The Transformation Stone Ch. 02

Note: Not so much TF in this chapter. We still have cumflation, cervical penetration, and some oral sex that reaches to the stomach. Also a scene that I guess is netori, but we're not trying to humiliate the cuck or be mean to him in any way.

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Dayana found a sheltered spot behind a boulder at the foot of the mountain where she could prepare her equipment. She brushed her long black hair out of her face as it blew in the first winds of winter, then tied it up in a ponytail to keep it out of the way.

She scanned the rock face. She was absolutely certain she had found the dragon's lair. She could read the claw marks and the places where rocks had been knocked off by the dragon's tail. She could see it as clear as if the dragon was in front of her now - when coming home, the dragon landed on that wide spot there, walked a few paces along the ledge, ducked its head and went into that cave, its home.

The climb up to the cave was not difficult, but would be too noisy. If instead she climbed to there, made her way along and then down - the last 50 yards or so to the cave could be absolutely silent.

She tugged on the knot that attached the grappling hook to the rope, testing its hold. Then she ran a whetstone along each of her knives, one by one. She knew other adventurers believed in lucky charms or magic amulets. Maybe there was some truth to them. But she had found the ritual that brought the most good luck was having a checklist and checking each item twice.

Preparations complete, she settled down to wait until sundown. With luck, the dragon would leave her lair and not return until sunup. A precious 14 hours or so in which the lair would be empty.

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The dragoness stepped out from the entrance to her lair and stretched. The entrance passage was human sized, so she had to walk stooped, and it always felt good to come into the air facing the sunset, stretch to her full height, and stretch her arms and wings.

The blue scales that covered her body gleamed and glistened in the light of the sunset. To Dayana, watching hidden from about 70 feet below, she looked like a statue of a glorious champion from ancient times. The red eyes in her dark blue-scaled face scanned the horizon rapidly, taking in the entire landscape. Behind her broad shoulders, two large sky-blue wings sprouted and spread out to span four times the width of her torso. Her muscled arms hung easily, and between them were two large, firm, intimidating breasts, each about twice the size of her head. Firm abdominal muscles led to wide hips and a sturdy backside, supported by two powerful legs that ended in vicious claws. Between those legs hung an imposing penis, covered in thousands of tiny blue scales so that from a distance it appeared to be a shining blue skin, as thick as her wrist and hanging flaccid down to the middle of her thighs. Behind that hung two large balls the size of coconuts, covered in shining small dark blue scales.

Even from this distance, Dayana felt her heart race and her breath catch in her throat from the sight.

The dragon sniffed the air, then squatted and leapt into the air, the wings catching an updraft and sending her soaring into the dusk sky. Her nightly hunt had begun.

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Dayana watched her leave and waited for a count of a hundred, then began her roundabout climb to the cave entrance. Even if the dragon was gone, there may be other residents of her lair - servants or creatures that she had created using the crystal. There was never an excuse to exercise anything less than maximum caution.

She came to the cave entrance and moved inside slowly. About twenty feet in, it ended in an imposing door that had clearly been carved by human hands, probably hundreds or thousands of years ago, from the people who lived here before the Vairazians had come and settled. Somebody - the dragon - had added a few traps, both physical and magical, that she could see with just her naked eye, and probably others that would be revealed by searching.

This was not the route to take. If you rely on finding and disarming every single trap, you have chosen the wrong approach. There was no such thing as an impregnable fortress - the defenders had to find every possible weakness, you only had to find one. Do the one thing they did not think you would do. Let us see, Dayana mused, the structure behind this door had been built by humans for humans. And humans have needs, including air and light. So therefore...

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"Good evening," came a voice from behind Selina.

She had finished her duties late today. Cleaning the kitchen had taken longer than usual. As she was walking through a passage between two of the castle's outbuildings towards the humble room where she slept, she heard the voice and turned. She saw two red eyes gleaming in the shadows at a level quite some distance above her head. The figure talk a step forward, and the silhouette of this large intimidating figure became clearer. A few scales gleamed dark blue, reflecting the moonlight.

Selina gasped and staggered backwards a few steps.

"Fear not," the figure said in a deep, low, feminine voice. "I do not intend to harm you."

Selina opened her mouth to scream. Very quickly, the dragon crossed the distance between them and placed her hand across her mouth.

"Shhhhhh. Shhhhhh. Shhhhh," she whispered in Selina's ears. "No screaming. I cannot let you do that."

Selina's eyes were wide in fear. She placed both hands on the dragon's arm and tugged hard.

The dragon roamed her eyes over Selina's body. She definitely had the form that aroused the dragon's lusts. Large breasts, slim waist and a full backside that stretched her peasant clothes tight over her body. She was young, maybe 19 or 20 years of age, with an innocent face and unkempt mousey-brown hair.

Selina in return was finally seeing the dragon's imposing and arousing figure up close. She felt the coldness of her scales, saw those intimidating muscles, breasts and curves. Saw the dragon's inhuman face, its red eyes and scaled features perusing her body with lust. Above all she saw that cock, larger than any human's could have been, slowly hardening and lengthening. At the moment it looked about a foot long.

"We are going to make love, Selina," the dragon told her. "You want this, do you not? You want the pleasures that only this body can bring to you?"

Selina stared at the dragon with wide eyes for a few seconds, then nodded a few times briefly.

The dragon stared back into her eyes, reading her deeply, and then released her and stepped back a pace.

"No," she said. "You do not. You are saying Yes only out of fear." She placed one finger under Selina's chin and tilted her head up to look at the dragon's face directly. "What is your name, woman?"

"Selina."

"Selina, let your Yes be Yes and your No be No. Do this, and you shall be the equal of kings."

The dragon turned, spread her wings and took to the sky, in search of another partner.

-------

Dayana shimmied down the rope. She knew its length exactly - 50 feet - and its end was dangling about two feet above the floor. She added this information to the mental map she was building up.

Her deduction had been correct - climbing further up the mountain she had found many small chimneys cut through the mountainside, allowing light and air into the complex below. A few of them were just big enough for somebody as slim as her to shimmy down. She had affixed her grappling hook across the chimney and then entered the dragon's lair this way.

She came into a very large but warm room, built by human hands. The room was capable of mustering an army. It was about five times long as it was wide. At one end - Dayana checked her compass, the southern end - was the other side of the door she had come to before. There were eight doors on each of the long walls that ran north from there, and another eight about ten feet above them with a long balcony in front connecting them. At the far end was a much larger iron gate in the middle of the short wall.

This place had been carved long ago as a fortress, a place for an army to retreat to in the mountains. This large room would have been the muster hall, before the army marched out through the large gate to take the field. Centuries after the war for which it was built had long been forgotten, the dragon must have discovered it and made it her home.

Dayana left the rope hanging from the ceiling to give herself an escape route. This was a calculated risk - if the dragon returned early, then she would immediately know that she had an intruder. But if the dragon returned that early, then the mission needed to be aborted anyway - the only thing to do then would be to abandon stealth and flee.

For now, Dayana began a methodical search of the ancient fortress. This room had clearly been a dormitory, this room a mess hall, all now abandoned. She needed to find the rooms that the dragon had made into her living quarters, but the only way to find those was to continue the systematic survey.

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Noelene dusted along the corridor and then opened the door to the room where the late Lady Ermina's library was still kept. It never took long to clean this room since the lady's unfortunate passing, as nobody ever came here now. A quick brush to remove the dust that had settled was all that was needed.

She quickly dusted along one wall, rounded the corner of a bookshelf and almost walked into the dragon.

The dragon was standing with one book tucked under her arm and another wide open, scanning the pages filled with arcane knowledge. She towered above Noelene - her eyes were level with the dragon's elbows. Noelene stepped back a pace and took in the dragon's figure - the way her scales gave her the appearance of impossibly perfect, smooth skin; her imposing muscles, daunting bosom, slim waist, considerable backside and of course her monstrous manhood. The dragon turned her face in surprise to see who had intruded, looked down into Noelene's face, narrowed her eyes and a predatory smile spread across her face. "Noelene."

The dragon's eyes watched Noelene intensely and curiously. She saw the maid's short blonde hair, her cheeks flushed red with arousal and her medium-sized breasts rising and falling as the maid breathed heavily. Her body was slight, with just a hint of definition to the muscles from years of scrubbing and sweeping. She was a little plump - Mathias fed his servants well, the dragon was pleased to note. Her eyes focused on the maid's hips and crotch - a very nice width to this one's backside. Her pussy was calling to the futa dragoness. The dragon's dick began once again to lengthen and harden.

Noelene dropped her eyes and curtsied. "Mistress... I mean, my lady... I mean, ma'am... I mean..."

"What was lesson one last time, Noelene?"

Noelene felt ashamed. "You do not make love to girls."

"I do not make love to girls," the dragon said. "Stand up tall, look me in the eye as an equal and speak to me from your woman."

Noelene did her best. She pulled herself up and me the dragon's gaze as best she could. It was hard to think what to say. She had missed her? No, that was not woman enough. "I have been walking in my power since we last met, as you taught me."

The dragon shook her head. "I felt nothing when you said that. Speak again, and speak your truth."

Noelene was more flustered. "Um... when Garit and I make love I have been following my own desire more..."

"No," the dragon said. "Stop staying what you think I want to hear. Speak your truth."

Noelene cowered away from the dragon and hid her face. "Gods help me, I am terrified of you, mistr... dragon. But also I missed you so much."

"Thank you," the dragon said. "Now I feel you." She came forward and wrapped Noelene in her arms and kissed her once. "A woman feels fear sometimes. A woman is not ashamed of being afraid. But a woman never makes herself somebody's slave."

"I... I... Then yes, I am afraid," Noelene said, shuddering in the dragon's arms. "This is... What you are trying to teach me is difficult."

"In one sense it is," the dragon said. "And in another sense it is the simplest thing in the world. Just feel whatever you feel. How is your loving with Garit now?"

"I... I introduced him to what you showed me last time, where he pleases me with his mouth. He was reluctant at first, said it felt against the natural order of things. But then, by the end I... I think he enjoyed it." She giggled a little. "And then... I am sorry, mistress, but I pleasured him with my mouth. I... It felt right."

"Why do you apologise for that?"

"Because... because you were teaching me that I should make love based solely on my own desire."

"And did you not desire for him to feel pleasure?"

"I... I... But then how is that different from what we were doing before?"

"Noelene, there is every difference in the world between pleasing him because you want to give him a gift, and pleasing him because you feel it is your obligation. Now that he has tasted both, the second will never satisfy him. Do you understand?"

"I think so, dragon. But it is so confusing. How do I know if I am following my true desire, or if I am doing things from obligation?"

The dragon smiled. "Let us try this." She separated from the embrace and stepped back. "Do you like my cock?"

"You know I do, dragon."

"Stroke it. Kiss it. Lick it. Do whatever you want. But I want you to think only of what feels good to you. Think nothing of my pleasure."

Noelene dropped to her knees and looked at the magnificent member just a few inches from her face. It hung down to maybe two-thirds of the way to the dragon's knees and was thick and covered in tiny blue scales that glistened softly in the candlelight. Behind it, the dragon's two cannonball-sized testes were shifting and pulsing as she watched.

Her thoughts were spinning in her head. She wanted to do what the dragon wanted. But now the dragon was telling her not to do what the dragon wanted. For a few moments she was unable to do anything.

"Think less. Just be. Just do," said the dragon.

Hesitantly, Noelene reached out for that unbelievable shaft. She cupped both her hands underneath it. She thought she understood what she would need to do to please the dragon. But now - doing something to this was supposed to produce pleasure in herself?

Still, it did feel quite nice in her hands - the coolness against her skin, the softness and firmness as she squeezed it gently in her palms, the way it rolled around as she tipped her hands, the way it flopped when she lifted it up and dropped it an inch or so. It started to grow slowly under her ministrations, and that was amusing, too. She was starting to think of it as her toy.

The scales rolled back from the head of the cock very like a human foreskin, but in a much smoother fashion, the tiny scales at the end of the penis sliding gracefully under the larger scales further up. A very human-looking cockhead was revealed with a gaping slit that was opening and closing slowly as she watched, almost as if it was breathing. The dragon's shaft continued to lengthen and more of the cockhead came into the open air. A single drop of precum appeared in the slit, hesitating before it fell out.

She found she wanted to taste it. Not to please the dragon, either as obligation or gift, but simply to find out what it tasted like.

It was salty with an acid tang that sent a thrill through her body like a hard spirit at the tavern. After she licked it up, more quickly followed, and she happily started stroking the long shaft with both hands in order to get as much of these delicious droplets as she could into her mouth. She savoured the taste as she drank them down.

The dragon's cock was now extremely long, maybe as long as Noelene's forearm. By all the gods, had she really taken all that inside herself? She knew the dragon used her magic to help, doing something to her body, but even so...

Noelene was now running her mouth and hands up and down the dragon's cock freely, thoroughly enjoying the different textures, flavours and temperatures she was discovering. She loved the feel of the scales under the tip of her tongue, the sheer weight of this large tool in her hands, the coldness of the scales contrasting with the warm delectable tanginess of the precum that was now flowing out of the head in a steady stream.

Her breathing was becoming heavier, and she felt her own pussy releasing a stream of its own juices, as if trying to compete.

She understood now. She could feel the difference, and this was a radically different activity to her first few fumblings with Garit, when she had been concerned with being the good woman, getting it right, pleasing her man. She wanted to take this whole column into her mouth because... because it was... well, the only word for it was: fun.

She opened her mouth wider and took a little more of the cock's tip inside her. She was now making out with the slit at the end of the cock, kissing the cockhead with her mouth at so many different angles, running her tongue over the head and slit and even dipping the tip of her tongue inside the slit, drinking down the pouring of ambrosial precum, swallowing as fast as she could to keep up with the flow.

She opened her mouth wider still and fit all the width of the cockhead inside, just half an inch deep. She continued to roll her mouth around it and caress it with her tongue, and took more and more of it inside her mouth, a fraction of an inch at a time.

The dragon watched with pride. Noelene had learned the lesson in her body now, not just her mind. She let Noelene continue until her jaw was stretched as wide as it could and a whole inch of the head of her cock was inside. Then she spoke again, "Would you like me to help you?"

Eyes wide, mouth clamped around this wonderful staff, she nodded desperately. She wanted more. She needed to take the whole thing into her body.

The dragon smiled, and worked a quick piece of transformation magic. Noelene felt her mouth widening, her jaw loosening, and her throat expanding. She was being temporarily turned into the perfect partner for the dragon.

The dragon began to thrust, and with every thrust, a little more of her rod went into her mouth. Soon she was fucking Noelene's mouth, while Noelene worked her meat with her lips, tongue, jaw, and roamed her hands lovingly over the long part of the cock that was still outside. The cock bumped against her throat, and first Noelene's panic reaction was triggered as her body thought it was being choked, but the dragon did not give her enough time to think about that - she pushed hard so that Noelene was forced to lean forwards and several inches slid down her throat.

The dragon continued to fuck the single almost-straight tube now formed by Noelene's mouth and throat, going deeper and deeper into her body with every thrust. Every few seconds she pulled back to allow the maid to take a breath, before powering down her throat again. Finally her balls and hips bumped against the maid's face and she felt the tip of her cock just break through an opening inside her body, peeking into her stomach.

Thanks to the dragon's transformation there was now pain, no sensation of choking or that her body wanted to vomit. Only a sense of wonder, awe and excitement as her body was filled and penetrated as it had never been before.

The two worked together to continue this extreme penetration. The dragon thrust harder and harder, faster and faster. Noelene continued to work the part of the cock that her lips and tongue could touch as it passed backwards and forwards. Finally, the dragon felt her climax approaching.

"Be ready, Noelene," she said. "I am going to... I am going to..."

Before she could complete the warning, a flood of cum fired from her overheavy balls, and Noelene's tongue felt it rushing through her cock, barrelling down that shaft inside her mouth and throat before erupting directly into her stomach. The cum poured into the maid for second after second, and she felt her stomach fill and then swell and her belly skin stretch tight around it as quart after quart of dragon seed flowed into her.

After she had finally finished, the dragon quickly withdrew her softening cock to allow the maid to breathe again. Noelene was looking up into her face with wonder. Her slightly plump belly was now round like a marrow, like a woman who was six months pregnant.

"Was... was that... "

"It can be like that every single time," the dragon said. "You may be with somebody not as large as me, and not magical. But focus on your pleasure, your desire, and the experience will be just as meaningful."

The maid smiled. Then she looked up again. "I... I want more." The dragon just grinned.

Their lips met. The maid surrendered to her desires, clasped her hands behind the dragon's neck, pressed her body against this cold hard blue body that could have come from an erotic woodcutting. She felt the hardness of the dragon's muscles against her skin, felt the dragon's huge and newly hard phallus pushing hard against her stomach.

The dragon began to take charge. She put one hand behind the maid's head, gripped her hair gently but firmly, and pressed her even closer in order to taste her kisses more fully. The dragon's mouth had lips, covered in tiny blue scales that felt to the maid like cold smooth skin, and Noelene was experiencing a kiss more passionate than she had had with any of the young men in the town. The dragon's forked tongue duelled with her human tongue in her mouth, expertly pushing against it, stroking its top and its sides. It tasted delicious to the maid, soft and surprisingly warm with just a hint of acid.

By now the dragon was firmly clasping the maid's backside and pressing her hips closer, angling their bodies so that Noelene's pussy was rubbing against the base of the dragon's cock as they kissed. She broke the kiss and looked at the desire in Noelene's eyes, then moved to kiss Noelene's neck and flick her tongue along its skin, before beginning to remove the maid's clothes.

"I... I cannot be with child," Noelene said. "Lord Mathias would..."

The dragon smiled, and placed the maid's hand on her balls so she would feel something shift while the dragon effected a magical transformation on them. "There will be no babies now, I promise."

The maid's body went a little more relaxed, and she allowed herself to simply be held in the dragon's grip. The dragon opened her blouse, pawed her breasts and licked, sucked and gently bit her nipples, lowering her gently to the floor of the library and almost effortlessly stripping her bare.

The dragon's cock was now rock hard and back at its full length. Her cock and the maid's pussy were pulsing together again, as if they were calling to each other. The first drop of precum appeared at the tip of the dragon's dick and fell onto Noelene's stomach, quickly followed by a few more, and then a steady trickle as the dragon's body prepared to make love. The maid felt her cunt clenching and tightening at the sight of the dragon's cock.

The dragon smiled, and pounced. With another magical transformation, Noelene's cervix opened wide, and the dragon's cock slid all the way inside her in one smooth certain movement. Noelene's eyes went wide and she opened her mouth to begin a keening wail, but the dragon leaned forward and covered her mouth with her hand.

Unable to howl, Noelene's eyes went wide, her skin flushed red and she began to shudder under the dragon's ministrations. The dragon had so effortlessly penetrated directly to the most intimate point in the center of her body so quickly. She felt herself simply filled with the dragon, both physically and emotionally. Every spot in her cunt and womb was being rubbed and massaged with every thrust the dragon made. Parts deep inside her that had never even nearly been touched before were on fire. She could feel the dragon's cockhead pumping away deep inside her womb, spurting out pulse after pulse of precum and filling her baby chamber with fluid.

She was seized by one climax after another, her body completely out of control. Her pussy and womb clenched down on the intruding cock over and over again. Her face was locked in a rictus of pleasure, her eyes locked onto the dragon's eyes whose red gaze was guiding her through the experience. Her breath came out in shaking gasps and tears of joy flowed from her eyes.

She watched the dragon's breasts swaying and bouncing with every thrust, watched her powerful muscles flexing over and over as she drove her cock into her over and over again with consummate control and skill.

Having taken the edge off her lust, the dragon slowed her thrusts. Thoughtfully, she mentally cast one more small transformation on Noelene's body to make her womb and belly elastic enough to be able to contain her load when it came. Then it was time for the real sex to begin.

She reached down with both arms below Noelene's back and easily lifted her up off the floor. Noelene gasped and her eyes defocussed momentarily at the sensation. Then her eyes met the dragon's again and she wrapped her arms around the dragon's neck to help hold herself up. She felt so small, being lifted around by the dragon so easily like this. The dragon stood fully upright and moved the maid up and down her shaft, gently and slowly at first, then gradually gathering speed and power. The maid threw back her head and was about to scream in ecstasy, but the dragon silenced her by grabbing the back of her head and forcing their mouths together.

Noelene went completely limp and simply allowed herself to be handled by the dragon however she wished. She screamed her orgasm into the dragon's throat as the dragon's tongue probed deep into her mouth. The dragon gripped the maid's ass hard and slammed her up and down her cock, knowing now that the maid's body could take it. Noelene's womb was being stretched a little larger each time the cockhead slammed into its back wall.

The dragon rushed them forward so that the maid was pressed against the wall while the dragon drove herself into her furiously now. She knew what it felt like to make love as a woman, but this masculine endowment had its own needs that she found often overwhelmed her rational mind. Secure in the knowledge that the maid was not going to be hurt now, she gave in to the demands from her cock and balls and drove herself into the maid, unable to think of anything now but obtaining her own release.

The maid found herself pressed between the dragon's cold, hard, powerful body and the unyielding wall. Her body began to tense as she felt her largest climax approaching. She felt her body continue to be reshaped, one jab at a time, one lunge at a time. She was so deliciously full of cockmeat and the copious amounts of precum that the dragon was now pouring inside her felt so delectable in her womb. This was sex. The fumblings she had had with Garit did not compare, although thanks to the dragon's teachings they were improving.

She screamed into the dragon's mouth one last time, the largest of all, and her body began to shake, tremble and convulse within the dragon's grip as every muscle in her body clamped down on this wonderful, precious, enormous cock and every nerve in her body was aflame with pleasure. At the same time, the dragon gave one last hardest thrust of all and held herself deep in the maid's body while her balls unleashed their payload.

There was a sound like a waterfall from inside the maid's body, and she felt a rush of cum like a waterfall hitting the back wall of her womb. The maid felt her womb and belly expand to hold the load as quart after quart of seed was pumped into her, and still the rush did not end.

The dragon felt an immense sense of relief and release as her body continued to pump its cum into this amenable young female body for second after second. She collapsed forward, holding the maid against the wall with her weight now, as the desperate need that had built up in her body was finally being met. It just felt so good, so right, so satisfying to be able to shoot and shoot and shoot the sheer volume of fluid that had built up in her cum factories into a warm, living, willing female body.

She found herself being pushed back a half-step by the maid's expanding belly, and looked with satisfaction at the changes she had made to her body. The maid's eyes had gone glassy and her breath came in shuddering gasps as she simply surrendered to the sensation of being so lusciously filled. Her belly had expanded to twice its previous size and continued to grow as the dragon simply could not stop releasing inside her.

Finally, they both felt the steady stream, the gushing of cum subside to a sequence of pumps, several a second, then one a second, then one every few seconds. Finally, the dragon's body shot one last satisfying pulse of seed inside the maid, and both lovers were satisfied.

They slumped down together to sit at the base of the wall, breathing heavily. They looked into each other's eyes and saw there a sensation that was hard to name - not love, but maybe gratitude, recognition, appreciation. They kissed again, then one more time, and one final time, and then saw the acknowledgement come into each other's eyes that it was time to separate.

The dragon helped the maid retrieve her clothing and restore her modesty.

"Thank you, mistr... dragon," Noelene said once again.

"You are welcome... woman," said the dragon. "Walk in your woman. Be not ashamed of any of your feelings and your desires. Until next we meet."

She collected again the two volumes of Ermina's writing that she was taking back to her lair to study, and turned to the window to prepare to leave.

-------

The next door Dayana tried led to a sequence of rooms which had been the commander's private quarters in the days when this was a fortress, and which, as Dayana had guessed, the dragon had made into her home, and perhaps made some alterations of her own.

She clearly enjoyed comfort. The rooms and corridors all had high ceilings. This room has a fireplace, and a sunken cavity with a large daybed. That room was the bathroom, with a very large sunken bath in the floor, a wash basin and a latrine, with pipes in the ceiling from which they could be fed. This room was the kitchen, with a single large stove and many cooking utensils and pieces of crockery. That room was a food store, very well stocked for the winter. This room was a single large pool for swimming. That room was a bedroom, with a bed large enough for more than one person, even if that person was a futa dragoness.

Dayana was aware of time pressing on. In which of these rooms would the dragon keep the transformation stone?

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"Dragon!" a voice called.

The dragon, who had just been preparing to leave by the window, paused. She turned easily, and smiled at the sight of the speaker. "Good evening, Lord Mathias."

Noelene was standing behind Mathias, clutching her very swollen belly and blushing furiously. "My lord, I did not... I was not..."

"Go," Mathias said. "Wait for me in the corridor outside. I am not angry with you."

Noelene scampered away gratefully.

"I should demand payment for everything you have done tonight," Mathias said to the dragon. "Trespassing, taking my property, molesting our womenfolk..."

"Her love was freely offered. Is she your whore then, that I must pay you whenever we meet?"

"This castle is still my home," Mathias said. "You came here without permission."

"What payment would you have of me, then?"

"I want the Lady Ermina that I knew back. The woman I fell in love with. The wife I married."

"You know I could not do that even if I wanted," the dragoness said. "No power in the world can."

She felt a measure of respect for Mathias. She was used to many reactions from the mere humans she met - lust, fear, awe, submission - but now with Mathias, she was meeting with genuine human courage.

"You could still come away with me, my lord," the dragon said. "Hand over your throne to your choice of successor. Come with me. I offer you pleasure unlimited. I offer you knowledge, wisdom, power. I offer you a new life."

Mathias shook his head. "You know I could never accept that."

The dragon bowed mockingly. "Then until our next meeting, my lord."

She turned her back, spread her wings, and leaped into the sky.

Mathias watched her leave, praying that Dayana had completed her quest by now.

-------

Prudence dictated that this was the best time to put an end to the first day's explorations, Dayana knew. Take no risks. Retreat, make notes and a map of her explorations so far. Tomorrow she could return, and begin to systematically search these rooms one by one. She was certain that, if she retrieved her grappling hook and rope, she had left no visible traces of her passing.

But what if the dragon noticed her scent? What if she had some magical means of detecting that she had been here? And what if... what if she could find the stone and be gone, and complete her adventuring career, in less than an hour?

Dayana took a risk in a way that was uncharacteristic for her. The reward, so much larger than any amount of money she had ever handled, ever seen, had affected her thinking. She pushed on, determined to keep searching until either she found the stone tonight, or until the last moment when she had to turn back to be gone before sunup.

Finally, Dayana found the room she had been searching for. This was clearly the dragon's magical collection. A fairly large room with seven tables arranged around the walls and an open space in the middle. A stack of six books on one table, together with one open on the table, was the whole of the dragon's library. She recognised Ermina's neat handwriting in the open book. Scraps of parchment with diagrams and calculations were scattered across the other tables, along with other magical artefacts - wands, crystals, alchemical apparatus.

And there, lying in an open velvet-lined box in pride of place on the table opposite the door, was the transformation stone. Dayana recognised it immediately from Ermina's journal.

-------

The dragon stooped to walk through the entrance corridor, disarmed the traps and unlocked the door in a practised routine, and stepped into the fortress that she had made into her lair. As she straightened up she saw the rope dangling from the ceiling. Apparently she had a visitor. She stopped, held herself completely still, and simply listened.

-------

Dayana approached the table, trying to keep her breathing under control. She was acutely aware of how much time had passed, and that sunup would be in just one hour. She tried to keep her hands from trembling as she put on gloves, and then reached out to take the small twelve-pointed stone in both hands. She brought it close to her face to examine it.

She was fascinated for a few seconds by the way she saw a dozen reflections of her own face in the points of the stone. The light was reflected and re-reflected inside the stone by the many complicated angles between its faces, and it looked like it pooled to form a dim glow in the very center of the stone. As Dayana looked closer at this glow, it seemed to become brighter and brighter. It captured her attention, and she brought the stone closer to her eyes in order to look into its center more closely. The glow intensified and then burned bright in one dazzling flash that made her stagger back a few paces, then vanished.

Her body felt strange, tingling all over. Her skin felt less solid than before, as if it could fall away at any moment. When she looked at her gloved hand held close to her face, the outline appeared blurred and watery. Whatever she fixed her gaze on would be solid and unmoving, but the parts of her hand that she saw only from the corner of her eye seemed to be shifting and wavering, her fingers lengthening, her wrist wobbling - until her eye flicked to the finger, or the wrist, at which moment it suddenly would be fixed and unmoving while another part that she was not looking at directly would appear to shift.

She cursed in her head. She had been careless. She had not considered that merely looking at the stone could be enough to activate it. But there was no way to change the past. Now the next living being she saw would determine her fate. She would be going home as a spiderwoman or an eagle-woman, or some other hybrid being. Hopefully she would be able to find a mage who could reverse the effect before some adventurer decided to slay her as a monster.

But that was a problem for later. The priority now was to escape this fortress. She turned and opened the door to the corridor outside.

"Good morning to you, Thief!"

Dayana desperately averted her gaze, but it was too late. She took in one glance of the dragon standing, blocking the doorway, hands on hips, wings outstretched. Her red eyes blazed with a righteous fire, and coming so close up to her powerful, voluptuous, imposing and so sexual body would have been an intense experience for Dayana in any event. But this time...

She felt a rush of energy surge from the dragon through her body that caused her to lose her balance and fall to the side. She felt it lodge inside her body and fill her from the inside, changing her already. The physical change would be slow, she knew, but already her body felt wrong. Her outstretched arm in front of her looked wrong - it was supposed to have scales. There were supposed to be wings on her back, and they were missing. Her body was too short, too weak, everything was too small...

Her body felt wrong, and she could already feel her bones and tissues start to work to correct this. There were no visible signs yet, but the transformation had begun.

She was going to become a dragoness.

If this dragoness did not kill her first...

------

18 months earlier

"Why not?" Mathias roared. "Why not? You're really saying that, if our army were losing a battle, you wouldn't use your magic to save our soldiers? You'd just watch them die?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Ermina said exasperatedly. "I'm saying there would be... a cost. A price to pay later."

She thought of the best way to explain it to Mathias. "Yes, you would win that battle. But afterwards? Afterwards, you would know that you can create an unstoppable army any time you want. Wouldn't the smaller lands around us start to look very tempting? When the Apladian Empire calls in an interest payment, and you know that you could get the gold simply by sending a few minotaur soldiers or dragon soldiers on a pillage - and they started it, you know, with that border skirmish a few weeks ago... well, you see the danger?"

Mathias shook his head. "I would never..."

"You are mortal, my love. How much would you need to trust a friend before you would lend them this power? Do you trust your future self that much?"

"You don't understand," Mathias said. "The defence of the realm is my responsibility. Should we forego every weapon, every siege engine, just because it potentially could be used for evil?"

"It is you who do not understand my responsibilities," Ermina said. "When I create something new, I have changed the world permanently. These powers I create... I cannot control how others use them, once they are out in the world. But I have... a sacred duty to guide them. They are like my children. They will make their own path, but I can offer direction, instruction."

"I created the transformation stone hoping it would bring joy to the world," Ermina continued. "Each person would be able to have the body that brings them the most delight, the most pride. I hoped this child of mine would be... a healer."

"Now this child tells me she wishes to be a soldier. I ask her to think carefully what her intentions are. Defence and protection are noble ends. Glory-seeking and conquest, though..."

Mathias shook his head. "So we do nothing unless we know what the world will be like fifty years hence? By your philosophy, none of us would ever get out of bed in the morning."

"It is a balance, my love," Ermina tried to explain. "Creation is always a risk, an act of faith, of hope. The things we create never look exactly like we expected, never behave exactly as we hoped. We can never know for certain if they will do more good than harm. And yet... we continue, because to create is better than not to create."

"I created the transformation stone, and already it feels it is escaping my control," she said. "If you create your ogre soldier or your dragon soldier, will you be able to control it? Will you be able to control yourself?"