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CW: Blood
Here it is, my first sfw story, sure, it has some more slightly gruesome parts, but ech, you gotta be quite stingy to not call this sfw. I went over it multiple times, but there is still an off chance that some nsfw stuff remains, please comment when you see something like that, i will immideately fix it.
I decided to keep this one as one story this time, 2 reason, the tagging is not as extreme as on the other version and i feel its better like this for a sfw story, reason 2.5 is that i don't want to bloat my gallery too much.
Anyways, i mostly made this so i can for once actually show people my writing skills without them having to see "weird" stuff, and also for others who might just be interested in the story.
I rewrote quite some stuff and completely changed chapter 3, whilst still having the same character development, sort of, not sure how happy i am with chapter 3 but whatever.
Without further ado, i represent: Earth dragon story sfw version:
Note, this version is only 31k words long, so i cut out a whole 10.5k words
Chapter 1: The Meeting.
Deep in the caverns of Ungalad, an array of ever deeper burying tunnels, something which is called a dungeon by the adventurers who seek out this place, rests a rare creature, a large earth dragon. Wingless as he may be, he is the alpha predator of this floor of the dungeon, dominating it with his large frame and unrivaled strength, many adventurers have already been bested by this beast, strangely though, not a single casualty was caused by him.
The reason for this strange behavior are the remnants of a previous life, one where the now dragon lived peacefully in a village before being dragged off into the dungeon as a sacrifice by some obscure cult, not much of his memories remain intact, yet the companionship towards bipeds persists.
Still, he is unable to talk, and after many failed attempts at communicating, all of which ended in a battle, he has grown depressed. Today he had tried for the 1000th time to get an adventurer to talk to him, but all the demi-human warrior did was run away in fright.
Now the dragon is resting, exhausted from the chase of the adventurer, the reason for which being the safety of the aforementioned warrior, as many strong enemies littered the path, ones which the dragon almost effortlessly took care off, yet the unrelenting onslaught of fights did get through to him in the end.
The scaled beast had hidden away in one of his caves, the ground littered with moss makes for an exceptional bedding and the cave is lit up by numerous colored crystals. This is sadly the extent of what he could do in terms of furniture with his build and his rather rigid fingers, not meant for fine work but rather brutal fights.
Light snores emanate from the bulk of the earth-colored dragon, his heft slowly rises and lowers in beat to his soft snores. The 15-meter-long body lays curled in a bun, head resting right next to the slender tail tip. At a distance one could mistake this force of nature for a common mound of dirt, albeit in a weird place.
Which is exactly what happens as a young female adventurer flees into the cavern, the monsters that chased her turning around in fear at the smell of the apex predator. Confused, the adventurer roams further into the side cave, holding her magic staff at the ready in case of a surprise attack. She quickly arrives at the resting place of the dragon, at first, she tries to figure out where the noise is coming from, until she has creeped forward enough to notice the dirtied scales upon the “dirt mounds” flank.
Immediately she ceases all movement, inwardly cursing herself into walking into a monster den, she is not yet aware of the identity of the creature as she slowly backs away. A small rock, as if placed by the gods to mess with her, interrupts her path and causes her to fall onto her back. The noise is louder than she had hoped for, and loud enough to make her greatest fear come true, as the giant beast stirs.
The great earth dragon is awoken by a pained sound similar to a yelp, and he leisurely stretches before turning to face the sound and freezing. A scenario which he had dreamed about is happening right before his eyes, a lone human right next to him, albeit scared shitless.
The adventuress dares not to move a single muscle, as she is looked up and down by the brutish beast, she readies herself for the final strike, as the monster she had stumbled upon is the legendary earth dragon dominating the lower parts of the dungeon, it is normally found much deeper so finding it here comes as a surprise, even worse than the worst thing to encounter would normally be.
The two seize each other up, until the stillness is broken by the dragon taking a deep breath, as if he had held it this entire time.
The dragon is unsure on how to proceed, feeling helpless, after finally remembering to breathe he musters himself before holding up a single obsidian colored claw. The female adventurer closes her eyes, reading herself for the strike, but it never comes as the cave is filled with sounds of the claws scraping into the rock, after she opens her eyes again, she is surprised to see what had happened.
The dragon, which she thought would simply eat her, had begun to draw a crude painting into the solid floor of the cave. Slowly she is able to recognize what he is trying to draw, and unintentionally speaks up: “Is that a dragon and a human?” before quickly covering her mouth.
The dragon though lights up, feverously nodding and adding a few more things, something resembling text is added above the human character, it doesn’t really say anything and seems to just be gibberish, but the message is enough to get through to the adventurer.
“You want to talk?” She asks, after much hesitation to further engage in the strange antics of the dragon.
More nods are the response, as the great creature evidently understands her. Funnily enough, this shuts her up, as she begins to try to make sense of what is happening, how the great predator of the lower floors only wants to talk instead of literally anything else.
Finally, though, she gives in, at first only sheepishly telling the dragon of how and why she came here today, of her encounter with the monsters, and other miscellaneous stories. Over time, she gets more into it, talking about the outside world, the cities, her favorite foods, anything that comes to her mind, as the dragon attentively listens.
Hours go by, until she runs out of steam, somewhat hoarse she remembers how she lost her supplies, but before she can ask the dragon where she could find water he has already stepped aside, revealing a small clear pond which was hidden behind his form.
Almost ravenously she sprints towards the water, drinking in big gulps and refreshing herself, the water feels somewhat cold but otherwise fresher than any she ever had before, with the river water being contaminated and the well water containing traces of mud and the like.
Her staff is left behind in the rush towards water, a chance which the dragon uses to thoroughly inspect it, being extra careful with it and only moving it around with soft bumps from his snout. Being a creature of the dungeon, he can feel the mana contained in the crystal at the top of the staff, the amount Is smaller than some crystals he had found before but seems more defined, with the crystal having been cut into shape to channel the mana better.
Upon noticing the dragon “playing” with her staff she lunges onto it, holding it protectively against her chest, stating: “This is not a toy! This is my lifeline, without this, I might as well be monster food.”
Upon being lectured the dragon lowers his head, before the woman can apologize for her outburst.
Seeing the dragon being all submissive upon being scolded removes the last bits of her wariness towards the great beast, a small smile forms upon her lips.
Reaching out a hand she strokes the sensitive snout of the earth dragon, with his head being the size of her entire body she doesn’t think it could be felt, yet the dragon closes his eyes and lightly rumbles, almost akin to the purring of a cat, whilst slightly pushing against the hand.
Moved by the strong emotions of the dragon the adventuress finally introduces herself, a thing that she had forgotten about during her rant earlier: “I’m Ilia” A small rumble and push being the answer.
Never before had Ilia thought she would be stroking the head of a dragon in the depths of the dungeon, but here she is. ‘Should I change my occupation to tamer?’ she inwardly ponders as she drifts aways, leaning forwards and slowly falling asleep against the snout of the dragon.
Noticing her drowsiness, the dragon lightly shakes her off, before moving his head back, walking in a small circle, plopping down, and seemingly inviting her to rest against his belly. His heart beats fast, excited at getting closer to an adventurer after all these tries.
Without a word she slowly approaches the belly of the beast, gigantic soft eyes watching her every move. And with a bit of hesitation, she slumps against the warm side of the dragon, a strong smell of earth envelops her, and the previous coldness she had felt dissipates as the natural body heat of the dragons warms her up.
She inspects the softer feeling scales protecting the belly, noting their slight change in color towards a lighter brown, but her inspection is cut short as her exhaustion catches up to her, resulting in a fast and deep sleep, a process made faster by the surprising comfiness of resting against a dragon’s belly.
The dragon, who had forgotten to try to introduce himself, warmly grins at his first visitor, before laying his head down and lightly enveloping her with his body. It all feels like a dream to him, an adventurer just appeared out of nowhere, for once didn’t run away, and even ended up sleeping peacefully against his flank, a scene out of his dreams.
Yet a final fleeting thought graces his consciousness as he joins her in slumber: ‘Is this too good to be true?’
Chapter 2: Growing Closer
The dragon is pulled from his dreams by loud complaints and squirming, at first he only grumbles, before remembering yesterday’s events. His eyes shoot open and gaze at the scene unfolding next to his belly.
During his sleep he had unconsciously grabbed her and pressed her against his belly in the draconic form of a cuddle, one that was evidently a bit rough on her, her hair has become a mess and her dirty arms are currently trying to escape his grasp, which he now loosens, causing her to yelp and fall onto the ground backwards.
After taking a few breaths, gasping for air, she stumbles back onto her feat, exhausted from the struggle which has been going on for god knows how long, her eyes harbor a bit of fear as she looks at him, scared by just how easily she was turned into a toy for the large beast.
Embarrassed by his actions the dragon’s neck scales rise, a gesture akin to a humans blush, as he scampers onto his feet and backs off, not without inspecting her, making sure that he had not hurt her accidentally. She seems winded but otherwise none for the worse, though her clothes do seem a bit more tattered than the night before.
She too backs off a bit, her adventurer instincts fighting with her reasoning telling her that he is dangerous, for now she opts to just calm down.
She distracts herself with inspecting the various oddities around the cave, the soft moss that does not care if it is trampled, smothered, or cut, the glowing crystals embedded in the walls that generate the light, and the pond in the back without a visible entry point for the water.
She stops her inspection once the dragon begins moving again and thoughtlessly comes closer as he begins to draw something new. Curiosity overcoming her instinctual fear.
This time she can’t make sense of what is drawn until the gears click and she turns to look at it from the dragon’s point of view. Etched into the hard stone are letters, albeit almost undecipherable, but still letters.
Once seeing her confused gaze, he starts to write at another part of the cave, this repeats a total of 7 times before Ilia loudly exclaims: “Ethan?” To which the dragon loudly yapps, a sound she was not expecting from the 10-ton beast.
Afterward the dragon points to the writing, before pointing at himself, it does not take long before the dragon gets his point across. “Your name is Ethan?” Ilia asks him, the answer to which being a nod and a happy grumble.
“Ethan.” She repeats, mostly to herself, excited grumbles following her repetition of the name.
A short silence breaks out before Ilia inquires further: “That does not sound like the name of a dragon, who gave you that name?”
To answer her question, Ethan moves his shoulders weirdly, until letting them rise and fall once, something which Ilia recognizes as a shrug. Just in case she asks: “So you don’t know?” Receiving a sad nod in response.
Spurred on by the conversation Ilia decides to probe further: “How do you know the common language?” An awkward shrug answering her question. “Where did you come from?” another shrug. “Are you someone’s pet or summon?” This time a shake of the draconic head follows up her question.
The barrage of questions continues on for a few more minutes, but all Ilia learns is that the dragon, Ethan, doesn’t know anything about his current situation. Finally, though, she asks a question he can actually answer: “I heard rumors that you attacked people, are those true?”
This time the answer is not as straightforward and Ethan begins drawing again, a monster and a human fight, and coming from the top is the dragon, a shield is drawn around the human, and later a second scene is added where the dragon fights the monster, and the human runs away. At least that’s what Ilia managed to decipher from the under average drawings of the dragon.
“So you tried to help them, but they fled as you fought the monster, right?” A slow nod followed by a soft bump into her chest being the response.
Softly she strokes the head that rests against her chest, his eyes close in response, whilst thinking over the new info: ‘it seems this dragon didn’t have it easy, I’m not sure if I should believe him but he really does seem genuine’
A few minutes later she pushes his head away, to his dismay, but before he can complain she excitedly proclaims that she thought of something that could help both of them: “What if I officially make you my tame?” She proposes.
Ethan’s excitement is somewhat reined in as he contemplates just what restrictions such a bond would bring to himself, his train of thought being interrupted by Ilia, noticing his confusion, and explaining what she means.
“Sorry if I confused you, what I’m saying is that we could say that I tamed you, and could get you out of here that way, maybe we can get the guilds to accept you as harmless, but it might be hard, and it might not even work… it was just an idea.” Ilia explains herself, toning down her own excitement towards the end.
Yet only a few seconds after finishing her sentence Ethan begins viscously nodding, all whilst making strange higher pitched noises, he evidently is not opposed to the idea, Ilia thought that he might be against lowering himself, but it seems as if the dragon doesn’t care about such things.
Such an opportunity doesn’t come often, for neither of them, and both of them begin daydreaming, Ethan thinking of standing amongst the people, maybe even being admired, and Ilia dreaming of the fame and fortune she could get, it’s not as if she only aims to use him for his strength, as her dreams shift towards the happiness of a companion, a dream which Ethan shares.
Though the two are suddenly interrupted by a loud rumbling sound emanating from the gut of the 6 meter high dragon.
Ethan’s neck scales rise a bit in is form of a blush and he slowly begins walking towards the exit, he is quickly stopped by Ilia who asks him if she will be safe without him, to which Ethan just quickly nods before stepping over her, she takes one last glance at him before Ethan disappears around the corner.
Deciding to trust Ethan, Ilia sits down, aiming to grab her book before noticing its absence and remembering the events of yesterday. Thinking back, it can’t be far from here that her Bag got lost.
Thoughts of quickly grabbing it spring up in her mind, and although they are quickly pushed back, a desire to do it slowly creeps up. Over time, the desire grows stronger and around 1 hour after Ethan left, she gives in.
Grabbing her staff she stalks towards the entrance, being careful not to make a single sound. Step by step she moves towards the place where she remembers losing her items, and off in the distance she can see them, right in the middle of a larger cave, dimly illuminated.
Carefully she walks forward, listening for even the slightest sign of a monster, but none can be heard. Right as she grabs her bags though, sounds of scales over stone can be heard from the direction opposite of where she came from.
Looking up she freezes in horror as a large snake, a monster called a “Strictor devourer”, rises before her. Saliva drips onto the floor as the monsters seems just as hungry as she is, if not more. And with a single step backwards the hunt begins, the snake lunges forward as she barely dodges, quickly grabbing the bag she breaks into a sprint, back into the safe cave where had stayed “overnight”
The Strictor devourer bashes into the walls before catching itself and beginning the chase. Without much hesitation Ilia loudly yells a mix of “Ethan” and “Help” whilst running from the ravenous monster.
Once more, a stone wrecks her day, as she stumbles halfway to the cave. Seeing its prey struggle to move, the Strictor quickly moves to secure it, moving in a loose circle around Ilia.
Thankfully, the adventuress has one last trick up her sleeve, even against a monster outclassing her as much as a Strictor. After a quick chant she launches a large icicle into the face of the monster, piercing its lower jaw, it hisses in pain and writhes, allowing Ilia another try at making a run for it. The crystal on top of her staff breaks, the last remains of magic within having been used up by that last spell.
Though, as expected, the Strictor quickly gets its wits togethers, rekindling its chase in an attempt to end it for good, It’s quickly gaining on Ilia, and right as she sees the soft glow of the entrance to the cave she too can feel a warm breath on her back.
The Strictor opens its jaws and lunges forward, taking one last look behind she gazes into the glistening abyss of the jaw of the giant snake, as if in slow motion she sees the fangs closing in on her before the Strictor stops dead in its tracks midair, narrowly missing her face.
Turning its head around the Strictor is surprised at the cause of the stop, surprise quickly turning into terror as the dragons begins quickly swallowing it whole.
Ilia speechlessly watches as the monster she was fighting tooth and nail with is easily dispatched as if it were any other pest, meanwhile realizing just how easily he could have snatched her up.
But before she can begin to worry she is stared down by the dragon all his attention on her, Ethan walks up to her, before softly biting into her clothes and transporting her into the cave as if she were a child.
Setting her down on the bed of moss she is stared down by Ethan, who seems disappointed by her.
Lightly shuffling her feet she plays with the straps of the bag that now hangs from her shoulder before exclaiming: “I’m sorry… and thanks for saving me…”
The dragon’s eyes immediately turn back to his usual soft look and he lightly bumps into her chests before bringing his tail around and revealing the monster he had brought, a large wolf type monster, Ilia knows it, it lives a couple of floors higher.
But even though she is thankful for the dragon, especially for thinking about her growing hunger even without her mentioning it, the thought of eating a monster is simple unappealing to her, sure, other adventurers have done so and will do so in the future, but this is a fate she managed to state off for now. For now she lowers her bag and opens it, searching for the food she had kept inside, Ethan watching curiously.
Yet, to her dismay, it seems that dungeon scrappers had found it before, as sort of rat-like creature that scavenges anything left behind after battle, it is present on pretty much every floor, and this one is no exception.
Staring at her empty and gnawed open container of food she sighs to herself, before taking on the herculean task of preparing the wolf, grabbing a knife she heads for the carcass, but it surprisingly stopped by Ethan.
Slightly annoyed at him for interrupting her when she finally managed to bring herself to deal with it she watches his every move.
In a flash the wolf is skinned, after which he grabs a red crystal from the wall, he places the now furless carcass onto the crystal before seemingly activating it, as the meat begins to sizzle.
She is surprised by Ethan is preparing the meat, even gutting it, confused at the dragon knowing preparation techniques even though he obviously has no use for them.
It does not take long before the wolf is done, he presents the well done meat to Ilia and watches, slightly worried, as she digs in, adrenaline still flared up from how close he got to losing her to a random monster.
After she has stuffed herself silly with the surprisingly good cooked meat she thanks Ethan for the meal, commenting on its surprisingly good texture, a gesture which has him happily walking up and down, childishly giddy at the praise.
After he has calmed down she decides to distract herself by telling Ethan more about the city, its inhabitants and generally how things work in the city above the dungeon.
During her Talk about the weapons of adventurers he notices the absence of the crystal on her staff, a thing which he quickly fixes by grabbing one from the walls and handing it over to her, at first it doesn’t fit, but after a few swipes of Ethan’s sharp claws it gets sufficiently cut down to fit. Even if the cut is rudimentary, the crystal does seem to work, and Ilia wholeheartedly thanks Ethan again.
Chapter 3: Ethan’s secret field
The two hang out together for a good few days, Ethan absolutely entranced by the many stories Ilia has to tell about the surface world. Though slowly he begins feeling more anxious, worried about the frail humanoids seeing him as a threat.
This worry quietly blossoms deep in his heart until he decides to de-stress in his favorite way, a method which he doesn’t want Ilia to know about as he fears she could see him differently, although unsure if that would really be a bad thing and worried that the place he is going to go might be harmful to her, seeing as he saw some adventurers acting strange there before. Thus, he decides to keep it a secret.
After making sure to get Ilia to talk as long as possible and fall into a deep sleep on the other side of the cave, her still being shaken up by the near suffocation she experienced at his claws, he fakes falling asleep.
Listening in on her noises for around half an hour he declares her sleeping deep enough for him to move, which he does quickly, stepping out of the cave almost soundlessly, a method which he had developed when he was young and could not overpower every other monster.
Unbeknownst to him, Ilia too, had faked falling asleep, having noticed his unusual glances towards the cave entrance, and just as he rounds the corner she springs onto her feet, silently following behind, her curiosity once more taking hold of her actions.
Ethan stops with his silent movements once he is a good distance away from the cave, speeding up a bit, Ilia struggles to keep up with his pace, being forced to sprint, but is thankful that his now heavy footsteps mask her numerous smaller ones.
Just as Ilia is about to run out of breath Ethan stops, having arrived at his destination, Ilia presses herself against the cave wall and looks at the strange cave from her spot behind Ethan. The cave is extremely large and brightly lit, clusters of crystals hanging down from the ceiling and acting as a sun for the plants covering the ground below, which Ilia notes are larger than they seemed at first glance, judging from their height against Ethan she is sure they would tower over her were she to enter the large field.
Taking a closer look at the plants she notes them not just being a large type of grass, at the bottom they have bright green stalks which quickly go over to a assortment of large, almost fluffy, looking white balls.
Which reveal their true form as Ethan practically jumps into the field, the expected earthquake does not occur, the strange pants actually able to support his weight partly, muffling it to a dull thud. The large bout of air created by this action strips the balls of their outer layer, revealing the fluffy looking things to be floaty seed packets, which rise high up into the air, picked up by light air currents throughout the cave which carry them towards the tunnel the two came through.
Ilia awe at the beaty of the display turn into horror as the wave of floaters sweeps towards her, unnaturally speeding up, leaving her no choice but the press her back against the wall and wait for it to pass. The feeling is strange, floaty hairs tickling the bare skin which is revealed underneath the many tatters in her clothes, and a sweet-smelling scent enters her nose.
After the wave has passed, she stifles the remaining laughter she had held back and looks back towards Ethan, only to see a second wave approach as the dragon begins to tumble around in the large field.
Ilia quickly dashes fully into the room, just barely making it past before the next wave rushes past her, before she is able to fully calm down she, to her own surprise, erupts in a laughing fit.
She is unable to stop herself as she tumbles to the ground, laughing hysterically at what had just happened, suddenly overcome with a slew of happy sensations, this of course catches the attention of the earth dragon who stops his tumbling to look towards the direction of the noise, discovering Ilia, and to his shock, a giant white fluffy spider too, one that is slowly encroaching on her as she is stuck laughing.
Although he himself is also affected he still has enough self-control to shoo the spider away before picking her up as he had done before. Though his judgement is clouded when it comes to where he shall bring her, instead opting to take her with him to the center of the clearing to the spot which he had just flattened with a few rolls.
Here he lets her down, she had since stopped laughing and instead watches him with a large smile, he is about to try to ask her why she is here but after taking a deep breath is instead overcome by the desire to cuddle with her.
Still taking care he pounces onto her, rubbing his snout against her body and purring loudly, she giggles in response, having completely given in to the effect of the plants surrounding them.
He even licks her a few times before picking her up and playing her on his belly after he rolls over, rolling into himself in an attempt to snuggle her as deeply as possible. Sadly, he overdoes it and is interrupted by Ilia struggling to breathe, causing a moment of clarity to wash over him and release her from his death grip.
To his shock she even has begun bleeding on her arms and legs, the dragon having accidentally cut her, and even worse he notices a large army of spider surrounding them, monster which he could not notice in his previous fervor.
His worry for her wellbeing overcomes to effect of the weeds enough for him to opt into fleeing. He softly bites into her body, securing his grip on her, before readying his mind and breaking into a sprint, the spiders who were expecting him to be overcome with emotions flee in terror as the 10-ton earth dragon bulldozes through their ranks. In no time he is out of the field, but he does not stop, continuing his sprint until halfway back to the cave.
Here he softly releases her, softening the impact with his tail, he looks her over worried, breathing a sigh of relief at not having hurt her more during their escape.
Ilia groans loudly upon touching the cold stone floor, the many cuts across her body become more apparent by the second as she forces herself to sit upright against Ethan’s tail. Looking up she sees the dragon’s concerned gaze upon her.
Exhausted she reaches up a hand to touch it, a gesture into which the dragon leans into, placing his warm snout onto her frail small hand and silently purring in an attempt to comfort her.
Shortly after, the look of worry turns into one of questioning, alerting her that explanations are in order.
Clearing her throat, noting how hoarse it is from the amount of laughing, she begins her explanation in a rough voice: “I noticed you acting strange so… I decided to fake falling asleep. Then you did go out and I… followed you. Sorry.”
But it seems as if Ethan was not interested in an apology as he points at her many cuts, some of which have begun to bleed quite heavily.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Ilia explains, touched by the dragon’s worry for her. This isn’t even a lie as she had become used to being roughed up by monsters and can thus tell that none of these wounds are too deep, now that the painkilling effects of the grass have disappeared, although she is losing a fair amount of blood.
His worries looks do not disappear though, as he swiftly picks her up and places her onto his back, a first for her, but she is sadly too exhausted to enjoy the ride as Ethan brings her back to the cave.
Thankfully none of the cuts are too deep, but this did not stop Ethan from watching anxiously as she treats them, fumbling his claws in an apparent gesture that he want’s to help, which he sadly can’t.
With the help of a magic item which was luckily still present in her bag, Ilia’s cut’s quickly disappear, but Ethan’s worry does not, him worried at having hurt her and thus damaging their relationship, something which he doesn’t seem to quite believe is no problem no matter how many times Ilia tells him that.
Instead it did the opposite, as Ilia noticed just how much he cares for her, causing her to insist sleeping against his side despite his protest, him giving in after around an hour of her telling him that its fine, remaining memories from the experience having solidified themselves as a feeling of comfort when leaning against his side.
Chapter 4: Departure
A few more days go by, both of them unanimously agreeing not to mention the happenings of that one day, instead their efforts are focused on Ilia teaching Ethan on how to behave in public and keep up the appearance of a tamed monster.
During their rather humiliating training, great relief fills the earth dragon’s mind, as Ilia does not treat him different after what could have killed her. Even as he rolls onto his back through the command of “show your belly” he feels happy, especially so as it really seems like Ilia really wants to treat him with respect, showing a bit of hesitation at giving the usual commands given to tamed monsters, yet, they will be needed, if there is going to be any chance of convincing the guilds that he truly has been “tamed”.
Ironically this training had made Ilia think of him as more human, as he tries his best to learn, so much so that she apologizes after every session, promising the dragon that she will someday make the guilds understand just how nice he is and not just a pet, earning her worried looks from the great dragon.
Finally, after two grueling weeks of humiliating commands and poses and training to reign in his body the two are ready.
One last procurement of fresh wolf meat and the devouring of an unfortunate giant lizard, which was just passing by, a process which Ilia watched with glee, and the two head out, leaving behind the roughly decorated cave, still with the drawings from their first meeting etched deep into the rocky floor, they might remain for millennia.
Wrapped around Ethan’s neck is a long scarf made from wolf pets, the best thing the pair could manage to make as an accessory to make him look just a bit more tamed, and sitting on his back is Ilia, a decision made by Ethan as her small legs would make it take weeks to advance, not even mentioning the dangers of staying close to the ground.
She glances at the two sturdy horns of the dragon, thankful for their dull tips as Ethan could have otherwise accidentally skewered her just from a single wrong move of his head, of course they still pose a danger, one nullified as long as Ethan takes care.
Now, from high atop the dragon, she gives vague directions, not quite remembering where exactly the path was, the monster chase having screwed with her sense of direction. Thankfully Ethan is able to fill in the gaps, he had previously seen numerous adventurers taking a path, one which he up until now avoided at all costs but is aiming straight at.
During each step Ilia can feel Ethan’s muscles tense and release underneath his armored hide, a feeling she would describe as strange, albeit not uncomfortable.
Of course, even now a group of adventurers is using the path, which the two bump into. At the sight of the massive beast the group moves into battle poses, albeit visibly intimidated, ushering that the magic stones should have repelled any monsters from making it onto this path.
Thankfully Ilia quickly defuses the situation, calling down from her position atop the dragon’s back for the group to stand down, as he is a tamed beast. They hesitate before following her command, quickly stepping to the side to allow them to glance at her and address her: “Is this thing really tamed?” The likely leader of the group asks the self-proclaimed tamer.
Ilia snorts a bit, partly faking annoyance, before explaining: “Yes, of course, how else could I ride him, if he were not, you four would already be monster food.” A short pause follows, one in which Ethan takes a quick glance at the group, causing them to flinch, before she continues: “Anyway, it has been sometime since I have been outside the dungeon, taming this guy took some time, did something happen or why are there so many people on the lower floors recently?”
Ethan had never thought of it as strange until now, but he really did see an extraordinary amount of people in the last few weeks, something which he had reported to Ilia, the realization causes his interest to spike before he turns to look directly at the group. Ilia, though, quickly berates him, telling him to look forward, most likely in an attempt to not spook the group even more than they already were.
Gathering his will, the leader addresses the young dragon rider: “I don’t know just how long you were down here for, but around 1 month ago a war started between two of the three major guilds, phoenix and myth I think, everyone is trying to get stronger in a short amount of time, some for their own guild, others to get hired.”
This new information is a wrench in their plan, but thinking about it, it might also be a blessing, a guild might be more quick to accept a dragon as their ally if he were to greatly aid in their war, although Ilia doesn’t really want Ethan to have to fight against other humanoids. For now, though, their plan remains the same.
Thanking the group Ilia “orders” Ethan to advance up the path, thankfully, even though the tunnel was changed to make humanoid travel easier it still is large enough to accommodate a figure as large as a fully grown earth dragon.
During the next hour the two walk in silence, safe for some adjustments in their path, both of them individually processing the information they had just gathered. And as they absentmindedly walk the two climb up to the mid layer, a place too low in good prey and too abundant in adventurers that Ethan had avoided it up until now.
Their next obstacle quickly approaches as they near the mid-way checkpoint, a small castle type structure carved from the walls, where a whole battalion awaits them.
Telling Ethan to wait and climbing down with his help Ilia is quick to approach the guards, starting a conversation only barely audible from this distance.
“I aim to advance to the guardian guild to register my new tame” Ilia proclaims to the group of guards, which now, closer up, seem to be more ragtag than actual trained units, likely a result from the experienced ones being called up to aid in the war.
An old looking, scar covered commander approaches her, he seems weak from age, yet still brims with authority. He addresses her: “You tamed an earth dragon, a novice adventurer like you, who shouldn’t even be on the lower floors?”
Gathering up her confidence, Ilia answers with a resounding “Yes”, the previously grimacing commander brightens up, loudly proclaiming: “Ha, I like you, most young ones don’t have the spine to back up their obvious bluffs, but you show up with an entire earth dragon. Well, let’s see just how well behaved this little guy is.”
Both Ilia and Ethan are surprised by the sudden change in tone, and even more so as the commander just struts towards the dragon he had described as small, Ilia following closely behind.
Arriving before the dragon which even in a seated position towers over him he gives his attention back to Ilia: “I think I remember you, about 3 weeks ago I got a report that someone looking like you snuck through our checkpoint, it seems you had just a bit of time to train this guy, and even if I like you, I’m not going to lenient when it comes to letting you pass, I don’t want to responsible for letting a disaster cross over into the city.”
Without further ado, Ilia turns her attention to Ethan, before going through the chain of commands they had meticulously hammered into their brains. Sit, Stand, Roll, Paw, Roar… A whole slew of one-word commands follows, each of which is instantly followed by the appropriate action.
Halfway through their half hour demonstration the two are interrupted by clapping from the commander: “I get, I get, he’s more well behaved than most hunting dogs I have seen come through, color me impressed, you are free to go” the man is about to leave but stops himself before giving them a well appreciated piece of good news: “wait a moment and I can give you a letter of recommendation, this will make it easier to pass by the other checkpoints.” The old man explains, quickly scurrying off into the outpost, telling his subordinates that everything is good on the way.
The battalion disbands, but not without a few suspicious looks towards the Dragon and his tamer. Both of which don’t advance yet, having decided to wait for the commander first.
Ethan is fine with waiting, especially as he now has time for inspecting the various items strewn about the checkpoint, the items look strange, weird open round things made out of a lined brown material, a voice in the back of his head identifies it as wood but disappears as soon as he tries to grab ahold of these strange memories.
While Ethan is mesmerized by the many strange sights around the place, Ilia anxiously taps her foot, taking side glances at the many guards as they return to their original positions, to soothe herself she leans against Ethan’s side, lightly petting it, something she had done a lot over the last few days, it’s almost unimaginable that just a few hours ago they had been on the mid-low floors, they might even reach the surface today if everything goes smoothly. ‘Of course, it won’t’ Ilia thinks to herself, as she slowly calms down by petting the giant dragon.
Though her attention is drawn behind her as a loud gurgle resounds from the dragon’s belly, still active from his last meal, something which would likely unsettle anyone they are trying to talk to, thus leading her to decide to stay here for a bit, at least until his occupant had calmed down, something which she quickly communicated with Ethan.
Growing self-aware Ethan tries to hide his belly now too, he is unsure of just how affected the commander and the previous adventurers had been. In the end he promises to himself that he will be more careful going forwards, now that he has tasted companionship he cannot imagine living alone again.
Soon after the commander comes back, a bit surprised at the dragon having uncomfortably curled up, and a bit less at the woman leaning casually against his side.
Approaching the two he holds out the paper he had quickly prepared. Ilia graciously takes it before asking if they could stay for a night. The commander is a bit taken aback, but guides them to a place to stay anyway, it’s a place especially prepared for tamers, although the rooms are way too small for Ethan.
Taking one last look around Ethan curls into his usual bun like form, inwardly complaining about the ground not being as comfortable as his dungeon moss, but his complaints are cut short as the stress of the day catches up to him, quickly guiding him into a deep sleep.
Ilia smiles at him before heading off to eat in the garrisons cafeteria as the commander had suggested, sure the wolf that Ethan had prepared was not too bad, but she had really missed spices and the like, even if it is just common salt.
Taking a seat on a table in the corner, Ilia looks around the room, suspicious gazes are directed at her, although they stop when she meets theirs. The chef though is unfazed, inspecting him she notes him being bulkier than a chef would be at the surface, likely an ex-adventurer.
And faster than she had expected her food is done, after secretly testing for poisons she digs in, it’s rather similar to what Ethan had prepared, without crops to grow around, the importing cost would be too high, and thus meat from hunted beasts is used, at least a smidgen of salt was added, but it seems as if a real meal will have to wait until the two reach the surface.
After not as quietly as she would have liked devouring her meal she gives the chef a quick thanks before heading off to Ethan. He is in a deep sleep, likely aided by the food coma induced by having devoured an entire Basilisk lizard.
She follows Ethan’s example in looking around before crawling into his bean and relaxing against his warm belly, the noises lulling her into sleep and staving off nightmares, as she feels protected so close to the dragon.
If you want to keep reading you have to download the document.
Here it is, my first sfw story, sure, it has some more slightly gruesome parts, but ech, you gotta be quite stingy to not call this sfw. I went over it multiple times, but there is still an off chance that some nsfw stuff remains, please comment when you see something like that, i will immideately fix it.
I decided to keep this one as one story this time, 2 reason, the tagging is not as extreme as on the other version and i feel its better like this for a sfw story, reason 2.5 is that i don't want to bloat my gallery too much.
Anyways, i mostly made this so i can for once actually show people my writing skills without them having to see "weird" stuff, and also for others who might just be interested in the story.
I rewrote quite some stuff and completely changed chapter 3, whilst still having the same character development, sort of, not sure how happy i am with chapter 3 but whatever.
Without further ado, i represent: Earth dragon story sfw version:
Note, this version is only 31k words long, so i cut out a whole 10.5k words
Chapter 1: The Meeting.
Deep in the caverns of Ungalad, an array of ever deeper burying tunnels, something which is called a dungeon by the adventurers who seek out this place, rests a rare creature, a large earth dragon. Wingless as he may be, he is the alpha predator of this floor of the dungeon, dominating it with his large frame and unrivaled strength, many adventurers have already been bested by this beast, strangely though, not a single casualty was caused by him.
The reason for this strange behavior are the remnants of a previous life, one where the now dragon lived peacefully in a village before being dragged off into the dungeon as a sacrifice by some obscure cult, not much of his memories remain intact, yet the companionship towards bipeds persists.
Still, he is unable to talk, and after many failed attempts at communicating, all of which ended in a battle, he has grown depressed. Today he had tried for the 1000th time to get an adventurer to talk to him, but all the demi-human warrior did was run away in fright.
Now the dragon is resting, exhausted from the chase of the adventurer, the reason for which being the safety of the aforementioned warrior, as many strong enemies littered the path, ones which the dragon almost effortlessly took care off, yet the unrelenting onslaught of fights did get through to him in the end.
The scaled beast had hidden away in one of his caves, the ground littered with moss makes for an exceptional bedding and the cave is lit up by numerous colored crystals. This is sadly the extent of what he could do in terms of furniture with his build and his rather rigid fingers, not meant for fine work but rather brutal fights.
Light snores emanate from the bulk of the earth-colored dragon, his heft slowly rises and lowers in beat to his soft snores. The 15-meter-long body lays curled in a bun, head resting right next to the slender tail tip. At a distance one could mistake this force of nature for a common mound of dirt, albeit in a weird place.
Which is exactly what happens as a young female adventurer flees into the cavern, the monsters that chased her turning around in fear at the smell of the apex predator. Confused, the adventurer roams further into the side cave, holding her magic staff at the ready in case of a surprise attack. She quickly arrives at the resting place of the dragon, at first, she tries to figure out where the noise is coming from, until she has creeped forward enough to notice the dirtied scales upon the “dirt mounds” flank.
Immediately she ceases all movement, inwardly cursing herself into walking into a monster den, she is not yet aware of the identity of the creature as she slowly backs away. A small rock, as if placed by the gods to mess with her, interrupts her path and causes her to fall onto her back. The noise is louder than she had hoped for, and loud enough to make her greatest fear come true, as the giant beast stirs.
The great earth dragon is awoken by a pained sound similar to a yelp, and he leisurely stretches before turning to face the sound and freezing. A scenario which he had dreamed about is happening right before his eyes, a lone human right next to him, albeit scared shitless.
The adventuress dares not to move a single muscle, as she is looked up and down by the brutish beast, she readies herself for the final strike, as the monster she had stumbled upon is the legendary earth dragon dominating the lower parts of the dungeon, it is normally found much deeper so finding it here comes as a surprise, even worse than the worst thing to encounter would normally be.
The two seize each other up, until the stillness is broken by the dragon taking a deep breath, as if he had held it this entire time.
The dragon is unsure on how to proceed, feeling helpless, after finally remembering to breathe he musters himself before holding up a single obsidian colored claw. The female adventurer closes her eyes, reading herself for the strike, but it never comes as the cave is filled with sounds of the claws scraping into the rock, after she opens her eyes again, she is surprised to see what had happened.
The dragon, which she thought would simply eat her, had begun to draw a crude painting into the solid floor of the cave. Slowly she is able to recognize what he is trying to draw, and unintentionally speaks up: “Is that a dragon and a human?” before quickly covering her mouth.
The dragon though lights up, feverously nodding and adding a few more things, something resembling text is added above the human character, it doesn’t really say anything and seems to just be gibberish, but the message is enough to get through to the adventurer.
“You want to talk?” She asks, after much hesitation to further engage in the strange antics of the dragon.
More nods are the response, as the great creature evidently understands her. Funnily enough, this shuts her up, as she begins to try to make sense of what is happening, how the great predator of the lower floors only wants to talk instead of literally anything else.
Finally, though, she gives in, at first only sheepishly telling the dragon of how and why she came here today, of her encounter with the monsters, and other miscellaneous stories. Over time, she gets more into it, talking about the outside world, the cities, her favorite foods, anything that comes to her mind, as the dragon attentively listens.
Hours go by, until she runs out of steam, somewhat hoarse she remembers how she lost her supplies, but before she can ask the dragon where she could find water he has already stepped aside, revealing a small clear pond which was hidden behind his form.
Almost ravenously she sprints towards the water, drinking in big gulps and refreshing herself, the water feels somewhat cold but otherwise fresher than any she ever had before, with the river water being contaminated and the well water containing traces of mud and the like.
Her staff is left behind in the rush towards water, a chance which the dragon uses to thoroughly inspect it, being extra careful with it and only moving it around with soft bumps from his snout. Being a creature of the dungeon, he can feel the mana contained in the crystal at the top of the staff, the amount Is smaller than some crystals he had found before but seems more defined, with the crystal having been cut into shape to channel the mana better.
Upon noticing the dragon “playing” with her staff she lunges onto it, holding it protectively against her chest, stating: “This is not a toy! This is my lifeline, without this, I might as well be monster food.”
Upon being lectured the dragon lowers his head, before the woman can apologize for her outburst.
Seeing the dragon being all submissive upon being scolded removes the last bits of her wariness towards the great beast, a small smile forms upon her lips.
Reaching out a hand she strokes the sensitive snout of the earth dragon, with his head being the size of her entire body she doesn’t think it could be felt, yet the dragon closes his eyes and lightly rumbles, almost akin to the purring of a cat, whilst slightly pushing against the hand.
Moved by the strong emotions of the dragon the adventuress finally introduces herself, a thing that she had forgotten about during her rant earlier: “I’m Ilia” A small rumble and push being the answer.
Never before had Ilia thought she would be stroking the head of a dragon in the depths of the dungeon, but here she is. ‘Should I change my occupation to tamer?’ she inwardly ponders as she drifts aways, leaning forwards and slowly falling asleep against the snout of the dragon.
Noticing her drowsiness, the dragon lightly shakes her off, before moving his head back, walking in a small circle, plopping down, and seemingly inviting her to rest against his belly. His heart beats fast, excited at getting closer to an adventurer after all these tries.
Without a word she slowly approaches the belly of the beast, gigantic soft eyes watching her every move. And with a bit of hesitation, she slumps against the warm side of the dragon, a strong smell of earth envelops her, and the previous coldness she had felt dissipates as the natural body heat of the dragons warms her up.
She inspects the softer feeling scales protecting the belly, noting their slight change in color towards a lighter brown, but her inspection is cut short as her exhaustion catches up to her, resulting in a fast and deep sleep, a process made faster by the surprising comfiness of resting against a dragon’s belly.
The dragon, who had forgotten to try to introduce himself, warmly grins at his first visitor, before laying his head down and lightly enveloping her with his body. It all feels like a dream to him, an adventurer just appeared out of nowhere, for once didn’t run away, and even ended up sleeping peacefully against his flank, a scene out of his dreams.
Yet a final fleeting thought graces his consciousness as he joins her in slumber: ‘Is this too good to be true?’
Chapter 2: Growing Closer
The dragon is pulled from his dreams by loud complaints and squirming, at first he only grumbles, before remembering yesterday’s events. His eyes shoot open and gaze at the scene unfolding next to his belly.
During his sleep he had unconsciously grabbed her and pressed her against his belly in the draconic form of a cuddle, one that was evidently a bit rough on her, her hair has become a mess and her dirty arms are currently trying to escape his grasp, which he now loosens, causing her to yelp and fall onto the ground backwards.
After taking a few breaths, gasping for air, she stumbles back onto her feat, exhausted from the struggle which has been going on for god knows how long, her eyes harbor a bit of fear as she looks at him, scared by just how easily she was turned into a toy for the large beast.
Embarrassed by his actions the dragon’s neck scales rise, a gesture akin to a humans blush, as he scampers onto his feet and backs off, not without inspecting her, making sure that he had not hurt her accidentally. She seems winded but otherwise none for the worse, though her clothes do seem a bit more tattered than the night before.
She too backs off a bit, her adventurer instincts fighting with her reasoning telling her that he is dangerous, for now she opts to just calm down.
She distracts herself with inspecting the various oddities around the cave, the soft moss that does not care if it is trampled, smothered, or cut, the glowing crystals embedded in the walls that generate the light, and the pond in the back without a visible entry point for the water.
She stops her inspection once the dragon begins moving again and thoughtlessly comes closer as he begins to draw something new. Curiosity overcoming her instinctual fear.
This time she can’t make sense of what is drawn until the gears click and she turns to look at it from the dragon’s point of view. Etched into the hard stone are letters, albeit almost undecipherable, but still letters.
Once seeing her confused gaze, he starts to write at another part of the cave, this repeats a total of 7 times before Ilia loudly exclaims: “Ethan?” To which the dragon loudly yapps, a sound she was not expecting from the 10-ton beast.
Afterward the dragon points to the writing, before pointing at himself, it does not take long before the dragon gets his point across. “Your name is Ethan?” Ilia asks him, the answer to which being a nod and a happy grumble.
“Ethan.” She repeats, mostly to herself, excited grumbles following her repetition of the name.
A short silence breaks out before Ilia inquires further: “That does not sound like the name of a dragon, who gave you that name?”
To answer her question, Ethan moves his shoulders weirdly, until letting them rise and fall once, something which Ilia recognizes as a shrug. Just in case she asks: “So you don’t know?” Receiving a sad nod in response.
Spurred on by the conversation Ilia decides to probe further: “How do you know the common language?” An awkward shrug answering her question. “Where did you come from?” another shrug. “Are you someone’s pet or summon?” This time a shake of the draconic head follows up her question.
The barrage of questions continues on for a few more minutes, but all Ilia learns is that the dragon, Ethan, doesn’t know anything about his current situation. Finally, though, she asks a question he can actually answer: “I heard rumors that you attacked people, are those true?”
This time the answer is not as straightforward and Ethan begins drawing again, a monster and a human fight, and coming from the top is the dragon, a shield is drawn around the human, and later a second scene is added where the dragon fights the monster, and the human runs away. At least that’s what Ilia managed to decipher from the under average drawings of the dragon.
“So you tried to help them, but they fled as you fought the monster, right?” A slow nod followed by a soft bump into her chest being the response.
Softly she strokes the head that rests against her chest, his eyes close in response, whilst thinking over the new info: ‘it seems this dragon didn’t have it easy, I’m not sure if I should believe him but he really does seem genuine’
A few minutes later she pushes his head away, to his dismay, but before he can complain she excitedly proclaims that she thought of something that could help both of them: “What if I officially make you my tame?” She proposes.
Ethan’s excitement is somewhat reined in as he contemplates just what restrictions such a bond would bring to himself, his train of thought being interrupted by Ilia, noticing his confusion, and explaining what she means.
“Sorry if I confused you, what I’m saying is that we could say that I tamed you, and could get you out of here that way, maybe we can get the guilds to accept you as harmless, but it might be hard, and it might not even work… it was just an idea.” Ilia explains herself, toning down her own excitement towards the end.
Yet only a few seconds after finishing her sentence Ethan begins viscously nodding, all whilst making strange higher pitched noises, he evidently is not opposed to the idea, Ilia thought that he might be against lowering himself, but it seems as if the dragon doesn’t care about such things.
Such an opportunity doesn’t come often, for neither of them, and both of them begin daydreaming, Ethan thinking of standing amongst the people, maybe even being admired, and Ilia dreaming of the fame and fortune she could get, it’s not as if she only aims to use him for his strength, as her dreams shift towards the happiness of a companion, a dream which Ethan shares.
Though the two are suddenly interrupted by a loud rumbling sound emanating from the gut of the 6 meter high dragon.
Ethan’s neck scales rise a bit in is form of a blush and he slowly begins walking towards the exit, he is quickly stopped by Ilia who asks him if she will be safe without him, to which Ethan just quickly nods before stepping over her, she takes one last glance at him before Ethan disappears around the corner.
Deciding to trust Ethan, Ilia sits down, aiming to grab her book before noticing its absence and remembering the events of yesterday. Thinking back, it can’t be far from here that her Bag got lost.
Thoughts of quickly grabbing it spring up in her mind, and although they are quickly pushed back, a desire to do it slowly creeps up. Over time, the desire grows stronger and around 1 hour after Ethan left, she gives in.
Grabbing her staff she stalks towards the entrance, being careful not to make a single sound. Step by step she moves towards the place where she remembers losing her items, and off in the distance she can see them, right in the middle of a larger cave, dimly illuminated.
Carefully she walks forward, listening for even the slightest sign of a monster, but none can be heard. Right as she grabs her bags though, sounds of scales over stone can be heard from the direction opposite of where she came from.
Looking up she freezes in horror as a large snake, a monster called a “Strictor devourer”, rises before her. Saliva drips onto the floor as the monsters seems just as hungry as she is, if not more. And with a single step backwards the hunt begins, the snake lunges forward as she barely dodges, quickly grabbing the bag she breaks into a sprint, back into the safe cave where had stayed “overnight”
The Strictor devourer bashes into the walls before catching itself and beginning the chase. Without much hesitation Ilia loudly yells a mix of “Ethan” and “Help” whilst running from the ravenous monster.
Once more, a stone wrecks her day, as she stumbles halfway to the cave. Seeing its prey struggle to move, the Strictor quickly moves to secure it, moving in a loose circle around Ilia.
Thankfully, the adventuress has one last trick up her sleeve, even against a monster outclassing her as much as a Strictor. After a quick chant she launches a large icicle into the face of the monster, piercing its lower jaw, it hisses in pain and writhes, allowing Ilia another try at making a run for it. The crystal on top of her staff breaks, the last remains of magic within having been used up by that last spell.
Though, as expected, the Strictor quickly gets its wits togethers, rekindling its chase in an attempt to end it for good, It’s quickly gaining on Ilia, and right as she sees the soft glow of the entrance to the cave she too can feel a warm breath on her back.
The Strictor opens its jaws and lunges forward, taking one last look behind she gazes into the glistening abyss of the jaw of the giant snake, as if in slow motion she sees the fangs closing in on her before the Strictor stops dead in its tracks midair, narrowly missing her face.
Turning its head around the Strictor is surprised at the cause of the stop, surprise quickly turning into terror as the dragons begins quickly swallowing it whole.
Ilia speechlessly watches as the monster she was fighting tooth and nail with is easily dispatched as if it were any other pest, meanwhile realizing just how easily he could have snatched her up.
But before she can begin to worry she is stared down by the dragon all his attention on her, Ethan walks up to her, before softly biting into her clothes and transporting her into the cave as if she were a child.
Setting her down on the bed of moss she is stared down by Ethan, who seems disappointed by her.
Lightly shuffling her feet she plays with the straps of the bag that now hangs from her shoulder before exclaiming: “I’m sorry… and thanks for saving me…”
The dragon’s eyes immediately turn back to his usual soft look and he lightly bumps into her chests before bringing his tail around and revealing the monster he had brought, a large wolf type monster, Ilia knows it, it lives a couple of floors higher.
But even though she is thankful for the dragon, especially for thinking about her growing hunger even without her mentioning it, the thought of eating a monster is simple unappealing to her, sure, other adventurers have done so and will do so in the future, but this is a fate she managed to state off for now. For now she lowers her bag and opens it, searching for the food she had kept inside, Ethan watching curiously.
Yet, to her dismay, it seems that dungeon scrappers had found it before, as sort of rat-like creature that scavenges anything left behind after battle, it is present on pretty much every floor, and this one is no exception.
Staring at her empty and gnawed open container of food she sighs to herself, before taking on the herculean task of preparing the wolf, grabbing a knife she heads for the carcass, but it surprisingly stopped by Ethan.
Slightly annoyed at him for interrupting her when she finally managed to bring herself to deal with it she watches his every move.
In a flash the wolf is skinned, after which he grabs a red crystal from the wall, he places the now furless carcass onto the crystal before seemingly activating it, as the meat begins to sizzle.
She is surprised by Ethan is preparing the meat, even gutting it, confused at the dragon knowing preparation techniques even though he obviously has no use for them.
It does not take long before the wolf is done, he presents the well done meat to Ilia and watches, slightly worried, as she digs in, adrenaline still flared up from how close he got to losing her to a random monster.
After she has stuffed herself silly with the surprisingly good cooked meat she thanks Ethan for the meal, commenting on its surprisingly good texture, a gesture which has him happily walking up and down, childishly giddy at the praise.
After he has calmed down she decides to distract herself by telling Ethan more about the city, its inhabitants and generally how things work in the city above the dungeon.
During her Talk about the weapons of adventurers he notices the absence of the crystal on her staff, a thing which he quickly fixes by grabbing one from the walls and handing it over to her, at first it doesn’t fit, but after a few swipes of Ethan’s sharp claws it gets sufficiently cut down to fit. Even if the cut is rudimentary, the crystal does seem to work, and Ilia wholeheartedly thanks Ethan again.
Chapter 3: Ethan’s secret field
The two hang out together for a good few days, Ethan absolutely entranced by the many stories Ilia has to tell about the surface world. Though slowly he begins feeling more anxious, worried about the frail humanoids seeing him as a threat.
This worry quietly blossoms deep in his heart until he decides to de-stress in his favorite way, a method which he doesn’t want Ilia to know about as he fears she could see him differently, although unsure if that would really be a bad thing and worried that the place he is going to go might be harmful to her, seeing as he saw some adventurers acting strange there before. Thus, he decides to keep it a secret.
After making sure to get Ilia to talk as long as possible and fall into a deep sleep on the other side of the cave, her still being shaken up by the near suffocation she experienced at his claws, he fakes falling asleep.
Listening in on her noises for around half an hour he declares her sleeping deep enough for him to move, which he does quickly, stepping out of the cave almost soundlessly, a method which he had developed when he was young and could not overpower every other monster.
Unbeknownst to him, Ilia too, had faked falling asleep, having noticed his unusual glances towards the cave entrance, and just as he rounds the corner she springs onto her feet, silently following behind, her curiosity once more taking hold of her actions.
Ethan stops with his silent movements once he is a good distance away from the cave, speeding up a bit, Ilia struggles to keep up with his pace, being forced to sprint, but is thankful that his now heavy footsteps mask her numerous smaller ones.
Just as Ilia is about to run out of breath Ethan stops, having arrived at his destination, Ilia presses herself against the cave wall and looks at the strange cave from her spot behind Ethan. The cave is extremely large and brightly lit, clusters of crystals hanging down from the ceiling and acting as a sun for the plants covering the ground below, which Ilia notes are larger than they seemed at first glance, judging from their height against Ethan she is sure they would tower over her were she to enter the large field.
Taking a closer look at the plants she notes them not just being a large type of grass, at the bottom they have bright green stalks which quickly go over to a assortment of large, almost fluffy, looking white balls.
Which reveal their true form as Ethan practically jumps into the field, the expected earthquake does not occur, the strange pants actually able to support his weight partly, muffling it to a dull thud. The large bout of air created by this action strips the balls of their outer layer, revealing the fluffy looking things to be floaty seed packets, which rise high up into the air, picked up by light air currents throughout the cave which carry them towards the tunnel the two came through.
Ilia awe at the beaty of the display turn into horror as the wave of floaters sweeps towards her, unnaturally speeding up, leaving her no choice but the press her back against the wall and wait for it to pass. The feeling is strange, floaty hairs tickling the bare skin which is revealed underneath the many tatters in her clothes, and a sweet-smelling scent enters her nose.
After the wave has passed, she stifles the remaining laughter she had held back and looks back towards Ethan, only to see a second wave approach as the dragon begins to tumble around in the large field.
Ilia quickly dashes fully into the room, just barely making it past before the next wave rushes past her, before she is able to fully calm down she, to her own surprise, erupts in a laughing fit.
She is unable to stop herself as she tumbles to the ground, laughing hysterically at what had just happened, suddenly overcome with a slew of happy sensations, this of course catches the attention of the earth dragon who stops his tumbling to look towards the direction of the noise, discovering Ilia, and to his shock, a giant white fluffy spider too, one that is slowly encroaching on her as she is stuck laughing.
Although he himself is also affected he still has enough self-control to shoo the spider away before picking her up as he had done before. Though his judgement is clouded when it comes to where he shall bring her, instead opting to take her with him to the center of the clearing to the spot which he had just flattened with a few rolls.
Here he lets her down, she had since stopped laughing and instead watches him with a large smile, he is about to try to ask her why she is here but after taking a deep breath is instead overcome by the desire to cuddle with her.
Still taking care he pounces onto her, rubbing his snout against her body and purring loudly, she giggles in response, having completely given in to the effect of the plants surrounding them.
He even licks her a few times before picking her up and playing her on his belly after he rolls over, rolling into himself in an attempt to snuggle her as deeply as possible. Sadly, he overdoes it and is interrupted by Ilia struggling to breathe, causing a moment of clarity to wash over him and release her from his death grip.
To his shock she even has begun bleeding on her arms and legs, the dragon having accidentally cut her, and even worse he notices a large army of spider surrounding them, monster which he could not notice in his previous fervor.
His worry for her wellbeing overcomes to effect of the weeds enough for him to opt into fleeing. He softly bites into her body, securing his grip on her, before readying his mind and breaking into a sprint, the spiders who were expecting him to be overcome with emotions flee in terror as the 10-ton earth dragon bulldozes through their ranks. In no time he is out of the field, but he does not stop, continuing his sprint until halfway back to the cave.
Here he softly releases her, softening the impact with his tail, he looks her over worried, breathing a sigh of relief at not having hurt her more during their escape.
Ilia groans loudly upon touching the cold stone floor, the many cuts across her body become more apparent by the second as she forces herself to sit upright against Ethan’s tail. Looking up she sees the dragon’s concerned gaze upon her.
Exhausted she reaches up a hand to touch it, a gesture into which the dragon leans into, placing his warm snout onto her frail small hand and silently purring in an attempt to comfort her.
Shortly after, the look of worry turns into one of questioning, alerting her that explanations are in order.
Clearing her throat, noting how hoarse it is from the amount of laughing, she begins her explanation in a rough voice: “I noticed you acting strange so… I decided to fake falling asleep. Then you did go out and I… followed you. Sorry.”
But it seems as if Ethan was not interested in an apology as he points at her many cuts, some of which have begun to bleed quite heavily.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Ilia explains, touched by the dragon’s worry for her. This isn’t even a lie as she had become used to being roughed up by monsters and can thus tell that none of these wounds are too deep, now that the painkilling effects of the grass have disappeared, although she is losing a fair amount of blood.
His worries looks do not disappear though, as he swiftly picks her up and places her onto his back, a first for her, but she is sadly too exhausted to enjoy the ride as Ethan brings her back to the cave.
Thankfully none of the cuts are too deep, but this did not stop Ethan from watching anxiously as she treats them, fumbling his claws in an apparent gesture that he want’s to help, which he sadly can’t.
With the help of a magic item which was luckily still present in her bag, Ilia’s cut’s quickly disappear, but Ethan’s worry does not, him worried at having hurt her and thus damaging their relationship, something which he doesn’t seem to quite believe is no problem no matter how many times Ilia tells him that.
Instead it did the opposite, as Ilia noticed just how much he cares for her, causing her to insist sleeping against his side despite his protest, him giving in after around an hour of her telling him that its fine, remaining memories from the experience having solidified themselves as a feeling of comfort when leaning against his side.
Chapter 4: Departure
A few more days go by, both of them unanimously agreeing not to mention the happenings of that one day, instead their efforts are focused on Ilia teaching Ethan on how to behave in public and keep up the appearance of a tamed monster.
During their rather humiliating training, great relief fills the earth dragon’s mind, as Ilia does not treat him different after what could have killed her. Even as he rolls onto his back through the command of “show your belly” he feels happy, especially so as it really seems like Ilia really wants to treat him with respect, showing a bit of hesitation at giving the usual commands given to tamed monsters, yet, they will be needed, if there is going to be any chance of convincing the guilds that he truly has been “tamed”.
Ironically this training had made Ilia think of him as more human, as he tries his best to learn, so much so that she apologizes after every session, promising the dragon that she will someday make the guilds understand just how nice he is and not just a pet, earning her worried looks from the great dragon.
Finally, after two grueling weeks of humiliating commands and poses and training to reign in his body the two are ready.
One last procurement of fresh wolf meat and the devouring of an unfortunate giant lizard, which was just passing by, a process which Ilia watched with glee, and the two head out, leaving behind the roughly decorated cave, still with the drawings from their first meeting etched deep into the rocky floor, they might remain for millennia.
Wrapped around Ethan’s neck is a long scarf made from wolf pets, the best thing the pair could manage to make as an accessory to make him look just a bit more tamed, and sitting on his back is Ilia, a decision made by Ethan as her small legs would make it take weeks to advance, not even mentioning the dangers of staying close to the ground.
She glances at the two sturdy horns of the dragon, thankful for their dull tips as Ethan could have otherwise accidentally skewered her just from a single wrong move of his head, of course they still pose a danger, one nullified as long as Ethan takes care.
Now, from high atop the dragon, she gives vague directions, not quite remembering where exactly the path was, the monster chase having screwed with her sense of direction. Thankfully Ethan is able to fill in the gaps, he had previously seen numerous adventurers taking a path, one which he up until now avoided at all costs but is aiming straight at.
During each step Ilia can feel Ethan’s muscles tense and release underneath his armored hide, a feeling she would describe as strange, albeit not uncomfortable.
Of course, even now a group of adventurers is using the path, which the two bump into. At the sight of the massive beast the group moves into battle poses, albeit visibly intimidated, ushering that the magic stones should have repelled any monsters from making it onto this path.
Thankfully Ilia quickly defuses the situation, calling down from her position atop the dragon’s back for the group to stand down, as he is a tamed beast. They hesitate before following her command, quickly stepping to the side to allow them to glance at her and address her: “Is this thing really tamed?” The likely leader of the group asks the self-proclaimed tamer.
Ilia snorts a bit, partly faking annoyance, before explaining: “Yes, of course, how else could I ride him, if he were not, you four would already be monster food.” A short pause follows, one in which Ethan takes a quick glance at the group, causing them to flinch, before she continues: “Anyway, it has been sometime since I have been outside the dungeon, taming this guy took some time, did something happen or why are there so many people on the lower floors recently?”
Ethan had never thought of it as strange until now, but he really did see an extraordinary amount of people in the last few weeks, something which he had reported to Ilia, the realization causes his interest to spike before he turns to look directly at the group. Ilia, though, quickly berates him, telling him to look forward, most likely in an attempt to not spook the group even more than they already were.
Gathering his will, the leader addresses the young dragon rider: “I don’t know just how long you were down here for, but around 1 month ago a war started between two of the three major guilds, phoenix and myth I think, everyone is trying to get stronger in a short amount of time, some for their own guild, others to get hired.”
This new information is a wrench in their plan, but thinking about it, it might also be a blessing, a guild might be more quick to accept a dragon as their ally if he were to greatly aid in their war, although Ilia doesn’t really want Ethan to have to fight against other humanoids. For now, though, their plan remains the same.
Thanking the group Ilia “orders” Ethan to advance up the path, thankfully, even though the tunnel was changed to make humanoid travel easier it still is large enough to accommodate a figure as large as a fully grown earth dragon.
During the next hour the two walk in silence, safe for some adjustments in their path, both of them individually processing the information they had just gathered. And as they absentmindedly walk the two climb up to the mid layer, a place too low in good prey and too abundant in adventurers that Ethan had avoided it up until now.
Their next obstacle quickly approaches as they near the mid-way checkpoint, a small castle type structure carved from the walls, where a whole battalion awaits them.
Telling Ethan to wait and climbing down with his help Ilia is quick to approach the guards, starting a conversation only barely audible from this distance.
“I aim to advance to the guardian guild to register my new tame” Ilia proclaims to the group of guards, which now, closer up, seem to be more ragtag than actual trained units, likely a result from the experienced ones being called up to aid in the war.
An old looking, scar covered commander approaches her, he seems weak from age, yet still brims with authority. He addresses her: “You tamed an earth dragon, a novice adventurer like you, who shouldn’t even be on the lower floors?”
Gathering up her confidence, Ilia answers with a resounding “Yes”, the previously grimacing commander brightens up, loudly proclaiming: “Ha, I like you, most young ones don’t have the spine to back up their obvious bluffs, but you show up with an entire earth dragon. Well, let’s see just how well behaved this little guy is.”
Both Ilia and Ethan are surprised by the sudden change in tone, and even more so as the commander just struts towards the dragon he had described as small, Ilia following closely behind.
Arriving before the dragon which even in a seated position towers over him he gives his attention back to Ilia: “I think I remember you, about 3 weeks ago I got a report that someone looking like you snuck through our checkpoint, it seems you had just a bit of time to train this guy, and even if I like you, I’m not going to lenient when it comes to letting you pass, I don’t want to responsible for letting a disaster cross over into the city.”
Without further ado, Ilia turns her attention to Ethan, before going through the chain of commands they had meticulously hammered into their brains. Sit, Stand, Roll, Paw, Roar… A whole slew of one-word commands follows, each of which is instantly followed by the appropriate action.
Halfway through their half hour demonstration the two are interrupted by clapping from the commander: “I get, I get, he’s more well behaved than most hunting dogs I have seen come through, color me impressed, you are free to go” the man is about to leave but stops himself before giving them a well appreciated piece of good news: “wait a moment and I can give you a letter of recommendation, this will make it easier to pass by the other checkpoints.” The old man explains, quickly scurrying off into the outpost, telling his subordinates that everything is good on the way.
The battalion disbands, but not without a few suspicious looks towards the Dragon and his tamer. Both of which don’t advance yet, having decided to wait for the commander first.
Ethan is fine with waiting, especially as he now has time for inspecting the various items strewn about the checkpoint, the items look strange, weird open round things made out of a lined brown material, a voice in the back of his head identifies it as wood but disappears as soon as he tries to grab ahold of these strange memories.
While Ethan is mesmerized by the many strange sights around the place, Ilia anxiously taps her foot, taking side glances at the many guards as they return to their original positions, to soothe herself she leans against Ethan’s side, lightly petting it, something she had done a lot over the last few days, it’s almost unimaginable that just a few hours ago they had been on the mid-low floors, they might even reach the surface today if everything goes smoothly. ‘Of course, it won’t’ Ilia thinks to herself, as she slowly calms down by petting the giant dragon.
Though her attention is drawn behind her as a loud gurgle resounds from the dragon’s belly, still active from his last meal, something which would likely unsettle anyone they are trying to talk to, thus leading her to decide to stay here for a bit, at least until his occupant had calmed down, something which she quickly communicated with Ethan.
Growing self-aware Ethan tries to hide his belly now too, he is unsure of just how affected the commander and the previous adventurers had been. In the end he promises to himself that he will be more careful going forwards, now that he has tasted companionship he cannot imagine living alone again.
Soon after the commander comes back, a bit surprised at the dragon having uncomfortably curled up, and a bit less at the woman leaning casually against his side.
Approaching the two he holds out the paper he had quickly prepared. Ilia graciously takes it before asking if they could stay for a night. The commander is a bit taken aback, but guides them to a place to stay anyway, it’s a place especially prepared for tamers, although the rooms are way too small for Ethan.
Taking one last look around Ethan curls into his usual bun like form, inwardly complaining about the ground not being as comfortable as his dungeon moss, but his complaints are cut short as the stress of the day catches up to him, quickly guiding him into a deep sleep.
Ilia smiles at him before heading off to eat in the garrisons cafeteria as the commander had suggested, sure the wolf that Ethan had prepared was not too bad, but she had really missed spices and the like, even if it is just common salt.
Taking a seat on a table in the corner, Ilia looks around the room, suspicious gazes are directed at her, although they stop when she meets theirs. The chef though is unfazed, inspecting him she notes him being bulkier than a chef would be at the surface, likely an ex-adventurer.
And faster than she had expected her food is done, after secretly testing for poisons she digs in, it’s rather similar to what Ethan had prepared, without crops to grow around, the importing cost would be too high, and thus meat from hunted beasts is used, at least a smidgen of salt was added, but it seems as if a real meal will have to wait until the two reach the surface.
After not as quietly as she would have liked devouring her meal she gives the chef a quick thanks before heading off to Ethan. He is in a deep sleep, likely aided by the food coma induced by having devoured an entire Basilisk lizard.
She follows Ethan’s example in looking around before crawling into his bean and relaxing against his warm belly, the noises lulling her into sleep and staving off nightmares, as she feels protected so close to the dragon.
If you want to keep reading you have to download the document.
Category Story / Fantasy
Species Dragon (Other)
Gender Male
Size 120 x 120px
Listed in Folders
Fuck, ignore the part in chapter 6 where it talks about heinus liquids, forgot to edit that one, still sfw though.
a revolutionary discovery was made, i found the "edit source file" button, incredible.
I actually printed this story out for my grandma, her being able to read one of my stories was partly my inspiration for making a sfw Version. Although she did have problems with some of my word choices which even her dictionary said were outdated.
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