Unlikely Pairs - The Dragon Ch. 06

DISCLAIMER:

The following starts off as a slow-burn romance without any spicy action for a while. As well, this is my first time putting to words a story idea I've had for a long time, and my first foray into proper writing in general.

I'd like to give a quick shout-out to Annabelle Hawthorne, the author who ultimately inspired me to finally give a go at trying to put this story out.

WARNING: The following also contains discussion of trauma around miscarriage and spousal abuse, though nothing explicit.

________________

[Mid May]

=

The weeks that followed after Lewis Greene had begun regularly bringing in shipments of produce from the garden chamber inside of Jiva's lair within Naked Mountain down to Kent Valley had been a bit of an adjustment period for the artist. He had to acclimate back to being around other humans again after a few months of spending all his time around an amazing dragon and an entire clan of gnomes that respected him a little too much for his comfort. Still, it had been worth the effort, as the excess stores of fruits and vegetables no longer needed to constantly be converted into more easily stored forms and were being used to supply Kent Valley.

The townspeople were a bit put off at first by these deliveries, but they eventually came around once they actually started buying the produce that Lewis had been supplying to Stanley Brown at his grocery store. It was thanks to this new partnership between the grocery connoisseur and the artist that the storefront became the most popular in Kent Valley. In addition to Lewis visiting Stanley to make his deliveries, the two of them began to hang out more often in general after the store owner had treated him to lunch on that fateful first day; they were pretty good acquaintances now.

Most importantly of all though was that the artist now had a consistent stream of income. He didn't need any of it for living accommodations or basic meals considering he now lived with a living force of nature and magical denizens more than happy to feed him if he asked, and even when he didn't. This meant he could spend it on more leisurely things to bring back and share with everyone.

On this specific day in the middle of May in the late morning, Lewis was sitting down at an outside table at one of Kent Valley's cafes, a place called Chai in the Sky. The name pun was pretty bad in his opinion, but they had an excellent selection of chai varieties to choose from considering the artist's distaste for coffee. He was sitting down with Stanley, and both were having their tea brought out to them. The food connoisseur took a deep sip from his cup after the waiter brought it out, exhaling with satisfaction.

"I love chai tea in the morning on my day off."

Lewis raised an eyebrow and feigned being offended. "You can't say that, Stanley! Chai literally means 'tea', you know!"

Stanley waved a hand dismissively. "Okay then, ATM machine."

Both of the men chuckled. As Lewis drank from his cup, he brought out a notebook and crossed out some items on a list; Stanley took notice of this.

"Okay, what's on the list to bring back to your girl this time?"

Lewis didn't even look up from his notebook, but his cheeks did go a bit red. "Jiva's not my girl, alright? She's technically my landlady, and we mostly just work together to manage growing our produce."

Stanley looked unconvinced. "Uh huh, and that's why you're always asking what you can bring back to her that's new and different, like those monster fucking books during that first week you were here."

"They're good books, Stanley. I actually like them for their plot and characters, like the first book in the spin-off series about the succubus and zombie--"

"Goddamn, alright, enough!" Stanley was already exasperated at having to hear about this again.

Lewis chuckled at how easy it was to get under Stanley's skin about his and Jiva's literary preferences. The man didn't generally judge people for their kinks and desires, but he very much didn't like hearing about them in his free time. This was something which the artist had occasionally used against him for some light humour. However, Stanley bringing up Lewis's tendency to look for things to share with Jiva had gotten him lost in thought a little about the dragon.

She was incredible, unique in so many ways, yet she had never looked down on him as someone she felt was beneath her unlike how she treated most of the gnomes at times; not that she disrespected them, just had different expectations. Well, maybe she did treat him as beneath her in the first couple of days, but even when she was telling him what to do, it never felt like she expected total obedience from him. And after the fairy folk got settled in as her primary workers, they had continued to build their friendship and had more free time to simply hang out. Their flights together were especially wondrous given how dragons rarely ever let anyone fly with them besides other dragons, and soaring among the clouds was a favourite pastime of theirs to do together.

Lewis found himself smiling as he recollected it all, and in particular the pledge he had made to himself after that first night to do everything he could to enrich her life.

Stanley had to snap his fingers a few times to get Lewis's attention, much to the store owner's chagrin. "Lewis, you're getting lost in the sauce again."

Lewis looked at Stanley with a bit of embarrassment. "Heh, sorry about that. What was I doing again?"

Stanley teased the artist. "Telling me more about that girl you pine for?"

"No! Here, let's see."

The artist glanced down at his notebook that he had set down on the table, seeing that the next item on his list said to look for a couple of button-down shirts at the clothing store.

"Looks like I'm heading down to Wanda's. I'll see ya in a bit, alright?"

"Alright, see ya around." Stanley waved off Lewis.

The artist quickly finished his tea, trusting that he could leave it with the food connoisseur given how the man liked to take his time with his beverages. He then got up from the table and started walking on the sidewalk down the main strip of Kent Valley. After a few minutes of walking, he stopped at a moderately sized clothing store. The sign read Wanda's Custom Threads, which was a much better overall name than Chai in the Sky to Lewis. He stepped into the building and was greeted by the familiar sight of rows of circular clothing racks carrying a wide assortment of shirts, pants, dresses, and more.

As he went to one side of the store to look at some button-down shirts on one of the shelves, he got a tap on the back of his shoulder that prompted him to turn around. A somewhat older and shorter-set woman with red frizzy hair with some grey streaks, a cargo dress, and a jean vest was now facing him. She had her hands on her hips with a bit of annoyance on her expression as she spoke with her slight New Yorker accent. Or was it a New Jersey accent?

"You don't even say hi when you come into the store, what is the matter with you, boy?!"

Lewis chuckled a bit. "Sorry, Wanda. I was a bit preoccupied crossing off the items on my list today."

Wanda Palazolo relaxed a little, though she still crossed her arms. "And no pretty little crystal creation for me today, either? You've really got your noggin screwed loose today."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Next time, I promise!"

"Alright, alright, let's get you settled then. What can I do for you today, Lou?"

Lewis took a look at the shelves of men's button down shirts, frowning a bit as he failed to see anything he really wanted.

"I dunno, none of these ones on the shelves are really doing it for me, you know?"

Wanda nodded in agreement. "You're absolutely right. You need a very specific style to impress your lady friend."

Lewis groaned at this insistence. "It's not for Jiva, alright? I just don't have enough good button-down shirts for nice occasions."

"Oh yeah, nice occasions like those dates you go on which you insist aren't dates!" Wanda played up her response with extra gusto.

While the artist was left groaning even louder at this teasing, the clothing store owner was heartily laughing at his expense. After she had her fun, she started walking up the stairs and gestured for Lewis to follow her.

Upon reaching the store's second floor, she took him aside to the backroom up top where she personally worked on custom ordered clothing, particularly dresses and suits for special occasions like weddings or graduations. She motioned for Lewis to sit in the chair by the wall while she stepped behind her sewing machine to sift through some of the boxes. While he waited, the artist took note of how messy and unkempt this place was compared to the very neat and organized appearance of the main storefront down below. Wanda was a good salesperson, but at heart she was a fashion designer and had a keen eye for what would best suit a person's aesthetic.

After a bit of digging, the fashionista managed to locate the box she was looking for. Wanda walked over to Lewis and put the box in his lap. She patiently waited for him, the cue for him to open it up and look through. Lewis obliged her silent request and pulled out the shirt on top, holding it up high so that it could unfold. It was a grey button-down shirt with black flame motifs throughout, one that the artist appreciated the look of. He similarly approved of the others as he quickly rifled through the rest of the box's contents.

Wanda looked on with anticipation.

"Well, Lou?"

Lewis smiled. "These are great as always, Wanda. I'll take them."

Wanda played up her sarcasm a bit. "My goodness, you're hard to please!" She then chuckled a bit and opened the door.

After heading downstairs and paying for the box of clothing, Lewis waved goodbye to Wanda and headed out of the store with the box of shirts in hand.

He walked down the street to where his pickup truck was parked and got in, making sure to carefully place the box on the floor of the passenger seat. The artist started up the car and started driving out of town, making a turn down the unused dirt road as always to head to the abandoned cabin that was used as a drop-off point for the produce he supplied to Stanley. After arriving at the cabin, he reoriented the truck to face the dirt road. He stopped the car and took out the box to wait on the porch of the cabin. While he waited, a couple of gnomes came out of the forest to check up on him and the car.

Some of the fairy people gave him expressions of disappointment, prompting them to do some quick tuneups to the pickup truck's tire pressure and check under the engine hood. This attention to detail for vehicular maintenance garnered a bit of a smile from the artist. As this was happening, an older grandmother among them tried to offer him a piece of apple pie, but he politely and silently turned her down.

A few minutes later, Lewis could hear the telltale sound of distant wing beats that got him to stand up from the porch and walk out into the clearing next to the cabin. Right on cue, the great dragon of the valley finally arrived, coming down from the heavens as sunlight bathed her body in its glow. Jiva touched down lightly, barely making a thud despite her enormous whale-dwarfing size. She looked at Lewis with a smile, who returned it in kind.

"Hey, Jiva. Got a bit of cargo, so I'll just drop this off back home and--"

"No need, Lewis. The gnomes will take this one home."

Before the artist could protest, the gnomes had already swiped the box out of his hands before he even had a chance to try and hold onto it. Lewis was about to speak up about this, but Jiva was already lowering her head and gesturing with her eyes for him to climb aboard. The artist sighed and resigned himself to climb aboard and take up his usual spot on her neck behind her head. As the pair started lifting off, the minor fairies on the ground waved their goodbyes before dispersing back into the forest after having finished tuning up the car with his box of button-down shirts in tow.

-

-

-

-

High in the sky, Jiva had decided to take a more leisurely flight as she made her rounds patrolling the airspace over the valley. She had taken her sweet time flying, enough so that Lewis had fallen into a bit of a nap. Luckily for him, thanks to her magic, he could easily lay back against her neck and wouldn't fall off so long as she didn't make any sudden aerial manoeuvres. For her part, the dragon was content to simply let him sleep atop her neck while she flew in this moment. As she soared, she looked down to find a suitable spot to land.

It was time to have that talk.

She dreaded even thinking about it, but she knew that she needed to confide this in Lewis, lest she let it eat at her anymore than it already had. He deserved to know what it was that gnawed at her every night, the memories that haunted her for all time so long as she lived. The artist never pushed for her to reveal anything that wasn't immediately relevant to the current situation at hand, and she certainly appreciated that of him. But the dragon could tell that he had that inquisitiveness to know more about her, and he freely shared parts of his own past life; his mundane disillusionment and eventual disconnect with his family in his later years was one of the first things he had shared about himself to her.

She had been forthcoming about many parts of her own past, but this particular story was one she had never shared with any other living soul.

Jiva spotted an area by the river that ran through the valley, one with calm waters and flowers that began to blossom. While it wasn't ideal, she didn't want to share this information in her lair with Lewis. This area would suffice, as it was one where even the gnomes didn't extend themselves to. This moment needed to be between her and the best friend she's ever had, and only them.

The dragon of the valley made a slow descent down to this river bank, gently landing so as to not rock her passenger too much. Even still, the landing had roused Lewis from his nap. He yawned a little as he sat up and stretched his arms and legs a bit to shake off the stiffness from having fallen asleep in such a precarious position. The artist looked around at his surroundings, noting the unfamiliarity of this location. He had been to many different parts of the valley on his flights with Jiva, so seeing somewhere he didn't recognize at all was a bit of a surprise.

Jiva lowered her head and allowed Lewis to slide off onto the ground. After he did so, she promptly laid down by the riverside. The artist took one last glance around before turning to face his big friend. She looked a bit downtrodden, and something was clearly eating at her. When Lewis took notice, she laid her head down onto the ground; the artist walked over and sat down next to her head. He asked his question in a soft voice.

"Jiva.... what's going on?"

Jiva sighed deeply and closed her eyes for a few moments before opening them again as she spoke in a quieter and more vulnerable tone than she'd ever done before. "I need to tell you something. Something which has defined my life for so long."

Lewis frowned a bit, but maintained his empathetic tone. "I'll be here for you, then."

The dragon took a deep breath. "This will be a lot for me. Are you sure you're okay with being with me for this?"

"I am, Jiva. Always."

Jiva took another deep breath, and tried to stay neutral as she spoke.

"When I was a young dragon that had only just become an adult centuries back, I was eager to try and make my mark on the world. Dragons had become a rarity in the past millennium, and I thought I would be doing my part by trying to find a mate so that I could help us repopulate. I spent the better part of 10 years looking for any other dragons who would be willing to undergo the soul-bonding ritual with me."

Jiva waited for a response from Lewis, but he simply waited to let her continue. She sighed and went on with her story.

"After years of searching, I did indeed find someone who was willing. His name was Xavian. He was a much older and larger dragon than I was back then, as old and large as I am now. I thought I was the luckiest dragon in the world to have not only managed to find a mate, but one so experienced and powerful. When we engaged in our soul-bonding mating ritual, when our souls connected and our lifespans synced up, I felt happier than I ever had before. I had succeeded, and found one who would provide me with strong offspring."

Lewis perked up at one particular instance. "You said your lifespans synced up?"

"Yes, Lewis. I'm not entirely sure why this is the case considering dragons don't really die of old age, but it's something that happens to allow mates to fully live out their lives together to the end." Jiva was grateful for the brief interjection.

Lewis could tell she appreciated his question, but he frowned at what was coming. "Okay.... what happened next?"

Jiva breathed in and out deeply as she tried to mentally prepare herself for what was to come.

"After we had finished our soul-bonding ritual, Xavian and I underwent reproductive heat, and I was able to become pregnant. We can't reproduce, otherwise. When we mated, it was as though the whole world was bliss as he mounted me and brought me to orgasm before planting his seed deep within to fertilize my eggs. Over the next few months, as I held our developing clutch within my body, we did as most mated pairs did and had casual sex on repeat. While it never reached the highs of when we were in reproductive heat, it was still a fulfilling life for the two of us."

Jiva's breathing had started to become more ragged and frequent, prompting Lewis to turn around to try and soothe her with his touch. This seemed to work, as her breathing slowed back down to a more normal tempo.

Lewis spoke up quietly and reassuringly. "You don't have to keep going if you don't want to."

Jiva sighed as she looked Lewis in the eyes. "Yes.... I do." The dragon closed her eyes and mentally prepared herself once more.

"Eventually, the time came when I laid our eggs. I had made such a nice nest for them, and was so eager to meet our hatchlings. In a few weeks, they would hatch, and Xavian and I would begin our new lives as parents."

Jiva began to breathe in particularly hard. "The day of their hatching came.... and they didn't hatch. I waited for hours for them to hatch..... And then, I waited for days..... Then, I waited a week...... And then I waited for three weeks. My eggs still wouldn't hatch."

Tears had begun to well up in the corners of Jiva's eyes, so painful were her recollections.

"And then.... then.... Xavian told me that our eggs weren't viable, that they would never hatch. I refused to believe him, and vehemently wished to simply wait them out. When he got angry with my stubbornness, he stomped on our eggs, crushing them underfoot."

Smoke began bellowing out from the sides of her mouth, but there was only deep-seated pain in her tone. "At that point, I snapped and attacked him, managing to tear out his eye in the process. But he was far larger and stronger than me, and quickly overpowered me as he pinned my neck underfoot."

The tears were flowing down from Jiva's eyes readily as she let the painful memory take its course.

"He told me..... he told me that it was all my fault, that he never should've mated with such a young dragon. He told me that our clutch was nonviable entirely because of me, that I was the only possible explanation for why he'd failed to sire offspring. When he left our lair, our soul-bond had been broken."

Jiva curled herself up, wrapping her head and legs tightly with her tail to hold Lewis close to herself.

"I curled up around my smashed nest and simply lay there for days on end. My heart was forever broken, as I had lost everything. I lost my mate, my chance to be a mother..... It was the worst moment of my entire life."

For several minutes, the pair simply laid there, letting the emotions flow freely. Jiva held Lewis tight to herself as she reminisced on the painful separation between her and Xavian, and on the destruction of the eggs which she dearly wished she could've stopped.

It was clear to Lewis exactly what he needed to say.

"Jiva?"

The dragon slightly loosened her curl a bit to let Lewis look her in the eyes. She spoke with barely more than a whisper. "Lewis?"

Lewis looked her in the eyes, tears in his own eyes as he spoke with absolute conviction. "I promise you, Jiva..... I promise to make your life the absolute best it can be. No matter what it takes. I can't take the pain away, but..... but I'll do my best. Because you deserve nothing but the best."

At this, the dragon could do nothing but tighten up their embrace again. The pair would stay curled up together for a while.