Ada was on the wing again, and this time, it was just a pleasure flight. Playful giddiness bubbled in her as it had during her first flight over the ocean. They were still several weeks’ journey away from their paradise home, and she had taken the opportunity to spread her wings without an active battle.

They’d spotted an uninhabited cluster of islands a ways to the North, right at the edge of charted waters, and the crew had made a slight detour to moor nearby so that Ada could go out and explore. 

As Ada flew, she angled herself downwards and skimmed just above the waves. Little hisses of sea spray kissed her snout. Other than a few migratory birds here and there, Ada was alone in the sky.

Once they’d learned just how destructive Ada could be with the locket open and without Pasco’s direct attentions, they’d kept to using it only for shorter flights. It had afforded her the opportunity to learn to relax, to tune into the softer song within herself. She was becoming better and better at directing her arousal.

As Ada gazed out over the endless blue, one of the distant silhouettes caught her eye. Given its size against the sky, it should have been clearer. But it wasn’t, which meant it was something much larger than a bird and much further way. Ada’s dragon instincts were wary of such an unknown, so she angled her flight path so that she’d sweep downwind of the silhouette, but keep it at a similar distance. Though, it did appear to be growing closer.

There, just up ahead, she would pass into its wind current. She wondered if—

The smell hit her like cannon fire, hijacking every single fiber of her body. Her thoughts swirled, dragon and human tumbling together.

It was another dragon. Male. In rut.

Ada made no conscious decision, but her wings flapped powerfully and propelled her up the wind current towards the source of the smell. She’d promised Pasco that if she ever came across another dragon, she’d avoid them. She’d usually had these conversations while human, and human-Ada had thought this to be perfectly sensible. See dragon, avoid dragon. Simple. Smart.

But dragon-Ada did not think any such thoughts, she just flew directly towards the other dragon. It wasn’t like the siren’s pull, which had been other, enveloping. This pull was from within, instinctual. It wasn’t a pull at all, actually. It was a push. Not a drive, exactly. As Pasco said, nobody had ever died from lack of sex. But Ada wanted it, so very deeply and very primally, that there was very little that could have kept her from surging forcefully towards them.

As she approached, she could see the other dragon more clearly. He was thicker than she was, stockier where she was lithe, but his proportions were generally similar. He had red scales and grey horns that branched like antlers. Human-Ada wondered if there were different species of dragon. Dragon-Ada knew he was the same species. Compatible.

He did not approach her directly, but rather, wheeled downwind of her so that he could catch her scent. As he did, a different instinct kicked in. Where previously Ada had flown towards the other dragon, now every fiber of her wanted to fly away.

The reason soon became clear. The male started to give chase, and this spurred Ada to fly even faster.

She’d only ever flown for leisure or combat, and the former was inclined towards ease, the later towards precision. Humans and horses and ships were all so much slower than her that she’d never had to work very hard. Her wings pumped in a totally different way now, a different sort of motion, propelling her much faster than she’d realized she could go.

The thrill, the excitement, was not entirely sexual. It was competitive, exhilarating. This was a new side of her dragon self — a side that would turn down an orgasm to have bested a lesser male, thank-you-very-much.

Even so, he was gaining on her. Ada shifted and climbed, coming to the thinner air. He followed. She went higher and the air became colder and colder, biting her lungs. The clouds were below her now, a different sort of ocean. She’d never flown this high before, wary to risk being so far from a safe landing. 

Such things did not concern her now and she kept up her speed, alone for a few sweet moments above this cloud-ocean.

Maybe she’d finally lost him and he was too weak for such altitudes. Figures, she would—

He burst up from the clouds below her, just a tail’s length away. Instinctively, Ada tucked her wings in and dove, dropping like lead as his momentum carried him up through where she’d just been. The air was this thin, and he was flying faster than her. He truly was powerful.

Confidently, instinctively, she kept her wings folded in tight, her body straight as an arrow, speeding directly towards the water’s surface. She knew she had two options here: to snap her wings out at the last minute and test his stopping power, or to pierce straight into the waters.

Ada dove, the ocean frigid and heavy after the thin air. Her momentum carried her deep, to where the water blocked much of the light. She opened her eyes, but only the outer lid. Her vision was blurry, but impervious to the salt water. Her wings again moved in a way she hadn’t felt before, helping her steer as she swam like a sea snake.

He pierced the water behind her, going deeper still. Good, he’d tire himself out.

Ada swam, spotting the underside of an island up and ahead. He was lagging behind. She’d go take a moment to celebrate her victory. Maybe he’d even drown!

Human-Ada took a moment to raise her metaphorical eyebrows at dragon-Ada’s delight in this dragon killing himself in his pursuit. 

She swam up to the beach, enjoying the warmer water of the shallows. She’d left him far behind in the darkness, and he’d probably pop up exhausted somewhere, and she’d be long gone.

Smugly, she started to lift out of the water.

She felt what was happening more than saw it, and by the time she realized, it was too late.

He surged up out of the water behind her, like a hidden alligator ambushing its prey, and wrapped claws and wings around her as he tackled her onto the wet sand of the beach.

He’d feigned exhaustion so that she would let down her guard, then as soon as she had, he had sprinted upon her.

Dragon-Ada’s assessment of the situation changed drastically in that mere instant. She had gone from aloof to, unsurprisingly, extremely aroused.