Trinket (Reverse Harem)

So Much As A Candle

Ethat stirred.

I twisted around. My butt had gone numb. "Ethat?"

He blinked. His scales looked a little less withered and a little more green. He raised his head and shook it slightly.

"She thinks you are angry at her, murder dragon," Itek said, "and you hate her."

Ethat jerked his neck in a high, shocked arch. Then he swayed and braced himself with two foreclaws.

"Shh, stop causing trouble!" I swatted Itek on the arm.

Ethat made a crooning noise of distress and his head plunged low once more, even with my body.

"Told you dragons are dramatic," Itek muttered.

"Stop antagonizing him! Can't you see he's sick?" I swatted Itek again.

Ethat took a breath. His scales clenched with a strange dry rattle, then he shifted into human form, crouched down on one knee, fingers braced on the stones. He looked to his brother, then to me, and smoothed his chapped, dry hands along my cheek. "My love, I could never hate you. We could never hate you."

His skin looked dry and burned, and the top layer of it had peeled up like a rotten sunburn. Black smudges were around his fingertips and fingernails. I touched his cheek. He leaned into my hand, almost lost his balance, and caught himself. My heart cracked a little. "Ethat, what's happening to you?"

"Withering," he said, dismissing it. "It is nothing. I will recover."

"Withering? Like a plant?"

"I am an emerald green dragon, am I not? It is nothing. I will recover." He pulled me close and kissed me gently, his lips dry and cracked and like grass.

I welcomed the gentle graze of his tongue, drew my hands through his hair, then pulled back. "There's taint down here, isn't there. It's coming up from the seabed?"

Ethat did not reply. He smoothed my face with gentle fingers. Then he shifted onto his haunch, the green silk twisting around his strong thighs and hips, and hiding absolutely nothing from view. Heedlessly twisted, the outline of his body pushing against it (was it uncomfortable when a male's balls got sandwiched like that between their thighs?) was obvious. I tried not to look, but it was hard to ignore for that half-second, and both he and Itek caught me checking it out.

My mouth went dry. "Ethat, about Ormiss..."

Itek tensed.

Ethat paused, then eyed me out of the corner of his eye. "Yes, what about that devil-horse-fish?"

Itek pulled at my arm with his hand, drawing me back against his chest. "You are bad with words, murder dragon. Let's keep the conversation until your brother comes around."

Ethat's eyes narrowed. "But I am very good with my teeth and claws. If she will not permit me to demonstrate to her my skills with those appendages, I can certinatly demonstrate it to the horse-fish in a very different way. I am multi-talented. Very much so."

Itek rolled his eyes. "And you look like you'll go up in flames if we so much as get you next to a candle."

Ethat scowled. "She chose the horse-fish over any of us. Even that wolf. Speaking of which—where is that wolf?"

"With the horse-fish."

"How wonderful. How did that unholy alliance come to pass that the wolf earned his way out of this dungeon? Are we still so out of favor? What did we do, my love?" he turned his attention to me, and shifted, that infernal green silk gauze pulling and framing his beautiful body. "What didn't we do? My brother and I—" he looked at Korr, as if realizing all over again how sick his brother was, and a tremor rattled his body, and he seemed to... wither... a bit more as I looked at him.