A/N: Unintended hiatus, personal reasons, but what I will say is that I lost my writing touch in the process, and have been writing a temporary fanfic off and on, solely to get back into writing again. In doing so, I likewise carried over my newly revived methods into this story. Regardless, onwards to the story, I've said enough. Enjoy.
The first thing Black did, entirely on instinct, was to slowly and quietly relocate herself between Emerald's front legs, as he in turn lowered his long neck overhead of her, protecting her with his own body as the sound of crashing trees and heavy footfalls of a very large beast approached.
Emerald was on alert, he could see the distant creature, it was bipedal and was carrying something long in one arm...
"Troll. Child, take to the skies and escape to the city. Now!" Emerald ordered with a vocal rumbling growl as they creature diverted it's course almost directly in line with his gaze.
It was incredibly ugly, like a bigger, slack-jawed Orc with greyish blue hide, but was covered in what looked like brush and branches. Clear evidence of it's path of wreckage through the trees, made even more evident by the large tree it had clearly used as a club.
Black's own gaze was locked onto the hulking shape of the troll, barely a hundred feet away, and Emerald's growling intensified as the beast locked eyes with him... and then looked down at her.
Emerald spotted the shift in it's gaze, and let out a roar, flashing out his wings in the process. The presence of his daughter in the line of danger changed things now. And especially so since she wasn't making any moves to escape either.
"Child! The city! Go!" Emerald ordered with a flash of anger in their link before bodily grabbing her around her torso and suddenly throwing her straight upwards.
It took her a few moments of her upward momentum to get herself righted and hovering above her father, about fifty feet high, watching as the troll let out a roar of it's own before attempting to throw the branch at her.
With a powerful downstroke of her wings, she shot straight upwards and out of the way, watching her father beginning to square up with the troll.
This was perhaps the first time her father and her had been directly threatened by something that stood it's ground up to this point without turning tail. And the troll was definitely out of her league, so the thought of leaving it to her father was to be expected, and she didn't want to just fly away like he wanted her to.
For now, she would stay out of reach, and was relatively safe since the troll had thrown the club, she also needn't worry about fire from her father harming her either, as she - as well as he was himself - was completely fireproof.
Below, the two of them were in the throes of establishing dominance, roaring at each other and trying to seem bigger. Emerald, of course, was the clear winner in the 'I'm bigger than you' contest.
But the troll was either too brave or too stupid to bother with backing down, and started to charge forward, lowering a shoulder into a ramming position as Emerald lowered himself slightly in preparation to counterattack.
"Child, fly higher since you still clearly wish to remain. I know you're still there." Emerald ordered as he lowered his head and matched the charging troll with his horns, the impact letting out a crash that rended the silence of the night.
They both began pushing each other around in a fierce grapple, the troll throwing punches wildly while Emerald likewise rose onto his hind legs to viciously slash into the troll with his front claws. The troll released the hold on her father's horns, clutching the lines torn into it's gut for a moment before removing the hand and letting out a refreshed roar as the claw marks started to seal themselves back together, stemming the flow of blood in moments.
"Father! Use your fire! Your claws and teeth will only meet the same result! It's regenerative!"
Emerald roared in angry reply to the challenging roar of the troll, lowering his head with a snuff of air from his nostrils - a hint of his impending blast of fire - before letting loose a jet of brilliant blue flames towards the troll, which didn't bother dodging, and became engulfed immediately, but began charging forward through the flames to tackle Emerald despite the lingering flames that coated it's body.
But Emerald took the attempt fully, driving his hind legs into the ground and dropping his head to get underneath the troll's center of gravity and flipped it over his back while simultaneously spinning himself around in a vague imitation of a humanoid's suplex to which the troll landed flat on it's back, staring up at Black's hovering position far above it.
With one charred hand reaching up to the smaller one it had sought in the first place, it's vision was filled almost entirely by the larger one it had fought, and a powerful weight landed on it's throat before it's vision went blue.
After Emerald had finished blasting the troll with point blank flames, it made sure it was really dead by crushing it's throat for over two minutes straight with one of his forelegs before calling Black back down to safety by his side. She landed cheekily atop his head and leaned over his horns to come eye to eye with him and smiled.
"Are you hurt?" She asked in the telepathic link, and he shook his head.
"I will be fine. You should have listened when I told you to escape in the first place."
"And how long of a battle would it have been had I not informed you of the regeneration?" Black countered with a sassy upside-down tilt of her head.
"That is of no consequence." Emerald snuffed loudly before trudging through the trees back to where he knew she always initially arrived in the forest.
"You're avoiding the question."
"And you've disobeyed me directly, so I think that we're on an even ground here, child."
"... Good point." Black admitted her defeat, this time, as they trudged back the way they had initially came from, so she righted her self back into a seated position just behind his horns and settled in for the walk.
By the time she reclaimed her clothing and flew in the direction of home, it was growing far too late for any hopes of a proper night of sleep, but thankfully it was her day off, so she didn't waste excess energy in rushing home, just flying at a lazy pace all the way there.
When she arrived, she didn't even bother undressing before just flopping onto her bed and passed out.
When she did finally awaken, it was easily mid-morning, with the sun streaming in through her window as she slowly got out of bed and idly wandered over to her phone to check for messages. Of course, there was two waiting for her, so she quickly tapped out her replies before discarding her clothing to have a shower and get ready for the day ahead.
After getting herself cleaned up, she was in the process of getting dressed when her phone started ringing to signal a video call from Julius.
Of course she wrapped the end of her tail around it and tapped the accept prompt, and was greeted by his smiling face, the mere sight of which immediately brightened her morning.
"Good morning."
She waved to him with one hand before signing her reply. [Good morning Julius. How are you?]
"I am well, thank you. How about you?"
[I just had a shower, today's my day off.]
"Would you like to come for a visit today? I'm sure Lilith would be pleased by it as well."
Black couldn't hide her excitement at the idea as she nodded energetically. [I can be there within the hour, depending on winds and flight traffic.]
"I'll be waiting in the foyer for you. Have a safe flight."
With a wave, Black hung up and tossed her towel aside and set about getting dressed when a text came in on her phone. She stopped and stared at it, her instincts telling her that it wasn't Julius or Lilith. Something felt... off.
With a slow exhale of heated air, she retrieved her phone and was greeted by an unfamiliar local number. After a moment of resolve, she accepted the prompt and read the message from the unnamed number.
"Are you that dragon girl?"
Black narrowed her eyes, and her pupils with it, are the question. It was too direct for her liking.
"Who is asking?" She replied.
"I am."
"And who are you?"
"You should be more concerned by the fact that I have your phone number and know what you look like."
"You don't scare me, you just hide behind technology because you're a coward."
"No, because calling you is useless you mute lizard. I can see you from here. Nice blue panties. Super cute."
Black glanced towards her bedroom window, knowing she was in plain view of it. But that meant whoever this person was had to be... the only place with a good view of her window.
"You're right. I'm in the mood to get laid. I'll wear the black ones." She tapped out her sassy reply before peeling off her panties and swapping them for her only pair of what she considered 'sexy' panties. It blended in with her scales almost perfectly, so it gave the illusion she was naked. She then added. "I know where you are, by the way. Left balcony, opposite building, fifth floor. If you're in the red lounger, I wouldn't be shocked."
"Nah, leaning on the railing. Should've expected good eyes from a lizard bitch."
"If you're done with texting me, just enjoy the view a bit more. I'm headed for the roof so I can go get laid."
"Before you pocket your phone, mind if I ask why you have a giant blue rock shoved up your ass?"
"Stalk me a little better and find out for yourself."
After a short delay, the last message appeared.
"Oh, I will. You don't have to worry about that."