it had made him feel hot and restless.

They had felt it too, the innocent surprise on all their faces by the accident was replaced by something else rapidly, not fear, per se, but a reverberation of the heat he had felt himself putting off, as if he was triggering a reaction in them in some way.

Things hadn’t quite been the same since then, and he and the mother superior had discussed when he would leave to make his own way. She had told him that the stories explained that to reach full potential a dragon needed two things. First a mate, one to match his desires and carry on his line, and the second was a rider. A member of one of the biped races that would ride on his back and help him unlock the magic inside him. Dragons had immense magic inside them, but no way to fully release it besides their fire breath. A rider though could channel it into spells of precision and power.

He really liked that idea.

The idea of finding a mate though? It made him nervous. Back when the concept was first explained he felt like he’d die of embarrassment as one of the sisters explained the mechanics involved as if out a textbook. She had even had him watch one of the stable stallions expressing his rut with the females to give him an idea how it would work for quadrupeds like him. It was a thoroughly embarrassing, if educational day.

Until recently he didn’t really see the point… but recently, the idea of finding a mate felt like a better and better idea. A dragoness though? The drawings made them look just like him. None of the supple curves of the bipedal women he had grown up knowing. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to find them attractive, though then again maybe it was a side effect of not being raised around dragons, and he’d understand when he met a female dragon, just like the heat he had felt had simply never occurred to him till the accidental bathing snafu.

Now though he was preparing to leave, stretching his legs and finished up a big meal of a feral sheep before the flight. A hand patted him on the shoulder as he ate. It was the mother superior. Fain remembered how intimidating the panda woman was when he first met her as a hatchling. Now though she was just so small compared to him.

“Hello, mother… Here to see me off?”

“I am yes our child.” She said with a nod, “I’m confident you will find your way out there, but if you need you can visit.”

“I think I will. I love you.” He said, then blushed, “Uh and the other sisters, and the village. It’s been my home so long.”

“And you have been our son, dear Fain. But I’m sure you’ll find your mate and your rider in no time. You’ll see.

He nodded and pressed his muzzle to hers, before spreading his wings and with one last ‘farewell’ launched himself into the air and flapped off.

He flew and flew. It was a long time, a very long time, before he saw anything but mountains and forests as he flew. The mother had told him of cities and empires, but that they were far away, and could be unsafe for him so to avoid them if possible. He was starting to wonder how he’d even need to worry about such things, if they were so far away that even flapping for days found little to nothing.

Eventually he stopped by a river to drink then took down a deer for his dinner. It would keep him going as he continued to scout out for anything of interest. It was weeks before anything presented itself, but eventually he found a cave. The feral grizzly bear inside would have put up a fight. He was of similar size to the bear, but that didn’t mean he would win. Luckily the bear seemed to feel the same way, and it was still early enough in spring to move on, so it did.

The cave was a big improvement for Fain. He dragged some wood in and ignited it to warm the place before exploring deeper. The cave was surprisingly large, with many rooms, some of which bore signs of being carved by something. Knives? Claws? He wasn’t sure, but the caves were apparently widened by someone before being abandoned. He’d have to explore deeper depths of it later, for now though he had found a decent enough lair, for a young dragon at least. It was protected from the elements, and he could build a fire to keep it warm.

Now for the next steps, a mate and a rider. He figures a rider would have to be found among a village. A young guard or soldier perhaps? He wasn’t sure exactly how to get one, but then again, he had no clue at all how to find a female dragon, so perhaps he would start with the rider.

He flew out from his lair, in increasingly large circles looking for any signs of people. He found a road; it wasn’t much but it did look like it had been traveled on, so it was better than nothing. He followed it. Mile after mile, it led him far away from his lair until after almost a full day of flight he found something.

It was a backpack, not rotten or moldy, so it must be fresh. It was close to a river too, so perhaps it was a traveler stopping for water. He listened closely, feeling the warm spring air over his scales and detected a scent on the wind. It was a biped. At least he was pretty sure, it didn’t smell like a feral did, there were scents of leather and spices that wild animals didn’t use, she smelled female too. That shouldn’t matter though, a rider could be a man or a woman, so either was fine.

He crept in the direction of the scent. It led him in the direction of the river. He kept going until he came around a bush and saw the biped he was sniffing.

He instantly realized his mistake.

She wasn’t at the river to drink; it was the bathing incident all over again. This female was half in the water, and quite naked. She wasn’t a panda like his family had been. In fact, he wasn’t sure what she was exactly, blur fur and angular head was new to him. But the rest of her his eyes glued themselves to. She was young, unlike the sisters who were middle aged, this girl was in her prime of youth. Gentle curves traced down over her back to her wide and inviting hips. He saw tone muscles under her luxurious looking fur.

It was only by pure luck that he was seeing her from behind. Luck ran out quick enough when he felt the heat come back again. She felt it from him a second later, just like the sisters had. She spun around to find the source letting him see her from the front. Her white furred belly, her angular face, and her large, plump, breasts. Her eyes widened at the sight of him, and for a second, he tried to move away.

The heat wouldn’t allow it though. The sight of her from the front was too much and he just had to get closer. A part of him said he was making a mistake, but he couldn’t stop it now. He stared locked eyed with the naked female, and moved in.