An almost negligent wave of the man’s hand, and the force keeping Alderian up in the air shifted smoothly downward, letting him get all fours properly onto the ground. It was a marked improvement; he was hardly afraid of heights, certainly not the mere foot’s breadth he’d been at, but it was such an undignified way to be hanging there, not like proper flight at all.

Not that Edric was quite ready to trust him enough to release him entirely, apparently; he was allowed to furl his wings, but then force bound them against his body, and he was not permitted to walk around, or even to sit. He was stuck standing with his legs outstretched, at the human’s mercy.

Granted, with how the force binding him twisted and coiled around his member, caressing it – concealed as it was – as though with a thousand ghostly caresses, he didn’t exactly feel a pressing need to be going elsewhere.

“I might get to thinking you’ve done this before, human,” Alderian huffed, as the man’s deft telekinetic touch coaxed the hardening spire of his penis into the open.

“Not with your kind,” Edric drawled in response, wiggling his fingers, resulting in force stroking briskly and repeatedly over the very tip of Alderian’s malehood. “But there are a number of creatures built like you in that respect, or at least close enough for me to recognize. Beyond that… as I said, I know males.”

Males, indeed. Alderian grinned. “That word, I gather, explains why your woven skin fits you less well than a short time ago, hmmm?”

Edric laughed, sauntering over to Alderian’s flank, at the edge of his vision. “Even underfed, you are a magnificent specimen, no doubts there,” the man said, reaching out a hand to run along Alderian’s member directly. “Here not least of all.”

His hand was surprisingly warm, and the softness of his caress was a very novel sensation. Alderian shuddered, and would have thrust against the touch if he weren’t still bound in place. “You wouldn’t know how I compare to others of my kind,” he growled.

“Perhaps not.” Edric splayed his hand, one finger at the very base of Alderian’s shaft, thumb farther up along it, then laid the next against it in kind, measuring three hands’ worth. “But do you?”

For a moment Alderian could only fume. He’d blundered right into that one; he’d glimpsed a few other pairs mating while he was an adolescent, but never up close enough to see detail. But as the man rubbed over his cinnabar-red flesh, he tried a different tack. “Come now, human,” he hissed. “You’ve pried truths out of me, surely you can spare one in turn without being evasive. It’s not only for a reagent that you desire me, is it?”

Another laugh. “I need to have a better picture of you before I can contemplate that,” he said, squeezing Alderian’s length between both his palms, sliding them along it together.

Alderian grunted, toes tensing in a futile bid to sink his claws into the turf. “Then I’ll… inform you,” he panted. “You’d best have… a larger vessel… than it seems you could carry. And that soon.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want to interrupt long enough to get such a one,” the man chuckled. “Besides, this will give me a better notion of how big. I’ll take what I can as soon as you provide it, and admire the rest, hmmm?”

Truth be told, at least to himself, Alderian hadn’t had any experience save on his own, and those stroking hands were so very different from the touch of his own muzzle and tongue. Even as the man replied, the drake felt his pleasure surging, and almost as Edric finished speaking, a shudder raced through the dragon’s body. He bellowed, bucking in vain against the force that bound him, his member jerking against the man’s fingers, and his seed raced out of him.

Two gouts of it had streaked over the ground, pulsing a good quarter-length forward, by the time Edric brought a little glass vial out of his clothing and into place. It was so inadequate, he had to let out a laugh of his own, even as he kept pumping out onto the ground; filling it had little effect on a single spurt, and then the rest got the man’s hand thoroughly sticky before Edric laughed and took a step to the side, caressing the dragon’s jerking shaft with his free hand, urging him on through a dozen good jets of seed, stroking along the underside of his length to push out as much of the lazy dribble that followed as he could.

It certainly beat the quick scramble away he’d seen in other dragons mating. The human’s hand felt good on his shaft.

“Goodness,” the man chuckled. “If that’s typical, twice a year would be all I’d need for my work.”

“What about for play, hmm? I can smell the desire on you, Edric.” At least there was some scent that he hadn’t noticed from humans before, and given the man’s prior words and his arousal, that seemed the likely explanation for it. “You’ve convinced me it’s in my best interest to remain here. Perhaps now you could give me an experience in kind?”

“You’ve used my name, so I’ll count that as a good sign.” Edric smiled, tugging at the metal brooch that cinched his cloak. “Perhaps I should let you get a more substantial meal while I make ready, though.” And just like that, the net of force faded and was gone.

It was a matter of how well the man had fired up Alderian’s breeding urge that he’d not even noticed the dead sheep for the past stretch of time. That was quickly and easily remedied; amazingly enough, the sorcerer was still right there – unclad and quite visibly aroused – when Alderian finished bolting down his meal.

“I’m glad I’ve a strong stomach,” Edric said with another of his easy laughs. “All I’d need do is have you eating within view, and no bandit would dare come near town again.”

“Yet you’re of sterner stuff,” Alderian mused, ducking his head, tongue darting out to draw in a better sniff of the man. Yes, there was that distinctive scent, and now he could make out some notes in common with his own. Quite enticing, really. “So you trust me, at least, not to turn my teeth on you.”

“I know I can keep myself safe if it’s necessary,” Edric countered. “But I do also trust that I can make it worth your while.”

“You’ve made a start, initial indignity aside,” Alderian breathed, and sent his tongue flicking a little closer, coming into contact with the pouch that hung between the man’s thighs.

Such a curious arrangement these mammals had. But the response was quite gratifying. Edric gasped and shoved forward against the dragon’s darting tongue, rising up right onto his toes and shivering from one end to the other. The taste of him was quite pleasing, too, and not in the sense that food was. No, this was something quite different, and the source of it was just a bit higher up.

So, naturally, Alderian brought his head in closer, tongue stroking up from the man’s pouch to his shaft, drawing the latter right into the dragon’s mouth.

Somewhat to his surprise, it turned out to be far more work than his own pleasure had been. The man clutched at his horns, thrust into his mouth, and groaned, gasping for breath; some minutes in, he was so plainly unsteady that Alderian nudged him right down to the grass. “How is it,” he asked as Edric was settling himself, “that my pleasure is a simple thing, yet someone so much smaller needs this much more work for it?”

“We’re built for lengthy coupling, is all,” Edric laughed, stretching out on the grass.

“Lengthy indeed. I’m ready for another already.”

The sorcerer shivered. “That,” he breathed, “could help things along greatly, come to think.”

So he’d enjoyed Alderian’s torrent, had he? Well, how much more might he enjoy closer contact with it? The dragon shifted forward, curling in, aiming himself up along the human’s body. “If you can focus on that delightful sort of touch you were using earlier, that should be easy enough,” he said, before engulfing the man’s member again.

Edric gasped and bucked up against him, but apparently he could focus, even in that state. Ghostly fingers chased over Alderian’s quite-ready length, not so focused as the man’s actual hands and lacking their warmth, but so delightfully nimble, spiralling and chasing over his flesh.

Again his pleasure rose and peaked. This time, he was curled up such that his seed arced right over the supine human, streaking his nut-brown skin with globs of sticky white.

And that made his groans escalate quite a bit. Moments later, the man cried out, clutching at Alderian’s horns, shoving up against his mouth, and warm, thick, pungent fluid pulsed over the dragon’s tongue.

It wasn’t much of a swallow, especially considering the work that had gone into getting it, but it was certainly quite distinctive. Indeed, he rather enjoyed the taste that lingered on his tongue.

“Well.” Edric laughed, stretching out. “This meeting went rather better than I was expecting, I must say.”

“Rather. You’ve certainly made up for your initial greeting.” The dragon nudged his snout against the man’s cheek. “Your arrangement is to my liking, Edric. Supply me with food and safe lodgings, and I will do my part to keep them safe, as well as providing you with fodder for your experiments. You may call me Alderian.”

Again the man chuckled. “A pleasure indeed to make your acquaintance, Alderian,” Edric said, sitting up among the waving grass and casting about for his clothing. “But if you’ll excuse me, I should get those arrangements properly in place.”

With a rumbling laugh, Alderian drew back and let the man be. Now that there was no rush to be moving on to more remote lodgings, and he was fed and contented, he might as well settle in for a rest.

Life was good.