Getting to Know You

Wanting to avoid a lasting awkwardness, John turned to Lumiara and began to speak. The Faun felt the same, and both interrupted each other. They then simultaneously apologised, and a brief silence cut through again before they both laughed.

“I wanted to apologise again about the Velamora thing. I know I already said it, but I do genuinely feel bad,” John admitted.

With a soft smile, Lumiara shook her head slowly. “You do not need to apologise,” she replied in her usual hushed tone. “I’m not particularly sociable, and I can be timid, but I’m not naive or fragile. Leili explained the misunderstanding, and I understood. My decision to name you Ori wasn’t reciprocation.”

As Lumiara stood, John finally took notice of her clothing; it was a stretch to call it a dress, though that was the only word he could find. The top half resembled a swimsuit and barely covered her soft chest. The bottom was similarly revealing, consisting of a long veil of cloth barely concealing her inner thighs and reaching almost down to the floor.

She was quite literally stunning, leaving John wide-eyed as he stared. Though unnoticed by John, a smirk crept onto the faun's lips as she basked in his attention. She lightly crossed her arms, causing her cleavage to deepen, further hypnotising The Gamer.

When she noticed him beginning to realise what he’d been doing, she hurriedly stepped forward, placing one hand on his chest while holding his back to ensure he didn’t fall as she leaned down, kissing him on the lips. His eyes widened, but he didn’t pull back, almost feeling stun-locked by her sudden action.

He might feel annoyed at how often his mind went blank when surprised like this, if not for the fact that it was, once again, a beautiful girl showing him far more affection than he could process, and that the scent of tea and flowers emanating from the faun had a pleasant, relaxing effect on him.

As she pulled back, a deep blush painted her pale cheeks, and she fidgeted.

“Uhm, Leili told me to do that… again…” she hurriedly explained. John held his tongue but smirked, while Lumiara mulled over her thoughts before clearing her throat. “On the surface, fauns and draconic instincts might seem similar, but with both within me, they clash far more often than they align.

“Among fauns, love is free; though it does differ from faun to faun, it’s not uncommon to see someone kiss just to say hello,” she explained, shifting her weight to her other foot and tilting her head. She continued, “Dragons are far more complicated; a lot might feel the same way fauns do, but it can be entirely dependent on the kind of dragon… what element favours them… even the dragon as an individual.”

Pausing again, Lumiara reached out, gently trailing her finger over John’s forearm. “You are something new. Leili might have mentioned it to you, but female dragons are typically the mate-for-life type when it comes to male partners. Scent carries great weight in our love and sex life. Some believe we seek out soulmates, and that’s what we smell. I find that idea silly; we’re not limited to a single male whom we’re destined for, but if a male doesn’t have the right scent, no sexual or romantic interest can exist.

“Oh, but I’m not inexperienced entirely with sex. I’ve pleasured myself in lots of different ways, and I’ve been with other women, with mixed results. Most often, Leili is my partner when we have sleepovers, but she also likes to involve the girls sometimes. I’ve also had visitors to the spring, usually those who have gotten lost, but several have sought the spring out. Several of the lost were shocked to find me, but things usually ended… quite nicely,” she recalled quietly with a smile on her face before remembering something.

John remained silent, interested in what Lumiara had to say. He might have been interested in learning more of Lumiara, but was happy focusing on dragons; it confirmed what Alleon had explained, while going into far more detail.

“I did have a sword pulled on me once; a dullahan had wandered into the spring and got a little jumpy. She seemed rather calm once out of her clothing. That was quite an interesting weekend and left me very lethargic afterwards. It was quite entertaining watching her stumble her way out of the ring.”

That caught his attention, and he subconsciously leaned forward, eyes fixated on her. “A dullahan? Like with her head? When? Do you know where she was supposed to be heading? Was her head attached when you last saw her? And the sword, what did it look like? Was it big? Was it in one piece or broken?”

Shocked by his bombardment, Lumiara recovered quickly to answer John’s questions. “Yes, a dullahan. She definitely had her head; without it, most of the things we did together wouldn’t have been possible, and that said, it may have been detached for a little over half that time… As for when…”

She paused, thinking about her answer. “Hard to really say, ten, twenty, maybe fifty years ago, possibly longer. Yes, it was firmly attached as she wobbled out, and the sword? I don’t know, big? Pointy? Sword-like? As for where she was heading, she wanted to be a knight for a noble. I believe she aimed for a human city to the southeast, hoping to realise her goal there.”

“Do you think you could show me the right direction when we get out of here? It's possible that the dullahan you met and the one I’m trying to help are the same one. We were attacked by a headless dullahan with a large, broken sword, and this is the biggest lead I’ve gotten about who they are or where they could have been heading,” John explained.

Lumiara nodded. “I don’t feel comfortable leaving the forest, but I can definitely tell you where you’d need to go.”

“That’s great. Do you know how far it is? How long might it take to get there?” John pressed.

Lumiara paused for a moment in thought. “I believe the Dullahan had plans to set up camp on the way there, so I’d say at least a day's travel, but I’m not sure,” she admitted.

’Okay, so if it takes a day or longer, we’d need to plan ahead. Ellie might have some potions to keep us from tiring, but it’s still unfamiliar land, so we could run into anything, he pondered internally. ‘We could possibly use the keys as a checkpoint system… but leaving a door open in the wild is pretty risky; something or someone dangerous could find it and just walk in…’

Shifting her weight from one hoof to the other, unsure of how to fill the silence, she asked, “Uhm… What do you like to do? For fun?”

That halted John’s train of thought, making him realise that he’d gotten ahead of himself when they were here to get to know each other. He thought about the answer for a moment; he could probably use magic as an analogue for technology, but in the end he decided to avoid computers.

The conversation flowed easily. He began with tabletop games, eventually focusing on role-playing games, telling her they were essentially collaborative stories with a little random chance thrown in. This led to them moving to books.

Unfortunately, being from different worlds meant neither recognised titles the other loved, so they discussed genres, tropes and themes they enjoyed. This, in turn, led to John telling Lumiara how he expresses himself creatively through art and writing, the latter capturing her attention.

“You write?” she asked enthusiastically, getting closer to him. “Could I maybe read something you wrote sometime? What kind of stories?”

John felt a little awkward and rubbed the back of his neck. “Oh, well. I suppose you could… but they’re rather, uh, erotic.”

The admission only seemed to intrigue her more, and she looked at him slightly starry-eyed. “Oh, I’d love to read, a lot of Leili’s books are erotic, so I’m no stranger, and I think it would be great to read the kinds of things which might interest you.”

He chuckled out of embarrassment. “I’m not sure it’s all that good. Definitely not to the standard you are used to from published books,” John said, pausing for a moment. “Maybe we should join the others?”

Lumiara ran her finger around the lip of her cup before sitting back on her chair. She let out a hum as she thought, before glancing at John and raising a finger; her nail began to change, growing thicker, longer, and sharper.

She brought the sharpened talon to her chest, gently brushing against her skin until her finger hovered over her heart, and then she pressed it into the skin, causing John to wince. A small stream of blood dripped, beginning to glow as it vanished into her cleavage.

She licked her thumb and wiped the spot she’d pierced herself to reveal it completely healed before looking back up at him with a smile.

“Leili said you would like this,” she murmured, gesturing between her breasts. “Take it.”

John paused, trying to figure out what Lani had been telling the faun. ’What did I do to make her think I’m into blood play or whatever this is?’ he thought, before spotting something seated in the valley of her chest, a small red gem.

He felt like he shouldn’t be staring; after all, he’d gotten used to averting his eyes when it came to women to avoid accusations, but she was kind of presenting herself here.

She shuffled forward, pressing her breasts together with an expectant look, clearly seeing no issue with the situation. He rubbed the back of his neck before tentatively reaching out, trying to pluck the crystal.

Being careful seemed to work against him as his fingers brushed against the smooth, warm surface of the gem; it slipped deeper between her breasts. His eyes flicked up to hers, and with a smile, she nodded down, giving him the go-ahead.

At the depth it had fallen, John was unable to get away with minimal contact. He closed his eyes and took a breath before slowly sliding his hand between her breasts, trying hard not to focus on just how soft and warm they were, how soft her skin felt, or how it felt as if his hand was receiving a gentle hug from all sides.

Pulling back with the crystal between his fingers, John let out the breath he’d been holding, and Lumi gave a light clap.

John looked at the blood-red bead, then his brain clicked, and his eyes snapped to Lumi. “Uh, is this-” he began, glancing between Lumi and the Crystalised Dragon Blood.

Lumi smiled and nodded. “Leili said you get stronger with them,” she confirmed. “Go ahead.”

Blinking, John realised Lumi expected him to take the crystal right then and there. He swallowed, looking at the dragonblood, thoughts of where it had just been fresh in his mind, but Lumi’s expectant look didn’t waver. He rolled the gem between his fingers, hesitating before dropping it into his mouth and swallowing.

He felt the hard red pill travel down his throat, a familiar warmth pulsing throughout his body as it reached his stomach, and his interface flickered into his vision.

Crystalised Dragon Blood Consumed.