Chapter 2
Mark ripped a piece of the cooked calf apart and presented it to Maddy, the little servant taking it before she curtsied and found a small seat on the table. He had placed a human chair on the table next to his plate to speak with her.
Gobbling down the rest of the meat, he was soon sucked into a conversation. He learned that Maddy was smart, really smart for being a peasant. She had an excellent education and soon they were debating the views of Alexander Hemfry, a human alchemist who was on the verge of making gold from lead before his death a few years ago.
As they cleaned up the plates, he snapped two claws together and the fires in the room dipped. "You have magic?" Maddy jumped back and stared at him wide eyed.
"Yes, all dragons do, some better than others. Come I need to finish the scrolls." He growled and ushered her to the library. Sitting her down in one of his chairs, the dragon waited as the human gazed at the papers. She began reading, continuing where he left off.
The sound of her voice was lulling her to sleep as she read well into the night, him having to wake her every once in a while to continue. Amazed that he didn't get a human before to do this he listened intently as her voice slowed until he finally released her for the night and sent her to bed, making sure she got to the right chamber.
Stretching he looked around, he didn't have anything else to do, but he would have her read to him again tomorrow.
He smiled at that thought. She belonged to him for a year.
Climbing onto his bed of treasure in the King's Chamber, he laid down to slowly embed the metals and stones into his weak underbelly. Tomorrow he would go through more scrolls.
Four hundred years he has ruled and lived and still he has not finished that library, or been this happy with company.
Slowly, sleep took over as he thought about his discussions with Maddy until he woke in the morning.
_ADS_ Maddy's POV
"Sire," she greeted the great black dragon as he entered the huge library, her brow furrowed at her work that was coming to an end as the day came to a close. She was cleaning the room of the past hundred years of dust in a work dress she made for herself, stopping only for a moment to see the creature looking over a map. "What's that of, Sire?" His head swiveled back and she blushed, stammering, "I mean if you don't mind my asking, Sire."
"Not at all," He let out a great sigh, "It is the castle, this palace. The mountain is the palace, covered in rock after the Alliance was destroyed. Almost four hundred years previous."
"Alliance, Sire?"
"You'll learn it soon or late." He rose up and nodded his head towards a door on the opposite side of the great room. "Once dragons and humans lived in peace and this castle had many humans living together with dragons. It's while all the doors have human sized door as well." Maddy walked next to him as they entered halls that looked like they hadn't been entered in the past hundred years.
"What happened to the alliance?," her demandable curiosity getting the best of her.
"It was ended with the most terrible tragedy on Dragon kind." She came to the broken ledge of something and felt his claws wrap around her and soon she was being taken into the air as he slowly flew down the dark hole. Feeling him land, he illuminated the blackness with a jet of fire lighting a pit.
That pit lead to moats and lines of fire encircling the walls and stretching up. Her eyes caught sight of what he meant.
Egg shells were everywhere, the bones of hundreds of humans scattered all round the room. She turned around to look into his blue, dinner plate sized, orbs.
"Every few thousand years, all the dragons of the world come to this fortress to lay our eggs for their protection. Hundreds of thousands of eggs, little dragons laid here as the last thing an old dragon could do to have their young raised while they die. It is the last thing a dragon does in life is lay eggs only once before they go to die." His voice sounded so pained.
"An underground army, acting like a resistance had gotten into the castle with the help of the servants under us dragons. The night I was born I was forced to fly to survive, what took hatchling months took me and only twenty others minutes to complete. Us little ones fled this place." He lowered his head. "The generation was destroyed. We went from numbering in the thousands to more like a score."
"And this is why you hate us, Sire?" She whispered, wiping a tear from her eye. "I'm sorry, I didn't know, we always thought you were evil but us humans are responsible."
"No, we trusted creatures easily swayed and almost went extinct. I am waiting for another eight hundred years to mate, this is where my children will be, this is where I will bring back my race and enslave your kind. Or kill them, there is no way of living in harmony again."
He was so angry at the humans for what they did. She gasped when he grabbed her up again and flew up the tower like structure to the ceiling doors above. As soon as they swung open he brought her into the sky as it was lit with a stream.
"It's called the Aurora Borealis or Northern lights." She was breathless as the greens, blues, reds and everything between flowed like a river through the sky. "This was the first thing I saw, from darkness to this. I was the first to escape. This was shone to me four hundred years ago and now I look at this and remember that betrayal." He shot towards the lights and entered the flow letting her experience the same thing he had so long ago. To fly surrounded by this cool beauty was amazing.
He dropped back into his home and left her in the library, retiring to his room. She felt sad for him, his entirety was almost destroyed, everything she knew about his species was wrong.
She just hoped she could teach him that some humans were good too.
_ADS_ (Mark's POV)
Instead of going to his chambers, he detoured to the lab chamber, the area where potions were made to cure any and all illnesses including magical assortments.
He looked around until he found the items he wanted. He had made this years ago when he had to infiltrate a human kingdom after rumors of a dragon's egg caught his ear, but it was just a stone.
He had everything ready and stared at the disgusting liquid, he would drink it later. But now he would have Maddy read to him.
Stretching as he exited, he located her where he left her, in the library where he ordered her to read to him. She did this dutifully until he was the one to fall asleep this time.
He dreamt of a dragon as white as snow who stared at him with honey colored eyes. They were soft and welcoming and he wanted to drown in their love. He called out to her, but she dropped from the sky and into the clouds where he couldn't find her in the haze.
He jerked awake and learned that Maddy was leaning against forearm. Her coolness against his burning heat, he would have been almost content with it had that dream not woken him so.
He rose up and took her with him, taking her to his bed of gold and jewels and laying a circle of his tail around her soft, little form.
This might be his servant, but she was his only outlet now, only way to keep his sanity. And he couldn't explain the other feeling he held for her.
"Sleep well." He whispered and drifted off as well. "Little one."
He slept very little, finally forsaking the attempt to rest and stalked to his lab chambers and drank his fill of the potion, a good twenty four hours worth.
The bone breaking feeling of the morphing and change over took him and his body found him. His human body anyways.
_ADS_(Maddy's POV)
She awoke freezing cold and ran to her room to hide beneath the covers. Especially after she slipped out of all but her dress slip, it stopping mid thigh.
Maddy was beginning to drift off again when a pain laced roar met her ear.
Mark.
Running out of the room, she didn't even bother with clothes and hurrying into a hall where he came into contact with a hard chest.
"Maddy!"The man holding her was, well…angelic. Strong body almost flawless skin, dark hair, tall.
Blue eyes. "Who are you?" He smiled as she tried to push away, strong arms tightly around her waist.
"All's fare little one, 'tis me, Markatheus." One hand reached up and petted her hair. "I am playing around with a potion in my restless hours of dark." She nodded hesitantly.
"S-Sire-"
"Maddy, come to my chambers with me."
_ADS_ (Mark's POV)
He had meant to talk to her, to ask her about life as a human, for he never really understood it. That and he had a knack for painting and wanted a portrait of her.
She blushed and looked far too frightened for him to let it pass. Slapping at his bare chest, she demanded that he let her go.
Releasing her, she gaped and clapped her hands over her eyes. "SIRE!"
"Yes Maddy?"
"You're naked." She felt her face burn all over.
"I'm aware." He didn't have any male human clothes with him, only some in his bed chambers. "Come to my chambers, servant, I want to capture your beauty."
"S-Sire, I-I need to go." She turned on her heel, but he grabbed her arm and roughly pulled her back to be cradled in his chest.
She fought back, something that she was to never do if one of nobility wished to bed a young maiden of little or no class.
He carried her past the chamber of gold and into a human sized room that was all windows. "It is the only part of my palace that is not covered in rock, look you can see the night lights." He pointed to the river of glowing green in the sky, but Maddy sat terrified on the bed.
"Pl-please…S-Sire, don't hurt me." He snapped his head to her and found a pair of old pants. Tugging them on, he retrieved his paint supplies and set up his easel.
"Relax, my little one." He placed the first stroke of paint down. "I swear, you shall never come to harm by mine or my underlings care." He quickly painted the background, paying attention to the vibrant green light, before moving to her beautiful form.
One strap of her slip was dropped over her shoulder, letting the folds drop as he showed how the white stood out against her beautiful skin. But she was still shaking, and he could not see her gorgeous face beneath her hands.
Placing the brush down, he stared at her, "Maddy, I am Dragon. You, human. yes we are known for taking human's for pleasure as long as we have this potion." He waved at himself to show her. "But I would want someone who would know what she was doing, not some virgin I must break in and will scream during our mating." He growled and she looked at him with a fright masked face.
"S-Sire-," she choked on her tears and he left his painting, climbing into bed and pulling the tiny servant against his powerful chest. "I thought-"
"I would only do so if you are just as willing as I will be." He whispered as she settled into him, his dragon like heat warming her alone.