To love the spirit is worthy,
To love the flesh divine.

A long day of pillaging and slaughter now gone, behind Ridley never to be reclaimed. Alas, it is behind him, but he has no regrets because he is going home at long last, home to rest, and he is not concerned with the past, only the future.

'Boy, am I sure hungry,' Ridley monologues internally as he reaches the door to his home. He unlocks the door, but before he can get it open, suddenly! Something large and translucent green shoves its way through and knocks Ridley onto his back. It attaches itself to his head and begins sucking, trying to drain him of all his energy and bodily fluids. Ridley breathes fire, attacks it using his hands and feet and tail, rolls around on the ground and thrashes, and eventually the giant green blob releases itself and retreats back inside.

Ridley picks himself up and walks inside.

'You almost had me that time, champ!' Ridley congratulates warmly, patting the Hatchling on its top.

'Scree!' his favorite child answers back enthusiastically, before racing away and out of his sight.

'Don't fly so fast in the house,' a stern voice scolds, and the Hatchling does indeed slow down. The Woman is dusting off a large slab of stone in the middle of the room. Ridley's home is completely dark but for her. She is truly radiant, but this radiance is confined only to her, as it should be. Not even a Woman Clothed with the Sun can illuminate this place. 'Oh you two,' she says, as he approaches her, 'I don't know what I'm going to do with you.'

Ridley grins.

'But I can think of a few things to do to you,' says he.

'Oh, you're terrible! Terrible!' the Woman laughs as he wraps his tail around her metal waist, 'Dinner is almost ready, so go wash up.'

'Of course darling,' Ridley responds, licking her helmet with his forked tongue. She shoves him away and he goes off.

Ridley walks to the edge of the lake of fire and dips hands into it, then splashes some on his face. He hisses as it burns him, then takes a deep breath and dives his head deep into the lake, holds it there. One second, two hours, three decades, four millennia. He pulls it up a moment short of eternity and sucks in the poisonous air. He is renewed. He shakes off the fires and walks back to the table. The Hatchling is already in its place at the table, and the Woman is standing next to it.

'Just in time,' she says as he walks up. She climbs upon the table and lies down, spread eagle. There is a brief metallic ding, and then her golden suit slides apart, revealing her perfect brown beautiful body in its fullest splendor. Ridley licks his teeth and then takes hold of her arm, biting through it just above the elbow.

'Mmm,' Ridley exclaims, 'Falls right off the bone!'

'Don't talk with your mouthful,' the Woman chides, 'How can I expect to teach Junior manners when you can't even behave?'

'Scree!' Junior says, taking a brief break from the Woman's thighs.

'I'm sorry darling, you just taste so wonderful, it's hard to think about manners and enjoy you at the same time.'

'Well, all right,' the Woman says as Ridley begins ripping the meat off of her breast, 'I'm just glad you appreciate me.'

'Oh darling,' Ridley says, now swallowing the other, 'I don't appreciate you, I love you.'

He wakes, and lies with his eyes open for some time. He knows the dream is ridiculous, and some part of him reproaches him for the moral aspects of it, but the rest it encourages.