Category Archives: Part 5: Paradise

Part 5: Paradise, The Dragon's Tower

Chapter 29: A Proposal

They had eventually retired to Pasco’s hut and snuggled up on a bed of cushions. Ada awoke before him, early in the cool morning, and watched him sleep as parakeets twittered outside. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t help but wonder if he was so very skilled because, well… he’d had lots of practice.

Now, that was the pot calling the kettle black something fierce. Ada had enjoyed many lovers back at the castle, but she was coming to realize that there was a difference between being a lover and a partner.

She wanted, deeply, for Pasco to be her partner. He’d happily agreed to be her lover, but what would he think of really marrying her, for real? He’d offered a marriage in name. Had that been only consideration for her, or did it also hint that Pasco was not looking for a partner after all?

And what, specifically, was Ada herself looking for? Not monogamy, certainly. That was not, to her, the difference between a lover and a partner.

As she watched him sleep, a deep and primal feeling came over her, a certainty that she would fight anyone, face any trial, run any distance, to be with him and care for him.

The difference to her between a lover and a partner, she realized, was that a lover was there for the fun stuff. For the sex, and the romance, maybe even for the thrill and adventure.

A partner, on the other hand, was also there for the harder things. For the anxious introspection. For the times when the tensions between two different dispositions were not so nice to tug on. For the soft spots and the rough patches. Someone who would listen as she talked through how angry she was with her parents, and yet how much she still, even now, yearned for their approval. Who would console her, and give her advice.

Someone who would tell her of their own hidden tendernesses, their own deep fears, so that she might soothe them in turn.

Someone at her side, holding her hand, if something terrible happened that they couldn’t stop, like the death of a friend or the loss of a home. Someone to cheer with her, knowing intimately the full depth of her joy when something wonderful happened, like her playful flight, or when the child had given her the headband of mismatched parrot feathers and conch horns, which she had set carefully over a hook on the wall.

All of those things were what she wanted so deeply to have with Pasco, but she was quite unsure of what she’d do if he didn’t want those things in return.

And yet the thought was beating around her chest like a caged bird. So, she thought that while he was asleep, she might confess to him and bleed off some of the urgency, so that she could perhaps endure a bit longer and find a better way to broach the subject.

“Marry me,” she whispered to him.

Pasco grinned in his sleep, but then his eyes fluttered open, and Ada realized with a flutter of panic that he had not been asleep at all.

“For real?” he asked, his voice hoarse from sleep, and quivering with a nervousness that mirrored her own. She realized suddenly what a fool she’d been to fear his rejection. He’d already practically confessed his feelings in the tavern, especially that he was frightened of boring her. Had he withheld any further proposals out of fear that she might see them as too much of a cage?

“For really real,” she said.

“A thousand times yes!” He turned towards her and caught her in his arms, then kissed her long and deep. 

Ada would not normally have been able to endure such an embrace without developing a thirst that she could not leave unanswered. But those had been lovers’ kisses.

This was a partner’s kiss, as emotional as it was physical, and it meant something different. Still urgent, still visceral, but more vulnerable, sensitive.

It did not end with sex, but with Ada curled in Pasco’s arms, telling him about what she hoped for in a partner, and him echoing back her sentiments with equal enthusiasm. She told him about what she had learned in the pool, the way that stress made her seek sex and that she could finally relax with him.

“If it’s from stress then… is it bad sex?”

“No!” Ada said, wanting to quickly assuage the flicker of guilt in his eyes. “Not at all. In fact, it’s kind of fun. I mean, it’s hot, right? Like, I shouldn’t, but it just gets me so…”

“Insatiably thirsty?”

“Exactly!”

“You sure do like doing things you’re not supposed to.” He grinned with mischief.

Ada giggled. “Yeah. Sometimes. So, don’t feel bad. It’s still great sex. And… both is good. Because like, the waterfall… with you… and being so relaxed… it was, wow. Totally new to me.”

“Really?” Pasco seemed greatly encouraged by that. “It’s my favorite sort of way to climax, personally.”

“I can see why. And don’t get me wrong, I also love frantic, pounding, slavering sex.”

Pasco’s shaft twitched like Ada had hoped it would.

“So yeah… both is good. I like both in my life. I like you in my life.”

He brushed his fingers through her hair. “I like you in my life, too. Believe me, I would chain your little ass here in a heartbeat so that you could never leave, but I don’t want to trap you.”

“Please trap me.” Ada’s brain melted like hot candle wax and poured out of her ears. Her arm under her quivered and she collapsed into the pillows, arousal throbbing in her sex but her body too obediently limp to do anything about it.

Pasco raised his eyebrows. “It really gets to you when I talk like that, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” Ada said. “It’s like…” She bit her lip as she tried to find words, which was difficult with what he had just done to her mind. “It’s a bit like when I asked you to tie me up in the tavern. Which, yes, was for directly pragmatic purposes. And this feels a bit like that too, like… like I’m having a moment of lucidity, and for my own good, I do want you to trap me here. With you. And it’s not that I’ll really try to leave, or that I’ll really forget that I want to be here, it’s just that… it feels good to have something to tug against. Something that I can pull on, so that I can see how firm it is, and be confident that it isn’t going to break so that I know that you want me to be here, I know that you want me to stay, I can just…”

“Feel safe,” Pasco offered.

“Exactly. Does… does that make sense?”

He ran his fingers through her hair and she nearly melted again.

“It does make sense. I’ll ask the king and queen to come up with the most binding contract that they can think of.”

Ada whimpered and squirmed and that seemed to be what Pasco was going for, because he grinned wolfishly and continued.

“I am going to marry you so hard. And then I am going to fetter your little ass to me so that no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you fight, I keep pulling and pulling you back to me, because you are trapped here with me my little dragon, and I am never going to let you leave.”

Ada was panting, quivering, intoxicated. “F-fuck me, fuck me right now!”

With a mischievous growl, Pasco did. There was no lingering this time, no teasing, just primal, visceral sex as if the climax would seal their promise.

Fucking with abandon like this, Pasco didn’t last long. “Fuck, fuck, Ada, I, Adaaaaa!” He thrust into her and stayed as his shaft throbbed and his seed coursed through.

“Yes, give it to me!” The sensation was hot and intense though not enough to make her climax. Even so, Ada felt waves of sympathetic pleasure roll through her and she moaned with him.

He lowered himself gently on top of her, still inside of her. His shaft twitched and she squeezed him. He gasped.

He was heavy enough that she couldn’t move him, she could only clench at him and try fruitlessly to grind against him.

As she shuddered, he started to get up. 

“N-no,” she gasped. “D-don’t move. This is the kind of trapped… I want to be… forever.”

Pasco growled, his own arousal twitching back to life, keeping him firm inside of her. He kissed the nape of her neck, nibbled at her ear.

She squirmed and quivered.

He put his tongue to the side of her neck and licked her.

“Gods,” she moaned, “Nooo… fuck!”

Waves of heat shook in the pit of her stomach, but there was precious little sensation.

Without moving off of her, Pasco reached for one of her hands and brought it around and up towards their faces, then placed two of her fingers in his mouth. It was hot and wet and he moved his tongue over her sensitive fingertips, sucking at them.

There were so many nerves in her fingers and absolutely every sensation in her body was coordinating around her throbbing desire, and he brought her to the tantalizing edge just by sucking her fingers like that.

She rocked her hips as much as she could, but he was so heavy on top of her, she could hardly move, she could hardly breathe.

It was absolutely perfect.

“I can’t take it anymore…” she whined, “Let me up!”

Pasco started to shift, but then caught himself and settled down a bit heavier. “You know how to get me up if you really want,” he crooned in her ear.

Gods, her whole body was pounding with hot sensation.

“N-not fairrrr,” she gasped. “Let me up!”

She wriggled against him, trying to shove him off in earnest now. She was more and more certain, with each passing moment of struggle, that the was no way that she could get him off of her, no matter how hard she tried.

“Why do you want to get up so badly?” Pasco teased. “I thought you liked it here.”

“B-because! I need to…”

“You need to what?”

“I need to…”

“What’s that?”

“I need to come!”

“Hmmm…” Pasco considered. “No you don’t.”

Gods. She had truly created a monster. 

“Yes, I do!”

“Or what?”

“Or I’ll die.”

“Mmm I checked the history books, and y’know what? Nobody has ever died for lack of sex.”

Ada whimpered. “I’m going to!”

“No, I think you’re just fine.” He twitched his hips teasingly into her.

After so long marinating in arousal, the sensation was much stronger than before, especially the feeling of him inside of her. She clenched hard around him, the quivering light of sensation nearly blooming into orgasm before it flickered out again. She groaned.

“I think I’m going to keep you here forever,” Pasco said.

“You c-can’t…” Ada was panting heavily now, struggling to breathe under Pasco’s weight and her impending urgency.

“Oh yeah? And why is that?”

“B-because I… I’m gonna…”

“Because you’re going to die?” He thrust her hips into her again and she yelped.

Everything was so hot, so intense, that it was hard to tell where her torturous bliss ended and her impending orgasm began, until the heat ignited in an unmistakable way.

“N-no b-because I’m g-gonna… come!” Ada did not know what was going to happen if she became a dragon with him on top of her like this, so all she could do was scream, “Red, red!”

Pasco shoved himself off of her, the feeling of his shaft sliding out of her tipping her completely into her climax.

She came to her senses still feeling a firm pressure around her, but it was not Pasco anymore, it was the hut fighting to contain her draconic body. The walls groaned and Ada curled herself in more tightly, relieving the pressure.

Pasco sat in the center of the room, staring up at her with a grin, fortunately uninjured.

There was one other thing she was worried about having broken, but she sighed with relief as she saw it right at her nose, just barely having escaped the crushing force of her expanding body. The headband from the children still hung safely on the wall.

Ada would not be leaving the hut unless she tore it down or came again, because the door was much too small for her dragon body.

“I’m gonna need a bigger room,” Pasco laughed.

“Yes, please,” Ada grumbled in her dragon’s voice.

“I’m surprised you were able to come like that.”

“Well, it really gets to me when you talk like that, apparently.”

“Like what?” He grinned wolfishly.

Uh oh.

“Like when I call you a greedy little slut?”

Ada whimpered.

“Or when I tell you that you’re trapped here with me forever, because no matter how big or strong you are as a dragon, you will always, always cave to your thirst and come crawling, slavering back to me?”

Ada’s eyes rolled back in her head, her body trembled, wetness drooled from her mouth and from her vulva and onto the cushioned floor.

What Pasco said was true because she wanted it to be true.

She listened to him so completely because she loved everything he said.

She would always come crawling, drooling, begging back to him. He had her heart, her sex, her everything tied up around his little finger.

But, she had learned a thing or two about knots, and she knew that this was a slip knot. If ever it wasn’t what she wanted, if ever it was doing more harm than good, she could simply tug on her end and it would unravel, and she would be under her own power again.

Presently, she wanted everything that was happening. She wanted it so bad. She wanted to collapse to the floor in the pile of cushions and to ooze drool and femcum onto the floor for him, to plead and beg and please him. And the way that she had seen his arousal fall so quickly when he worried for her made her trust him even more. Unlike herself, he would never get too carried away that he was not listening to her true intent, keeping her true pleasure in mind.

With a shuddering sigh, she collapsed to the floor.

“What happened to the big, strong, dragon?” he teased. “All I see is a drooling, begging mess.”

“Pleeeeease…” she groaned.

“What are you even begging for?”

“I…” Ada searched in her heady confusion. “I don’t… I don’t know I…” Surely, there was something?

“Are you so lust-drunk that you’re begging just to beg?”

“N-noooo,” Ada moaned, though she knew the answer was ‘yes’. She curled up the knuckles of her back feet to touch herself.

“Ah ah,” Pasco said, “I don’t remember giving you permission to touch yourself.”

Ada yelped, her sex clenching, sending a wave of fluid out over the floor, but her feet stilled. “W-what?”

“You heard me.”

“B-but—”

“But what? You want to be a good little dragon, don’t you?”

Ada’s head flopped back down to the ground and she lay there dripping and dazed as Pasco started to stroke himself.

“Can you lick yourself?”

Ada nodded emphatically.

“Do you like it?”

“Y-yes, it just t-takes me longer than rubbing…”

“Perfect,” Pasco said. “Do that, then. Lick yourself for me.”

It was almost impossible for Ada to comply, the way that his tone of command seemed to melt her will into sheer heat. But somehow, she mustered her wits and curled into a tighter circle, draping her forearm over her back to hold her more easily in place, and she flicked her tongue out at her own sex.

She tasted amazing and it was enough to give her a surge of even greater desire and energy.

She started with long, slow licks over her outer scales, greedily licking and swallowing all of the wetness that covered her. That arousal sent more oozing out of her, which she licked up all the more enthusiastically.

Her inner labia were now puffy and swollen, spreading apart her scales with the most delicious stretch, and Ada pressed her tongue between them.

It felt so good to have something inside of her. Ada moaned, the sound traveling through the bones of her jaw and vibrating against the scales of her stomach. It was a lighter, more teasing feeling than the rumbling of the waterfall, but it felt amazing.

She pressed her snout harder against herself, spreading her outer labia more with the tip of her nose, savoring the strange twin sensation of the softness of her inner labia against her snout, and the arousal of her snout against her labia.

She licked deeper inside, tasting herself and drawing out even more fluid as her sex clenched.

Ada curled herself a bit tighter, pressing her snout just a bit deeper, until the tip of her chin rested against her clit and she moaned experimentally.

The sensation of vibration directly against her clit was so intense, so brilliantly pleasurable, that she could not help but moan even louder, which redoubled the intensity.

It was almost too much to handle but she couldn’t bear to stop. She licked and moaned and quivered and drooled and the heat ignited. Her roar of pleasure because the most intense sensation of all, rumbling through her in the delightful wave that rose up around her and carried her over a smooth, long peak and finally, gently, onto the shore.

Which was, in this case, a puddle of drool and femcum.

“Adaaaa…” Pasco gasped, stroking himself vigorously, somehow having resisted his own climax through all that. Gods bless that man.

His voice broke through her haze and she pulled herself to her knees under him. Though, this wouldn’t afford her the angle that she wanted. “Lie down,” she said.

His curiosity brought him back from the edge, though only just, as he complied.

She made sure that her hand was nice and slick with dragon cum, then came over to him where he lay, his legs slightly spread, still stroking, other hand cupping his balls.

Ada grinned down at him and slipped her hand over his perineum and to his rim.

“Fuck, yes, yes!” His face was alight with pleasure. 

She slipped two fingers inside.

“G-gods you feel so good!” He gasped. “You’re gonna make me… you’re gonna make me…”

She pressed her fingers up into his spot of especial pleasure, and his muscles clenched around her as he started to come.

She greedily wrapped her mouth around his shaft, his hand falling limply to the side as she sucked and licked him through his long, trembling orgasm.

Finally, he started to shake with overwhelm and she gently withdrew and flopped down next to him.

Pasco heaved a sigh. “Gods, you made me come so much…”

Ada licked her lips with satisfaction. “I know.” Then, she surveyed the room, which looked as if it had recently been flooded. “You uh… made me, too.”

“Maybe we should just… live at the waterfall. It would make clean up way easier…”

“Oooh, sounds good to me.”

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Part 5: Paradise, The Dragon's Tower

Chapter 28: The Waterfall

Remembering the waterfall massage from before, Ada shifted herself under the stream and purred happily as it beat down over her shoulders. It was heavy and soft. The water pressed her down into an even more relaxed space and she stretched her spine, then twisted over on her back like she was tucking up in bed.

The waterfall splashed on her stomach, and it felt more than just relaxing.

“Ohhh,” she purred, and wiggled a little further up, so that the water fell over the scales of her outer labia. The sensation was incredible, immediately pleasurable and arousing, a rumbling, pulsing vibration around all her most sensitive spots. “Ohhhhhh…”

Her head flopped back against the rocks, upside down, her tongue lolling out with a rivulet of drool already flowing down it, her feet curled up to her body.

The song suddenly ticked louder and she knew that Pasco had noticed.

He laughed teasingly. “Oh, does that feel good?”

“Yes…” she crooned. “So… good… I could lay like this… forever.”

“That’s a good little dragon,” he said, stroking the underside of her chin. 

She purred again.

“How about this. We take it nice… and slow… and easy. You just listen to the song and relax. When you’re ready, I’ll close the locket. Your head seems to stay in more or less the same place when you transform, so I think you’ll be alright, even with the water. If not, I can always open it again and take you to a safer place. How does that sound?”

His words piqued her arousal, but as she gave herself over to the song, her urgency drained away, leaving only pleasure. “That sounds… perfect… you’re… perfect… I love you.”

He stroked her chin again, his fingertips running over her scales and sending the most delightful vibrating sensation through her sensitive skin. “I love you too.”

Ada sighed back into pure relaxation, the vibrations of the waterfall sending a warm, intoxicating buzz through her whole body. She felt like she’d had two glasses of wine, which for a dragon, was probably closer to two barrels.

Pasco started to stroke himself and the song gently rose. Ada hitched a ride on his experience, just like when she’d clung to him as he climbed out of the water. He was so strong and yet so gentle, and she let his song fill her mind as the waterfall hummed.

Gradually, her breathing deepened and became more forceful. Her arousal was building and flashes of new intensity, new pleasure, rolled out from the drumming of the waterfall.

Her toes tingled. The tip of her tail curled. More drool flowed out over her tongue. She purred, adding to the sensation of buzzing and vibrating.

Pasco stroked himself and she watched. She felt deliciously attuned to his pleasure through the song, noticing which things quickened the tempo and which slowed it down, which notes lingered and which came hot and fast.

Now, she was the good dog. Leashed, but heeled obediently at her master’s ankles. She looked up at him, watching his every move, wanting only to please him.

Especially because his deepest desire was for them to both feel wonderful together. How could she not pour all of herself into making that happen? For him. For herself. For them both.

Pasco’s arousal built further and the song picked up, and a pre-orgasmic wave of pleasure flowed over Ada, out from the waterfall and all the way to the tip of her tongue, to the end of her tail. But she was not anywhere close to orgasm, even without the soothing effect of the music.

She had never had this kind of sensation, had never taken it this slowly, to know that she could experience a pre-orgasmic wave of pleasure so far out from her climax. Did this mean that the rest of the climb would feel like this? She hoped so.

“Pasco… it feels so good… I’m going to come so hard…”

“Are you close?”

“No… that’s the best… part…”

This seemed to renew Pasco’s resolve to take it as slowly as he could, and the next few bars of the song built with delicious slowness. Lingeringly and lovingly, he carried them higher. Wave after wave of heat and pleasure rippled out from the waterfall.

Ada’s toes started to curl and clench, but she dared not touch herself and break the spell. The tip of her tail flicked between the trees on the other side of the glade, and she started to pant past her lolling tongue.

Pasco, too, was breathing heavily, carefully controlling the pace.

Arousal built, but just the right amount. Just enough that Ada craved what was coming next, that she could feel the delight of anticipation.

But not so much that the delight became desperation or urgency. She kept her attention firmly on Pasco and his song. He had not actually had to deny her even once, this time. She required no tugs at her leash. She kept dutifully with his pace.

The climax built slowly, slowly, teetering at the edge as Pasco’s face softened with sheer bliss. He put a hand to the locket, preparing, but did not close it yet.

In a gentle, orchestral crescendo he came, the music surging in time with his orgasm, and Ada watched with delight at the way his seed flowed out over his tip, his shaft and his hand. She didn’t want that moment to ever end. She wanted him to come and come and come forever.

But she realized, as an incredible intensity of heat blossomed out from the rumbling of the waterfall, that it was she who was about to come and come forever.

As her roar made the very ground shake, sending flocks of birds fleeing from the trees around them, Pasco snapped the locket shut and the music went quiet.

Ada exhaled down towards the ground, human again, lying on the rock next to him. She panted for a moment before she pressed her legs together and clenched her sex, which sent her swirling into another climax.

As soon as she was fully dragon, her vulva was once again under the waterfall, and in delightful rumbles the waterfall pressed her down, down into her human form again.

And so all of Ada’s denied orgasms echoed through her then, the runes of the locket flashing even though it was closed. Until, finally, the waterfall tipped her over her last, luxurious climax. She came to rest on the rock next to Pasco, in a puddle of dragon drool and happiness.

She heaved a contented sigh, the feeling of buzzing intoxication still in her fingertips and toes, and she rolled towards Pasco where he sat, curling herself around him. He scooped her up so that she rested in his lap and he brushed her hair back from her face and over his legs and the rock, running his fingers through it as she lay there.

She nuzzled into the side of his stomach, curling up like a cat, and if she could have purred she would have. Instead, she just hummed with happiness every time she exhaled.

“I take it back,” she whispered. “I love sirens.”

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Part 5: Paradise, The Dragon's Tower

Chapter 27: Playful

Eventually, Ada stirred, lifting her body and stretching long like a cat. She yawned, revealing her hand-size fangs and her long, forked tongue.

Pasco looked up at her and smiled, the way that she looked up at him when she was between his legs. She was impressed with herself that the thought did not lead her immediately into frenzied arousal, and she suspected that it was the combination of the song and Pasco’s calming presence.

“How do you feel?” he asked.

“Really… relaxed. It’s nice.”

“I was thinking, if you want to, you might try to take a flight like this. You wouldn’t have to worry about falling.”

Ada stood up so quickly that a wave of water surged from the pool and drenched Pasco. He laughed good-naturedly.

“That is a great idea!” She’d been yearning to fly since she’d left her tower, but hadn’t really had the chance to. When she’d been alone in her fields she could keep enough of a handle on herself to at least land before she transformed, but she hadn’t trusted herself since she’d started on this voyage, and especially not after the incident with the sirens.

But, she had just thoroughly tested the locket’s magic, and was sure that it could contain even her draconic urges. The soothing melody was more of an invitation than an insistence, but if she let it, it really did calm her down.

She had also very thoroughly tested Pasco’s resolve, and she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she could trust him with this. Ada was starting to understand something about herself that explained a lot in her life, which was that even before the tower and the curse, stress aroused her. The pressures of royal life, the disapproval of her parents, her frustrations with her studies, all of that had set her hunting for sex.

It had not just been the lingering exhaustion from the sirens that had seen her libido relax over the past few days. It had been that she herself had been relaxed. There was little to stress about out here in this island paradise, and many ways other than sex to alleviate any stress that lingered.

She’d helped haul cargo to and from the boats that came and went, she’d gathered around fires to eat ripe fruit and listen to pirate stories and tell her own, and she’d set about learning the names of each of the children that careened around the town. One of them had made her a headband with little conch shells like her horns and a frill of mismatched parrot feathers, and she had put it on and pretended to be her dragon self and had chased them all around the huts and jungle brush and miles of sand until they had collapsed in a laughing heap at the center of town.

Pasco, for his part, did not seem aroused by stress and that seemed like a good thing. Their different inclinations created a delightful tension. Pulling at the ropes felt good not because she wanted to escape, but because they assured her that she couldn’t.

She’d have to tell him about this, later, but for the time being the sky was calling her.

She spread her wings in a spray of water that Pasco ducked playfully, but he was soon dry again as the powerful down-strokes of her wings washed over him and set the surface of the pool rippling.

And then she was in the sky. She started low, skimming the tops of the trees, her dragon eyes incredibly sharp, noticing every fluttering parrot and leaping monkey making their way through the treetops. She flew in no particular direction, then banked, tracing larger and larger circles out from the grove.

She angled towards the cluster of huts, sweeping low a couple of times and enjoying the way that the pirates stepped out to marvel, clapping and cheering as she flew over, the king and queen themselves waving up at her.

But that was just the a warm up. Ada pumped her wings, gaining height. Each island in the chain was a ring of sand around clumps of green vegetation, like emeralds set in gold. Even as she rose, the song never became any quieter. It stayed, soft and soothing, as if playing inside her very mind. And, she realized, it probably was.

She climbed even higher, and the song did not fade, and she suspected she could have flown to the other end of the earth and still she would have heard the melody of Pasco’s locket, just the same. That was a limit she had no interest in testing, however. She very much liked to be on the same end of the earth as Pasco.

Ada spiraled higher until she could cover the whole image of the island with her outstretched claw, and then something draconic and primal swelled urgently inside her.

But it was not arousal. It was play.

She twisted into a dive and then snapped her wings wide, catching herself with a wonderful spin in her stomach. She flapped hard and then angled her wings so that she spun through the air like a streamer, then banked into a spiral that drew tighter and tighter.

Like a ribbon kite she twirled and fluttered through the air, undulating through maneuver after maneuver that she had no idea she was capable of.

Joy surged out from her chest in a gout of flame and she soared through the hot air, which tickled her scales. She did that over and over again, creating flashes of red in the sunny sky, until she could breathe no more fire.

The sun had been high overhead when she had started her flight, and it was not until it was sliding down over the blushing horizon that Ada finally tired.

She started to glide down over the island in long, sweeping circles, taking in the scenery again. From this height she could still see the whole island chain, which had turned to a ruby necklace in the sunset.

Even though she had paid no conscious mind to mapping her surroundings, she knew exactly where to go to return to the glade, another surprising ability of the dragon. She swept low over the huts with the sun at her back, watching her shadow roll ahead of her as if she followed another dragon that knew the way.

She angled her wings and glided back towards the glade, where the waterfall tumbled down like red wine into the violet pool below.

Pasco was still there, his back against a rock next to the waterfall, and he waved at her as she approached. There was no where large enough for her to land except the center of the pool. As she dropped into it, a wave washed out over the borders of the pool and Pasco jumped up so as to not get soaked again.

The water had been warm before but now it felt cool and refreshing, perhaps because she’d built up so much heat from her vigorous exercise. Instinctively, she let her wings stay unfurled and dipped them into the water, sighing happily as the water pulled the heat from them.

Pasco settled down again on the rock that was even with the pool’s edge. He was naked, his shaft flaccid. Like when he had petted her snout, the experience was sensual and not overtly sexual. It was nice to finally be able to see him both ways.

“How was your flight?” He asked.

“It was amazing,” Ada said, her voice rumbling softly like the waterfall.

“You looked like you were having fun!”

“You saw?”

“A little bit.”

“What have you been up to?”

“Taking a nap. This is one of my favorite spots on the island.” The locket still rested on his chest, open, the soft song flowing out.

Ada tucked her wings in and settled deeper into the pond. She had never felt so content in her life.

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Part 5: Paradise, The Dragon's Tower

Chapter 26: Yes, Captain

Pasco massaged her forehead with his thumb and then pressed her gently back. Ada reluctantly let his shaft all the way out of her mouth, kissing his tip before settling back to the edge of the rock between his knees.

He sat up straight and looked closely at the locket again, then looked to Ada.

She nodded, as nervous and eager as him to see what happened.

He opened the locket.

A soft note rang out of it, filling the air around them, and it became a gentle melody. “I can hear it,” Pasco said, “So that’s at least helpful. How do you feel?”

“About the same, which is to say, good.”

Pasco dipped his hand into the jar of aloe and then wrapped his hand around his shaft, stroking gently. His eyes fluttered shut for just a moment. “How about now?”

The song accelerated in tempo, the melody becoming more complex. “About the same as whenever you touch yourself in front of me, which is to say, really fucking turned on.”

Pasco laughed and then sighed happily as he stroked himself. “There’s a couple of different ways that this could work. It could sync your level of arousal with mine, though that seems a bit overly limiting and not quite what you experienced with the siren. It could cap your arousal at wherever mine’s at, or it could let you be anywhere at all except you can’t come until I do.”

Ada considered the options. “Well, the quickest way to prove definitively which it is would be for me to see if I can work myself to the edge while you’re still warming up. If I can do that, we know it’s the last one.”

Pasco grinned devilishly. “I think that’s a great idea.”

Ada realized what she’d just done. Oh no. “I take it back. It’s a terrible idea. I don’t want that at all.”

Pasco’s smile didn’t waver. He was becoming more confident as he grew accustomed to Ada’s playful protests. “Really? Then why are your eyes so dilated? And why aren’t you saying your word? And why are you already touching yourself?”

Was she? Ada looked down. She totally was. Her hand, unbidden, had slipped below the water and was pressed against her vulva. Ada whimpered. “Because.”

“Because you’re a dirty little liar?”

Ada gasped, surprised by the wave of arousal. She never would have expected a few little words to have such an overwhelming effect.

“Do you like it when I talk to you like that?” Pasco crooned.

Ada’s face flushed bright red. She nodded.

“What if I call you a needy little slut?”

Ada gasped again, her chin sliding down to rest on the rock, her eyes turned pleadingly up at Pasco. She thought she might slide off the rock and drown in the most wonderful way possible.

Was it the siren’s magic? Or was it just Pasco? She’d have to ask him later — or, even better, goad him into talking to her like that again.

“Be a good little dragon,” Pasco said, “And come up here on this rock and masturbate yourself to orgasm.”

Ada squeaked. “Yes, sir!”

“Yes, Captain.”

Ada nodded emphatically. “Yes, Captain.”

She hauled herself out of the water and onto the warm rock next to Pasco, lying on her back and looking up at him. He picked up the pot with his free hand, his other still stroking himself, and poured some aloe over Ada’s hips and vulva. 

She shivered and gasped, the aloe cold after the warmth of the water. The shock added to her arousal and her hand was over her labia and swirling in the slippery fluid before she even consciously thought to do so.

Pasco kept stroking himself, cool and calm, as he looked down over her.

She thought she might melt into that warm rock forever.

Pasco cleared his throat. “I believe, my little dragon, that I told you to fuck yourself silly.”

Ada gasped and accelerated her pace and she felt herself collapsing into mindless urgency.

A few glorious minutes passed and she started to tip towards climax.

And then stopped. She shuddered, and then the sensation faded back to pre-orgasmic.

Her eyes flashed open and she saw Pasco leaning over her, still looking smug, still stroking himself slowly, luxuriously, without a hint of hurry.

Ada gulped.

“Ooooh,” Pasco said, “I felt that one.”

“Please let me come!” Ada gasped. “I’m so close…”

“And I have so very far to go,” Pasco crooned.

“Why are you doing this to me…”

“You did this to yourself, remember? This experiment was your idea. And it was very clever. We did indeed prove that the only thing it does is stop you from coming before I do.”

Ada huffed and pouted, and then she listened for the song. It was still as it had been a few minutes prior. A bit louder, the melody a bit more insistent, but it was still overall smooth and sensual. It was the sort of song that you might drink a glass of wine and then relax back to simply listen, to experience. To bask and savor…

And that was exactly what Pasco was doing to her! He was buzzed on arousal, just sitting back and relaxing and enjoying the music and her moans.

It wasn’t fair! Here she was, pleading and begging and desperate, and he was just enjoying himself. Drawing it out. She loved it. She hated it. Hating it turned her on even more.

“Pasco, I can’t handle this, I’m gonna die…”

Pasco chuckled. “Dramatic, much? If you want it to end so badly, why don’t you just come take the necklace? You were so eager to before.”

Ada huffed. One of her hands was curled up into her vagina, the other rubbing circles around her vulva. Even though she knew she would get no release like this, she couldn’t bear to stop.

“No?” Pasco said. “You must be fine, then.”

“I’m nooot!” Ada whined. “I j-just, I…”

“You just what?” Pasco teased.

“I j-just, I can’t!” Desperation and hot arousal swelled within her.

“Nothing is stopping you.” Pasco pulled his legs up under him, coming closer to Ada and leaning over her, so that the locket dangled teasingly over her chest. “Just reach up and take it.”

“I can’t!”

“I don’t see anything in your way. No ropes… nothing on top of you…”

Ada’s chest heaved, her breasts bouncing. “You know I can’t!”

“I don’t know at all,” Pasco said. “You’ll have to tell me. Then maybe I’ll consider your excuse.”

“I c-can’t s-stop touching myself,” Ada said. “It f-feels too good.”

“Ooooh, I see. So what I’m hearing is that you could just reach up and take it, if you weren’t…” He paused.

Ada hung on his words. She rubbed herself desperately. Oh no, what was he going to say?”

“…such a thirsty… greedy… drooling… little slut.”

Ada’s body surged towards climax again, shaking, the pleasure there but the release staying ever out of reach, just as Pasco had kept the locket out of her reach before. 

The song, like Pasco, was gentle yet immovable. He denied her again.

As the sensation of the edge faded again, Ada heard the song quicken, the melody more jovial, more urgent, and within her frustration was a spark of hope.

Pasco had stayed kneeling over her, the necklace still dangling tantalizingly in front of her. All she had to do was reach up and close it, and the song would end, and she would come.

But she could not tear her hands away from herself because she really did not want to. Just as she liked the feeling of pulling against the ropes, she liked this feeling of fighting against something, even as she wanted absolutely everything that it had to offer.

“You’re in luck,” Pasco huffed, “Because seeing you quiver like that really turns me on.”

“T-tell me what you like,” Ada gasped, “I w-want to make you come!”

“Hmmm I don’t know. I like to see you denied.”

It took Ada a moment to make sense of what he was saying, and she wanted to be sure she had it right. “S-so the more I try to come, the f-faster you will come?”

Pasco moaned happily, a droplet of pre-cum beading at his tip. “Definitely.”

Ada slowed down her desperate rubbing for a moment to consider this. It was a time versus intensity tradeoff decision. If she really let herself go, really pushed herself up to the edge, then she would experience more deprivation and yet faster relief. If this worked anything like the way the sirens’ magic had, then she would have that many more orgasms flow through her body in rapid succession.

As torturous as it had been, something about the idea of testing the siren’s magic, of seeing just how many orgasms she could finally string together, made the decision for her.

“Okay, okay,” Ada finally said.

“Have you decided?”

“Yes! P-pasco I’m gonna… I’m gonna come!”

“You can try,” Pasco said, and the delicious growl sent Ada teetering headlong into the brick wall that had become her edge.

Before she had even come down she threw herself into it again, fingers gripping at her spot, hand rubbing furiously against her clit. She twisted and writhed and moaned, her whole body begging wordlessly for sensation, for relief, and she screamed as she teetered on the edge before being pulled back down by the insistent weight of the song, like a sailor to a watery grave.

Ada was unaware of anything other than her lust-drunk haze and the song. Now that she was pushing up against its boundaries, the song remained ever at the foremost of her awareness. Every time Ada edged herself, every time she screamed and shook and begged on the rock, the song grew a bit louder. A bit faster. It drifted and swelled in time with Pasco’s arousal.

If Ada had given herself over to the song, she may have actually been able to keep her arousal alongside Pasco’s, like a dog on a leash and heeled dutifully at the ankle of their master.

But Ada was rabid, frothing at the mouth, yowling from inside a muzzle, yanking desperately on the leash, first one way and then the other, hoping and begging for the master to make a misstep so that she could finally do what her body was screaming at her to do and run.

A new tone started in the song and it began to crescendo. Ada opened her eyes.

Pasco’s face was enraptured, shining with pre-orgasmic bliss.

Ada shoved herself to the edge again, elated and eager for her final release…

But the song did not break, it held a long note and then pulled back down, and Ada quivered, confused, on the rock.

Pasco grinned down at her, no longer so composed, but still clearly very in control of himself. “You didn’t think I was going to let you off that easy, did you?”

“Yes!” Ada whimpered. “T-this is n-not easy!”

“Foolish little dragon,” Pasco said, though he panted now. “We play by my rules now.”

Now that the song was so close to the peak, so loud and insistent, Ada could not help but be swept along in its verses. As Pasco edged, her body tried to climax but was denied. Each time, a new instrument joined the building crescendo, a new flavor of pleasure.

This was exactly what she had wanted. This was exactly what she could not get any other way. She fought against it so hard, and the fighting felt so good.

Ada lost count of how many times he edged them like that, though she did notice the way his breathing became more and more ragged, and his skin became damp with sweat. She noticed the way he dripped, and that it landed in the center of her chest.

She wanted to beg him to come on her, to tip him over the edge that way, but she could not stop moaning and panting, because she could not stop rubbing herself.

“Ada…” Pasco moaned. The song ticked towards crescendo again, now a full symphony.

“Yeah?” Hope flickered anew.

“Ada… I’m coming!”

“Yes!”

This experiment gave them one other crucial piece of information, which was that its magic did not cause Ada to orgasm with Pasco, but rather after him. She lay on the rock as he pumped rope after rope of cum onto her chest, the longest she had ever seen him orgasm for, and as his last few quivers dripped onto her skin, she hovered in a moment of sheer suspense.

And then it was as if the ground dropped out from under her and she plummeted with a delighted scream into the weightless, senseless bliss of climax.

She came only once, though with the echoing waves of pleasure that rippled powerfully through her, she was hard-pressed to say whether you could really call it just one orgasm. She did, however, remain a dragon. Her body had spilled down into the pool and her head rested on the warm rock next to Pasco.

The locket was still open, and the song was very soft, and very calm.

Ada’s draconic arousal started to fight against it, and she quivered. She would have come immediately, if not for the locket’s magic. She worried that she might actually hurt Pasco if he teased her like this.

But Pasco took a deep breath and put his hand gently on her snout. “Shhhh,” he said. “Breath with me. In…”

She did, pulling a wind past Pasco and ruffling his still-damp hair.

“And out…”

Her hot breath washed over him, drying his sweat.

After a few more cycles, Ada found herself relaxing. The waterfall washed pleasantly over her back, like a heavy blanket.

Pasco’s hand on her snout was sensual, intimate, but not sexual. She listened to the song, really just listened, and she realized then that she had not once, ever before, felt calm as a dragon.

She started to purr and they just lay like that, him stroking her muzzle, her dozing in the sun, for a long while.

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Part 5: Paradise, The Dragon's Tower

Chapter 25: Swimming Lesson

Ada and Pasco were in a glade with a crystal blue pool at the center, ringed by gently swaying ferns and trees, with a small waterfall at the upper end. Flashes of brilliant red, deep blue, and even royal violet glimmered in the trees as parrots and other tropical birds fluttered to and fro, like so many living gems.

Ada would have liked to study them all, to spend hours combing through the forest for their discarded feathers, to slowly teach them to come to a perch with gifts of seeds so that she could see them up close.

But, presently, she was in the middle of a different learning. Pasco was teaching her how to swim in the calm blue pool. It was shallow and she could stand anywhere except by the waterfall where it was deepest. 

Pasco still wore his trousers and she still had a shirt and loin cloth, because Pasco had rightly guessed that she wouldn’t be able to focus at all if they were both naked. The clothes didn’t actually help that much, though.

His golden brown skin glistening with water looked like a shore for her to wash up on and his hair was braided down around his shoulder like his own waterfall of midnight. 

Pasco talked her through the basics, providing gentle corrections and plenty of praise. Was this how his parents had raised him? Her parents had just glowered at her whenever she did something they didn’t like. It hadn’t been long before they were just glowering at her all of the time and it had lost its effect.

Ada’s favorite part of the lesson was when she floated with her face towards the sky and her arms and legs spread out, Pasco’s hand pressing firmly at the small of her back to keep her in the correct posture. She made sure she could float by herself a couple of times, then kept letting her back sag so that he’d keep his hand there.

“We’ll keep working on that one,” Pasco said, as Ada rose back to her feet.

She tried and failed to hide her smug smile.

Pasco surged through the water and grabbed her by the base of her back, pulling her into him. “If you wanted me to touch you, you just had to ask.”

She gasped as heat tingled in her sex, her arms pressed against his bare chest. “Yeah, but that’s not as fun.” She looped her arms up around his neck, and took a moment to just appreciate the way the water reflected in his eyes, turning the grey to blue. “I love the way you instruct. It’s… really hot.”

Pasco kissed her forehead, his lips soft and warm. “I thought you might feel that way, so I had something else in mind for while we were out here.”

Ada anchored her hands around Pasco’s neck and wrapped her legs around his hips, pressing against him. 

He gasped and his member throbbed against her. 

“Oh yeah? What did you have in mind?” She rocked her hips.

Pasco cleared his throat and a look of command returned to his face. He walked over to the edge of the pool and then up and out, easily carrying Ada as she clung around him like one of the baby monkeys that she’d seen on their way to the glade. She couldn’t quite grind on him anymore without the float of the water, so she let her toes fall to the ground and dropped herself down as Pasco went over to the bag he’d packed.

“I brought a couple of things,” he said, coming back with a stoppered clay jar. He handed it to Ada, and she pried it open.

There was a clear, viscous liquid inside. She dipped her fingers in and they came away wet. “What’s this? Do we eat it?”

Pasco laughed. “You can but that’s not what it’s for. It’s aloe juice with a bit of seaweed extract. Makes for a very effective lubricant.”

“Oooh, excellent. What was the other thing?”

Pasco held out his other hand, where he gripped the chain of a necklace. The pendant was a seashell with strange runes carved into the top.

“For me?” she asked, leaning closer.

Pasco chuckled like there was a joke she wasn’t aware of. “Yes. And no. It’s not for you to wear, it’s from the sirens.”

A mix of dread and arousal settled in Ada’s stomach. She did not like that she was sure she liked where this was going. “Go on.”

“The pink siren said it has a little one of her songs in it, so that while it’s open, you can’t come unless I’m coming.” Pasco looked tentative — excited, but perhaps nervous that Ada would not accept the scenario.

Ada’s hand flashed out, grasping at the necklace, but Pasco lifted it out of reach.

He tsked. “Naughty naughty. If you don’t like it, you’re going to have to be a big girl and use your safe word. I’ll give you a minute to think it over.”

Ada pouted. “This isn’t fair!” She jumped for the necklace, but Pasco kept it easily away from her. “Those stupid sirens!”

She wrestled with him to get at the locket, more to feel how strongly and firmly he put her in her place than out of any actual desire to get the necklace from him. She liked that she didn’t have to say it out loud, but she absolutely did want whatever he had in mind. It would be torturous, of course, but what kind of denial wasn’t? Her climaxes were always so much more powerful when they were built slowly, but she could only accomplish so much of that herself, her willpower quickly melting in the heat of her desire.

There was a type of pleasure that was only possible when she was trapped, restrained, fettered. And she wanted it.

They laughed together as she kept trying to dive at the locket, slipping around in the mud of the shore. His hands were so strong around her arm, the muscles of his chest like iron as she tried to climb him, his half-erection throbbing all the while under the thin, clinging sheet of his damp trousers.

“Alright, I think you’ve had long enough to think it over,” he said. “Look at you, you’re a mess!”

She was indeed covered with sandy mud from their wrestling.

He grabbed her firmly by the shoulder and shoved her back into the water.

She let herself fall without trying to catch herself, relishing the brief moment of weightlessness before she was enveloped in the warm blue water.

Pasco didn’t enter the water yet, but rather fastened the locket around his neck and picked up the pot of aloe, kicking off his damp trousers and coming around towards the waterfall where the shore became rocky. The rocks were smooth and rounded, eroded over centuries by the waterfall, which would run much thicker when it rained.

One of the larger rocks tipped down into the pool with its edge just at the surface and Pasco sat there with his legs over it so that his calves and feet were under the water.

Ada undressed also, tossing her damp clothes near his, and then followed him. She could have walked in the water, but instead she paddled over to him, eager to show off.

“Very good!” he said. “You’re a quick learner. Now, speaking of which, I don’t know exactly how this locket is going to work so we’re going to have to do a bit of experimenting. Since I’m immune to the magic, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to hear it or sense what it’s doing, so don’t assume that I know. You’ll have to tell me how you’re feeling as much as you can, alright?”

Ada nodded, loving the way that he looked down over her. She felt a bit like a siren herself, floating in the warm water with her arms over the rock next to Pasco’s knees.

A long moment passed, Pasco teasing her perhaps, though he was still only half-erect. She could sympathize that he was probably thinking through some less sexy aspects of the encounter, tending to things that Ada was not considering, perhaps anxious about what the siren’s magic would actually do.

And while Ada had said that she hated sirens, and she had at that moment, now that the exhaustion had passed, she would have happily done it all again.

All those things considered, and Pasco having already so generously indulged her in letting her put up a fight, she felt it was important that she initiate the next bit before he opened the locket.

She pulled herself up between his legs. “Before anything else, I’d like to thank you for such a nice swimming lesson,” she said. She looked up at him, her arms on top of his thighs, and hoped she looked sultry.

It seemed to be working, based on the way his face softened as his dick bounced further to life.

She took him in her hands, running her fingers gently over his still soft shaft, and then anchored her hands on the tops of his thighs to pull her chest up onto the rock.

She enveloped him with her mouth, easily taking in his whole half-erect shaft, and she encircled him with her tongue.

Pasco braced his hands behind him and moaned deeply, gasping. “You’re so warm!”

His shaft grew, becoming firmer with each heartbeat, pressing against the back of her throat. Ada wanted to keep her lips pressed against his base, to let his shaft bloom to its full length inside of her, but without either the sirens’ magical pre-cum or a bit more time to warm up, she just wouldn’t be able to.

So, she reluctantly pulled back but kept his tip in her mouth, swirling her tongue under him. Pasco gasped and shuddered.

Ada grabbed the outsides of his hips and tested out lowering herself slightly, then pulling back up. The rock below them was smooth and soft, and she slid easily over it. The sun had made the rock warm, and little sparks of pleasure flickered from her nipples as Ada lowered herself down, then pulled herself back up.

Very proud of her discovery, Ada set to an enthusiastic rhythm. She fucked herself over Pasco, taking him as deeply as she could. When she took him too far and her abdomen clenched, her sex clenched too with a ripple of pleasure.

The deeper she took him, the more she tasted a thicker, more mucous-like drool, as if her body was trying to make it easier for her to take more of him. That really got her going.

Pasco, for his part, probably would have declined if she had offered to become a slavering, gagging mess for the honor of sucking his dick. But she wanted it, she couldn’t resist. It was as much about her pleasure as his. She loved the feeling of him in her mouth, the way she felt between his legs. She loved causing his guttural moans, his gasps, his quakes of bliss.

She pressed her own legs together and wiggled in the water, desperate to touch herself and yet unwilling to tear her hands away from Pasco’s hips. She fucked herself over him even harder, as if perhaps that alone might just make her come, as her sex clenched around little sparks of pleasure.

Just as he was really starting to pant, he gently placed his hand on Ada’s forehead and set the pace, slowing her down gradually to a stop.

Ada looked up at him, his dick still in her mouth.

He took a deep inhale and sighed happily. “Alright. Enough foreplay.”

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Part 5: Paradise, The Dragon's Tower

Chapter 24: Boundaries

For the rest of the journey from the sirens’ rock to the pirate islands, Ada was not the least bit interested in anything to do with sex.

It was kind of nice, actually. While Pasco was busy captaining, Sendia gave her further lessons in pirate history and culture, so that she at least somewhat knew what to expect when they reached the isles.

As Pasco had said, he was a prince. He was the eldest and the heir, and both of his parents still lived. According to Sendia, the pirate queen and king were fearsome and cunning and well-loved. Given that pirates were not much for rules, the queen and king retained their authority on merit. Their strategy was twofold, like a carrot and a stick. For the pirates loyal to them, there were riches overflowing. Conversely, any who opposed them were swiftly crushed.

The way that Pasco’s crew revered him, Ada was sure that he was well on his way to a similar legacy. Would she stay at his side? Become the dragon queen of pirates? She hoped so.

The island chain started as a hazy purple blur on the horizon. As they sailed, the misty outline of rocky cliffs and swaying greens emerged. As they neared a cove, brilliant red parrots flew from tree to tree and seals splashed onto rocks alongside the ship.

The cove was already lined with other boats, each with their own colorful character. The Wanderlust put down her anchor in the deeper water and rowboats came out to meet the crew.

What followed was a flurry of activity, the crew lowering cargo down to the rowboats that went back and forth to the shore. Pasco, as the captain, would be last to leave, so Ada waited as she watched it all go by.

Finally, she joined Pasco and Forte rowed them to shore. 

Ada felt equally eager and anxious. If his parents didn’t like her, would this all come crashing down? Would he defy them for her? Or was she worrying for nothing? If they had raised Pasco, surely they couldn’t dislike her so much. Though, she considered how different her own tastes were from her parents, and her worrying renewed.

The pirates’ castle was the island itself, carpeted with peat, walls of lush trees and ferns, adorned with brilliant flowers and twirling vines and birds of every color. Ada recognized some of them from her books, but others were totally alien to her.

Pasco lead her along a path up the hill that ringed the cove, until they came upon a clearing of dozens of huts with thatched roofs.

Men and women bustled between the structures, carrying baskets of fruits and roasting birds on outdoor spits, tasting from simmering pots and arranging fragrant herbs. It smelled amazing.

In the middle of the huts was an open area that was shaping up similarly to the party on Pasco’s deck, with barrels and trays of food everywhere.

Pasco picked up a ripe, pink fruit and tossed it to Ada. She took a bite, moaning at the wonderful taste. It was like nothing she’d ever had before, sweet and refreshing at once. 

As she finished the fruit, Pasco took her hand and lead herself to the center of the preparations where a man and a woman were rattling off instructions.

The man was taller and broader than Pasco, his hair cut short and a full salt-and-pepper beard spilling down his chest. His thick arms were ringed with tattoos, even more densely than Pasco’s, and he wore nothing but a grass skirt and a golden necklace. He had a healthy layer of fat and even with his rounded belly Ada knew he did not lack for athleticism.

The woman was a bit taller than Ada, her black hair drawn back from her face in a long ponytail, grey streaks at her temples. She too wore only a grass skirt and jewelry, though hers was more elaborate, loops of golden chains draped across her chests and breasts, hung with gems of every color. The tattoo rings around her arms were so dense that it looked like she wore black lace sleeves.

Ada did not have to ask whether the couple before her were the king and queen. They had an air of comfortable command, and she saw Pasco in each of their features. 

They both beamed as Pasco approached. 

“Ah,” the woman sang, “My boy!” Pasco went over to her and she wrapped him in a big hug, nearly lifting him off the ground. When his father came over, he lifted them both up, and Pasco protested until his feet were back on the ground..

“I thought you were coming back with a dragon!” The king laughed.

The queen came over to Ada, regarding her warmly and picking up Ada’s hands in hers. She had callouses like Pasco, which couldn’t have been more different than Ada’s own mother, who would hardly even use a fork for fear of toughening her hands.

“Instead,” the queen said, “You’ve brought us this lovely creature!”

“Actually,” Pasco said, “She is the dragon.”

The queen’s eyes widened. “Truly?”

Ada blushed and nodded. Was he really going to just tell his parents about her orgasms! In front of her? Then again… they were each so sincere, and his mother was already practically topless, so she couldn’t imagine they’d be shy about it. The only reason she’d be embarrassed was fear that they’d judge her as wrong or broken or unclean somehow, but… wouldn’t Pasco have warned her if he expected them to receive her with anything less than warm enthusiasm?

“Truly,” Ada said, working up her courage. 

Pasco nodded at her encouragingly.

“It’s a long story, but… a witch tried to curse me. When I… um, climax, I turn into a dragon.”

Their eyes widened.

“And it works the other way too,” she clarified quickly.

The queen squeezed Ada’s hand. “What an incredible blessing!”

Ada worried that the queen’s enthusiasm might turn into a request for demonstration, but fortunately, they seemed to have at least some sense of boundaries.

The king marveled, shaking his head and rubbing the back of his neck with his hand. “That we might be so lucky. You may as well be a god among us, to have such a gift.”

Ada blushed. “Oh no, not at all, I’m just…”

“Yes, what’s your name, dear?” the queen said.

“Ada.”

“Well, Ada, we are delighted to have you.” She wrapped Ada in a warm hug, and Ada could have cried. “And don’t let the king tease you with that god stuff, we’re happy to have you just the way you are, however that is.” Then, Ada did start crying. The queen sensed it and leaned back, her hands gently on Ada’s shoulders. “What’s the matter, dear?”

Ada shook her head, smiling, and wiped her eyes. “Nothing, I just… my parents are nothing like this. I’m very glad to be here.”

The queen smiled and patted Ada’s arm before stepping back to a more conversational distance. She clasped her hands together gleefully. Ada would have thought that the queen’s expressive demeanor would have made her seem less regal, but it was not the case. It was more like the queen was a force of nature herself, body and heart moving powerfully together, even her gleeful smile inspiring reverence.

“Well, that’s enough foreplay,” the king said. “There is much to celebrate. Now, we feast!”

Ada was momentarily concerned, but the king seemed to have been using the euphemism metaphorically.

As the feast began, Ada could not help but think that there was something sensual about them eating all these wonderful foods together. There was ripe fruit and freshly roasted meat, boiled eggs and seared vegetables, fermented coconut water and cocoa beans.

Ada’s sexual exhaustion from the siren encounter lingered, and for once she was able to just enjoy the party, dancing and singing, eating and drinking. 

She asked them about how they had become the King and Queen and they regaled her with their tales of adventure and suspense, intrigue and romance. Without a breath’s hesitation they recounted the night that they had conceived Pasco. He laughed at the story he had clearly heard before, unblushing. 

He had three other siblings, a brother and a sister who were still at sea, and a sister who was sixteen and who sat wide-eyed at her mother’s elbow, hanging on Pasco’s every word. It was clear she admired him deeply and Ada was sure he was sweet to her. 

Something about tattoos came up and Ada pressed for more, and Pasco explained that each one was a memory. They represented significant moments. Victories, triumphs, celebrations but also defeats and regrets. 

“The good and the bad,” the queen had explained, “they all make us who we are and we wear them on our skin.”

Ada begged to hear the stories and they happily obliged, each pirate in turn regaling her with a tale of glory or woe or mischief. 

As the night continued on and sleepiness took over her, Pasco carried her back to his own hut. She fell asleep on a pile of cushions, under the caress of the warm dusk breeze.

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