Patreon Exclusive: Mar 2025 II

Ambrosia, the Milk of Eternity

By KinkSaber

Ambros was as proud and egoistic as any Gem Dragon could be. He was beautiful to a fault, his scales shined with the brilliance of golden honey, and his figure was bulky, strong, and radiated with power that drew the adoration and awe of anyone who laid eyes on him. Underneath his healthy scales were muscles that could crush boulders and mountains, and in his head was ancient magic that not even the best of mages could hope to reproduce in ten lifetimes. 

In this world, Gem Dragons were worshipped as gods, and for good reason. Each one was powerful enough to cause the lands around them to grow into paradise with just their presence. Emeralda of the eastern forest provided the elves with bounties the world would not find elsewhere. Saphira of the western oceans ensured the regional seas breamed with life for the merfolk. Rubius of the northern volcanoes provided the dwarves vast riches of metal from the mountains.

Then, there was Ambros of the southern deserts, whose power maintained the oasis in the inhospitable lands of sand and gust. The humans were, of course, grateful – but had always been jealous of the uncountable blessings of the other three nations. They took the fruits and meat of the forests, the fish and pearls of the seas, and the metal and gems of the mountains – to enrich themselves. The deserts and barrenlands remain uncultivated, and time passed.

What the elves, the merfolk, and the dwarves had, what they were given freely, it made them complicit. Lazy. Not in labor, but in innovation. For humans, who were given a short lifespan to live in the drylands of rock and sand, they had to be crafty. The environment pushed their evolution – and, of course, their greed.

Yes, greed.

Their insatiable desires for more was the main driving force behind the uprising of the human nation. A thousand years passed, and the tree-dwellers had invented uses for fire and built mud-huts. Another thousand years, and they have evolved into settlements, protected by tree trunks painted by black tar. Another thousand years, and they have formed large settlements with intricate road systems between human cities – and the other three nations. When the settlements were self sustaining, they moved on to less physical things – the knowledge of magic. They developed theories of magic and tested the application of spells. They took the powers of the world and molded it in their hands. Took the very life of the planet and the very powers of creation and mashed them together until something worked in a way they deemed useful. They learned. Improved. At rates that surprised even the long-lived elves. 

The Gem Dragons did not so much as glance their way. They were still very insignificant things; like bacteria to intelligent, sentient life. Ambros, in particular, slept for hundreds of years at a time, and only interacted with humanity on whims of entertainment.

And then another thousand years passed.

Beyond magic, humans invented science. Explanations of how the world worked. Science. Math. Physics. In addition to magic, the knowledge accumulated in humans was extremely powerful.

While the elves, the oldest of them, who had seen humans as nothing more than slightly humorous monkeys, had fallen behind in keeping their traditions alive. The oldest of them saw human knowledge as folly, foolish, and a waste of eternal time. They were the first to fall when the humans brought war upon the elven forests; with machines that spat hundreds of tonnes of metal, while protected by magical shields.The merfolk, too, were driven to the depths of the seas when the oceans were polluted beyond the powers of Saphira’s purification. The dwarves, innovative and opportunistic, however, became humanity’s best trade partners. When the war between nations were settled, humanity turned their eyes onto their benefactors – the Gem Dragons.

The first on their list was Ambros, who they had ungratefully attributed humanity’s misfortunes due to his meek blessings.

But the dragons were giant, powerful, and their scales were tougher than any materials that could be found on mortal lands. Humanity was stumped, and in time, most of them had given up the subjugation of the living deity that walked among them. Their civilization grew prosperous, advanced, and gave rise to people who grew dissatisfied with the gap between the wealthy and poor. People who sought ways to bridge the gap. People who looked into older methods, ancient magic that could grant their wish.

People like Escalion. 

Escalion was an orphan of war, a victim of the conflict between humans and elves. He knew no family, and from a young age had learned to fend for himself. Escalion – or Esca, to his friends – grew up in the orphanage-slums of Oasis City, where it was said to be the first and largest human settlement.

But Esca was special in ways he did not know.

Esca was born with magic in an age where almost all people had lost the spark of the world. It was not until he turned twelve that a passing mage – one that Esca had hoped to rob – sensed the rare twinkle in Esca’s soul that he forcibly adopted the street urchin, and taught the boy to read and write in exchange for food, clothes, and a roof over his head. It was hard work for the both of them – for Esca to learn to trust, and for the mage to learn to handle a wild, feral cat like Esca. Days, weeks, months. It was two years before Esca had finally put the dagger he hid under his pillow into the drawer of his bed stand. The orphan’s gaze softened, and while he continued to question the man on many things, he no longer did it with suspicious hostility. Soon, they were even comfortable with minor spats that were familial to the orphan’s mind.

“Onion soup? ONION SOUP?! How many times do I have to say this, old man – I HATE onions!” The young adept, who was at first both hostile, untrusting, and shy, now unreservedly demanded his meal be replaced by the mere presence of that white and purple vegetable. “If I can memorize three books a day, you can remember the one thing I hate!”

“And as I’ve said, Esca – onions are good for you.” The Master chuckled at his apprentice. “You do understand that just because your name sounds like scallions, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy them?”

“Aargh!” The young adept cried. “I hate them! Hate!”

“Too bad. I’ve purchased a grate of them at the market.” The Master laughed heartily. “It will be onions for a week. Eat, or starve. The servants will not complain of your leftovers, boy.”

“Ugh..!! Fine!”

The ‘old man’ of forty, as it turned out, was a royal magus in the employ of the king. He had neither prestige, achievements, nor renown – but he was a mage, and a pretty damn good one at that. He lived comfortably enough that he had some savings in the banks, but not so much that he could afford extravagance for the young apprentice he adopted. When he was summoned to the courts, he brought Esca with him – and in place of being bullied by violent street gangs over resources for survival, Esca was bullied by the children of the upper echelons of society – over his unremarkable grey cloak, his messy hair, and his undecorated boots that had been worn for four seasons.

As it were, he did not spoil his apprentice, but held him to standards that would put even royal tutors to shame. He saw the potential in Esca’s magic, and refused to give in to any unreasonable demands made of him. The food was filling, but not extravagant. The clothes were warm, but not trendy or fashionable. Esca was given a small allowance to learn about money, and so he gained a degree of freedom that he did not know before. Still, the pittance that he was given, and the boots that he had painstakingly saved up many months for, was easily sneered at by the minor nobilities. It wounded the young Esca deeply. It taught him to control his emotions, to mind his manners, and to not show weakness.

But more importantly, it fuelled Esca’s desires to climb up from the pit of poverty, and human desires – Esca’s desires – was the driving force that soon will change the world.

When Esca reached adulthood, he passed the day unceremoniously – with stale cheese, dry bread, and a thick milk stew, much like any other day. He was engrossed in studies, but it was on his birthday – or rather, the official anniversary of his adoption – that his master passed to him a grimoire.

In this grimoire were spells and magical theories not yet proven, not yet made applicable. Equations went unsolved, and hypotheticals too wild and foreign for the larger academy to accept as a research basis. Not for Esca, though. He treasured the grimoire. It was the one and only valuable item that he had ever received that he could call his own. The day he turned into an adult, at the age of twenty, was the day that his life would change.

Page after page of incomplete magical knowledge filled his head. Page after page of broken formula, incorrectly calculated. Esca put them in the right place. He drew on fresh parchment a copy of the old diagram, and then with a different ink he drew over them. He deciphers ancient manuscripts that were passed down, but in languages that had long been discarded.

But Mage Tongue – magic never went out of fashion. Spells were woven in magic, and Esca knew that. He translated the pages piece by piece, letter by letter – from ancient scribbles and partial spells into the language of magic, and back again into ordinary Common Tongue. From there, he made a discovery – of a line that was referenced nowhere else. The secrets to immortality lie in the Gem Dragons.

And then, as with the hundreds of thousands of people who lived in the many eras of Humanity before him, Esca became obsessed with the idea of immortality.

The elves lived for thousands of years. The dwarves lived for hundreds. The merfolk were said to grant humans prolonged life with their tears or flesh or blood. There, in the book, was an ancient passage, long since forgotten, about the Milk of Eternity, given by the bosoms of Mother Gaia’s first children – the dragons who wandered the lands.

Esca looked at his notes, memorized the passages, and then when he was certain he would never forget a single letter of the passage, he hid the grimoire in his Master’s library amidst an ocean of books, and burned his parchments to the last piece.

He planned. In his head, he made detailed plans to test this theory. From the ancient spells he crafted new ones – not powerful spells, but useful. He learned about the properties of metal and gems, and apprenticed under his Master’s friend, a veteran of Magicraft, under the guise of expanding his knowledge. He learned curses from a witch. He soaked in the knowledge of creature handling from the royal stables. He spent the next five years under the boot heel of the rich noble’s adult children in exchange for the equipment of knowledge – and ancient secrets that the nobles were easily manipulated into boasting of. 

Esca was ready.

He set off while the sun was still yellow as a yolk. For the now full-fledged mage, a flight across the desert was no difficult task. An air barrier protected him from the gusty winds and a simple misty spell kept him cool under the blazing sun. He flew eastward from Oasis City, past the smaller towns and villages that surrounded it, until he arrived at The Great Sandseas where Ambros is said to slumber. It was golden sands as far as the eye could see, and at the very edge of the road he had passed hours ago was a single warning to not venture further. The mage landed and felt the energy flow of the land. He had trained so much that mana had been visible to his naked eye, and from under the dunes he saw the rivers where the power converged and cycled – the heart of Ambros.

When he saw the glitter, it became obvious to him where he must go, and so he continued to fly towards the flow of mana. The smaller streams joined together as the distance between him and Ambros shrunk, and became raging rapids of power. Sandstorms. Heat waves. The dragon’s flow of energy manifested in miniature forms of natural calamity. Esca easily passed through them with his protection spells.

And then, in the very heart of the desert, there stood a plateau above The Grand Sandseas.

From afar, Esca saw a bright glimmer that looked as if the sun itself had reflected into his eyes. He knew he had found the Gem Dragon, and sped towards it. He landed at the edge of the hallowed ground, and took in the massive sight of the dragon. Ambros was huge. He knew from the texts that the Gem Dragon was a giant, but now that he stood in front of Ambros he suddenly felt very, very small. 

Ambros was easily fifty feet tall when he laid down.

There was a moment where he wavered, and wondered if he could tame the herculean beast. Esca exhaled in awe.

No, he must be, or he’d have come all this way for nothing. He’d have come all this way to die. He refused to be simple human refuse. He was so much more.

The dragon slept cozily, ignorant of the human that approached him. Esca took the time to set up his camp – a miniature laboratory – from his magic bag. 

It was an old leather messenger bag that he had purchased from the second hand store. He enchanted it himself, with a variety of space magic, to allow the bag to become a near-infinite inventory that weighed no more than the bag itself. When his Master discovered what he had done, the old man simply shook his head and rolled his eyes, and then told him to not reveal such crafts to society at large. Secretly, Esca knew his Master was proud of him.

It was a simple camp, made of cheap pieces of canvas sewn together by hand, and propped up by rusty metal poles. From the outside, it was only big enough for Esca to lay down if he bent his knee while he slept; but like the bag the inside of that tent was much larger. Not fancy, simply larger than what it appeared to be on the outside.

Covered in old rugs and held together by almost-rotting twine, it was far from the glamour that one would have expected from the apprentice of a royal magus – but Esca had long ago learned the importance of function over fashion – and this tent was very, very functional. It was not just a camp, nor was it a tent – it was a pocket dimension weaved into the fabrics of the canvas itself.

Above the rugs were the cheap, repaired furniture that Esca had stolen from the city dumps. The shelves were half broken and its wooden planks mismatched. The bed was made of rusted metal frames, on top of which a musty mattress was covered in a patchwork blanket. The pillow was stuffed with straw and wool, which Esca had sheared himself in the dark of the night. It was the best he could do, but he was proud that he made it himself.

His bedroom at his Master’s workshop was, of course, much better prepared; but when Esca went out for jobs, this tent was his home, and he stored everything he owned in it. It made for a great place to keep the somewhat questionable things that he would rather his Master not see. He crafted magical artifacts, brewed potions, and practiced spells that were not looked kindly upon. It was all for this day. The smell of his room calmed his nerves. 

He picked out several items that he had collected, and left the safety of the tent to stand next to the creature that was the size of a mountain. He looked at the objects in his hand, and wondered if he was powerful enough to do anything to the honey-scaled dragon.

He had to try. 

He uncorked the silver bottle in his hand. Like his bag and the tent, the bottle was enchanted to be larger on the inside than the outside. He had spent many moons brewing a special potion for the dragon, and he kept it all in the silver bottle. Carefully, he flew up to the dragon’s maw, and when Ambros snored, Esca tossed it in without spilling a single drop on the dry ground. The mage watched the bottle disappear into the back of the dragon’s throat. The second spell on it activated, and destroyed the bottle. In a split second, the galleons upon galleons of magical brew flooded Ambro’s throat, and as the dragon still slumbered, washed down his esophagus and into his stomach, where his body began to digest the liquid.

The dragon’s scales glowed with magic as the effects activated. Had the Gem Dragon been conscious, he would have easily cancelled out the meager effects of the potion – but he was not, and his body was the mage’s to do with as the brew dictated.

The base of the mage’s potion was called the Mageslayer – for whoever passed a single sip between their lips would find their magical powers repressed for a full lunar cycle. Fortunately for the mages, this brew had a distinctive smell of rot and swill, like food scraps on a hot summer day. The silver bottle, before it disintegrated, contained and masked the foul scent.

The second brew was much simpler – petrification. It was an assassin’s brew, where the victim would be rendered helpless for a spell. A single chalice could only hold a grown man for several minutes, and so to hold the dragon down, Esca developed a more potent mix: three times as strong, and three times concentrated. It took the mage almost a year to gather the ingredients just to brew enough of it. With his own innovation, Esca enchanted it to make the effect permanent – until, at least, an antidote was ingested.

The third component to this mix was one that any novice in alchemy could have mixed up. A shrinking potion, which was easy to make but hard to use. Too much of it, and the object disappears into thin air; while too little leaves it unchanged. The strength of it also depended on the skill of the brewer, which is to say this type of potion was unreliable to use, but served as an excellent candidate that was mostly used as a test for alchemical examinations. After months of experimentation, Esca discovered that a simple enchantment could have been applied during the brewing process to control the size of which the object shrank.

Concentrated. Enchanted. Amplified. Esca spent many nights dousing the brews with magic and hovered over the cauldrons with spells. By the end, a single drop was more than enough to knock out an army, and Esca had made barrels upon barrels of the stuff, all thrown together into his silver bottle.

There had been no test runs, and Esca hoped for the best as the magical glow slowly subsided from the dragon’s scale. From fifty feet to forty to thirty, the dragon shrank smaller and smaller until he was only slightly larger than Esca himself. While he slept, Esca levitated the much more manageable sized dragon and brought him into the tent.

From there, he equipped a collar over the dragon’s neck. It was a cheap, bronze collar, but etched on it were runes and words of power that regulated the mana of the creature it was placed on. Esca got the inspiration for this from the special cuffs they placed on criminal mages to prevent them from casting spells, and modified it to the best of his ability to contain the magic of a creature a thousand times stronger. It was ridiculously powerful, but completely worthless otherwise – the upper limits were so high that no single creature would be able to make use of it; save for the dragons, of course.

Esca placed both his hands on the dragon’s cheek as it hovered in the air. He took a good look at Ambros, and only then did he realize how beautiful the dragon was. How perfectly sculpted the dragon’s body had been. Strong, muscular arms. Broad shoulders. A slim waist. The ancient dragon, now that he’s got time to observe, looked more human than when he was a giant. His form had changed, and although his face remained the same, he seemed much less threatening. Was that an effect of the potion, or did Ambros have a second form that he took, Esca wondered. He did use his own hair in parts of the brew, and he couldn’t rule out it as an unintended side effect – to human-ifiy the draconic being. 

The mage took hold of the dragon’s hand and examined the human-like fingers with massive sharp claws on the end, and then he looked at the feet. The tops of the foot was covered in amber shards and scales, and the bottom of it was skin. Smooth, tender skin. For a moment, Esca was lost in his own thoughts.

As he admired the dragon, though, Ambros’ eyes opened and stared back. Esca felt a shiver run down his spine as he fell backwards.

“..Human.” Ambros spoke, his voice weak and without the grandeur that it usually carried. “..Ah.. what have you done?”

“Oh.. gods. It worked..!?” Esca was incredulous at himself. He didn’t expect the dragon to awake so soon – or that he would be long alive to take note of it.

“Hmph.” The dragon scoffed. Then, as he looked around, he realized that something was very wrong. He was small. Too small. And he was weak. Too weak. The cosmic powers were still inside him; but he could not summon an ounce of strength or call upon them. With his current body, he understood at once that he had fallen under the human’s spell while he slumbered.

Partially impressed, and partially mad, the dragon couldn’t decide on his next move. This was something that had never happened before – in the thousands of years of creation not once did a human, an elf, a dwarf, or a merfolk even come close to scratching the dragons – much less make them small and powerless. He floated in the air helplessly, carried by the human’s meager magic power. His body, while still retaining its glimmer, felt thin and frail. He couldn’t move anything below his neck. Not an arm, not his hand, not even a single finger. He sensed the poison of petrification in him, empowered by the mage’s spell. He sighed.  

“Human. You understand this will not hold me forever.”

“Yes. I didn’t account for it working at all, really.” Esca admitted. “I had half expected to return home with nothing but failure.”

“Your hubris is an annoyance.” The dragon said, without praise or scold towards his captor. “Release me. As you have bested me, I shall grant you a wish. Riches beyond your imagination. That is what you are after, yes?”

“Well, truth be told, I don't know how.” The human looked nervous. “If you read my mind, you’ll see that I'm not lying to you.”

“Read your – you humans attribute fantastical abilities to us dragons that we do not possess.” Ambros scoffed. “This is a cage of your design, and so I ask you again – release me, before I decide to take more drastic measures. I promise you this, little one, you will be gravely harmed should I choose to release my power.”

“Okay, well, let me think.” The mage turned and looked at his shelves. There was nothing he had prepared for, for this scenario. No antidotes. No spells. No artifacts. He had only prepared for items that would aid in the dragon’s capture, not its release.

“I grow impatient.” Ambros growled lowly. He tried to summon a spark of his power. He failed. He tried to summon more. That, too, was not conjured. While the human deliberated, the dragon tried to call on his strength. The potion that Esca brewed was simply too powerful – it had sealed the dragon up for good. Locked his cosmic powers inside him; and the enchanted collar regulated all of that power over the dragon’s will.

When he turned to face Ambros again, he found the dragon’s eyes glowed, as if he was to be bathed in the fires of hell. Esca fell back, and covered his face with his arms in fear. He waited. When nothing happened he looked again.

“..What have you done to me..!?” The dragon asked again. “All of my powers.. I can’t command it.”

“Not even.. A little?” The human asked. The dragon replied with a sharp glare.

“Hmph.” The dragon exhaled, and tried again. His eyes grew brighter. Bright, like the desert sun – but once again, nothing happened. Not even a spark of flames from his throat could be summoned.

“You’re completely.. Helpless?” The human’s curiosity peaked now. A smile grew on his face. He reached over and caressed the dragon’s chest. His hand traveled freely across the ribs, then the stomach, then the legs. He touched Ambros and felt the scales under his fingertips and the hair on the dragon’s head. 

“If you’re quite done..?” The dragon asked, annoyed. 

“Oh. Sorry. I just couldn’t help myself. I’m a mage – a scholar, you see. I’m inquisitive by nature.” Esca excused himself. “Speaking of – I came seeking something called the Milk of Eternity. Lord Ambros, do you happen to know what it is?”

“I am not familiar with the term.” The dragon sighed. He wasn’t going anywhere, so he might as well make conversation with the human. “Describe it for me. You humans name things in such mysterious ways.”

“I read in an ancient scroll that it gives eternal life.” The human recounted. “From the bosoms of Mother Gaia’s first children.”

“This obsession with eternal life – ugh.” Ambros groaned in disgust. “Milk of Eternity? What a pompous name. Call it for what it is – Our vital energy. Cosmic power. The droplets of creation, manifested.”

Esca was ecstatic when he heard the confirmation of its existence. It was more than he expected. From the beginning, he knew it was a fool’s errand, and he had already steeled himself to return to his Master when he had found nothing, or his potions failed. He treated it as a grand adventure, a chance to see the world with an excuse – but this – this was something else entirely.

“And how do I.. obtain this power?” Esca asked carefully. 

“Do not shy away from the real question with your cowardice.” The dragon spoke smugly. “No sword or spell of yours can harm me. If you thought to kill me, I wish you only the best of luck. Even the claws of another dragon would be repelled by my skin. I am immortal. Indestructible. Eternal. I cannot be cut, or burned, or made to give up my power by any violent methods your mortal mind could realize.”

Esca was both relieved and disappointed with the answer.

And, above the two, challenged, as he had always been.

“Then, Lord Ambros, you would not be opposed if I tried?” Esca asked daringly.

“I like your bravado, little human. Courageous or foolish it may be, it remains to be seen.” Ambros chuckled. “Come, Cast your spells. Sharpen your swords. See which one of your toys will work. In exchange, when I escape from this temporary bondage, I shall grant you a most celebrated death – and you shall burn from cosmic dragon fire. Your body, your spirit, your soul. Nothing will be left of you.”

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Esca smirked. “Then, I shall prepare. In the meanwhile, don’t try too hard to escape – you don’t want to miss out on the fun!”

Esca rubbed his hands together. He was fully awake now. Ten thousand ideas flashed through his head, and he wanted to give every single one a try.

—

Perhaps he was too hasty to make such a wager with the human. Had Ambros the ability to read minds or see the future, he would not have made the same decision twice. After all, these mythical abilities were tales of human origin, and did not reflect on the facts of the world.

By the time Esca had finished his preparations, Ambros realized this was not the silly, mush-brained humans he had come to know for thousands of years. This one was different.

No spells or sword could penetrate his scales, so what the human did was to test a different brand of magic on him. A brand of magic that Esca was very well versed in – his ability to bend space to his whim.

At first, it was only a hand. Then, it was his arm. The human created warps in space that transported the dragon’s limb from one spot to another, while they were still fully attached in the loosest sense of the world. The dragon watched, confused, as his arm laid several feet away. When the human went to pick it up, he felt the touches against his skin and scales. When the human ran his finger against his paralyzed palm, he felt the tingling trail. The dragon gasped in the next moment, when both of his arms were detached by the shoulders. No pain. Only a very strange sense of orientation. The next to go were his legs, soon followed by his tail and wings. He looked at himself in the hanged mirror across the tent, and saw a limbless torso.

“Did you know I could do that?” Esca asked as he held a limb in each hand. He was as surprised as the dragon was that it worked.

“No.” The dragon answered truthfully. He did not know, nor did he care to wonder whether a spell like that could be used in this manner. It was an experiment for him, too – as he tried to gather his power in the claws of his hand and the soles of his feet, he found that even when detached, they were still individually sealed from his cosmic powers. Still stuck. Still the human’s helpless toy to examine and play with. The dragon sighed. “Will you put me back together now? This is obscene and, frankly, ridiculous.”

“I’ve never even done this to another human!” Esca exclaimed excitedly as he looked back and forth between the dragon’s foot and the dragon’s face. “Can you feel this?”

He pinched the dragon’s leg, to which Ambros winced and made a scowl on his face. 

“Yes.”

“Incredible!” The human laughed, and took another look at the dragon’s foot. He couldn’t help but run his fingers across the arches, from just beneath the balls of Ambros’ foot to the heel. Something caught him off guard. He heard a sudden noise from the dragon’s throat, and although Ambros tried to hide it, it was clear as day,

He looked at the dragon, then back at the foot. He touched it again.

There it was. Something that sounded like the dragon tried to clear his throat. A whine? A tickle? He became more daring. He raked his nails down the dragon’s arch quickly, before Ambros had time to compose himself.

“Hhfft!” A gasp of air escaped from the dragon’s lungs, through his nose and cracked lips.

“..Lord Ambros.. Are you by chance.. Ticklish?” The human smirked, then tried again.

“That’s a foreign concept to me.” The dragon insisted. It was not a lie. The giant dragon had never felt anything ‘tickle’ his feet before. Not while he was big, at least. He felt the tone of mockery in the human’s voice, and it displeased him. “It must have been your potions that altered my body.” 

The dragon, again, was not entirely wrong. There were unknown side effects when Esca haphazardly mixed the potions together that even the dragon, in his infinite wisdom, cannot predict. His wisdom, however, did not account for just how cunning the mage had learned to be over the years. The dragon was well versed in universal, unshakeable truths – the human was practiced in seeking alternative paths when one led to a dead end.

And so the mage began down a new path from this discovery. 

He reached for the foot again and spidered his fingers over them. This was the first time any form of vulnerability had been found against the Gem Dragons, and the human would not let it go. He pinched and picked at the tender sole skin, prodded and dug his fingers into them. He felt them for what they were – impossibly tender and pleasant to touch. Was this part of the dragon’s ability to enamor all those who laid eyes on him, or was this an effect that he had inflicted upon the dragon by his mixture of potions?

He did not know, and his hunger for knowledge grew.

He continued to toy with the dragon’s sole, with his fingers traversed freely between the immobile toes and the taut arches. The pads of his fingers rubbed over the balls and traced their shape. When the human was done, he leaned forward and studied them closer. Esca popped the ankle off with his magic and brought both feet to his face as he turned them over to examine the crevices and ridges and folds and wrinkles.

He sensed himself growing obsessed with Ambros’ feet.

“You know.” Esca’s breath was shaky. He couldn’t ignore the tug in his heart strings. “For some reason, I’m being drawn to you.”

“All mortals are.” The dragon answered coldly. “By design. The dragons giveth life, and life seeketh life.”

“No, you don’t understand.” Esca leaned his face towards the sole and gave it a kiss. He did not find it repulsive as he would another human’s feet, or another creature’s feet. “I have no thoughts of rejecting you.”

“As I said, human – we dragons are the object of your adoration. The elves, before your war to exterminate them, adore Emeralda. The dwarves adore Rubius. The merfolk adore Saphira. You, human, adore me.”

“I feel an attraction, yes.” Esca admitted. “But I don’t believe it is the way you explained. I do not adore you.”

“Then explain your perspective, and I shall be glad to hear it.” The dragon was amused at the human’s struggle.

“I want you for myself.” The human looked up. There was a yellow glow in his eyes, as if he had fallen under hypnotism. It was not magic. It was something more. Something in the human’s soul that awakened when he spent so much time close to the dragon. “I want to claim you. I want to possess you.”

“So, the evolution of greed knows no bounds.” The dragon chuckled. “You sought immortality – and what of that?”

“I will have both.” The human kissed the dragon’s foot again, then licked it from the heels up. There was a wince in Ambros’ face.

For the first time, there was something that earned Ambros’ ire. The dragon sensed not just adoration or desire, but something more primal – lust. A bestial, base form of emotion; driven by biochemical and hormones, designed to react with the subject of one’s desires – it was a sense instill in many species for them to breed, copulate, and expand the biodiversity of the world.

And the subject was him – or rather, his soles.

Ambros did not yet understand that humans had not just been changed by greed, but have been corrupted by it. The elves, the dwarves, the merfolk were content to be given their blessings; but the humans lacked resources, and in their evolution greed had become synonymous with their species. The many generations that evolved since the first borns had woven into the human genetics of the naturality that is greed and lust. Not to breed and to pass down one’s genes, but for pleasure, and for self gratification. A sense of fulfilment. 

For the gratification of the mage before him.

The tongue returned to the dragon’s sole. This time, it was not a lick of curiosity, but one to reap the flavor of his skin, and the scent of his scales. It was a lustful lick, a greedy lick. A lick fueled by the human’s desires to make the dragon his own.

“You..!” The dragon hissed. “How dare you.. Bring that corruption to me?! To treat me as the object of your sexual desires?!”

“I don’t understand it either, Lord Ambros – but as I will soon be burned in cosmic dragon fire soon, I see no harm in indulgence.” Esca’s mind was blurred and hazy. The taste of the dragon activated parts of his mind that he did not before know existed. He had never been romantically interested in anyone, or found anyone sexually attractive – but at this very moment, he was enamored with Ambros, and he deeply wanted to continue. There was nothing else that interested him but to experience, to taste of the dragon’s body – his feet.

He kissed it again, each toe one at a time. He laid his lips on them, and pressed the fleshy walls of his mouth against the digits. He licked between them. He tasted Ambros’ feet for the power and glory of the dragon. Esca felt so powerful in that moment – to be able to freely worship the dragon in such a way. Most people merely bowed at the temples and sang prayers. Not him. Not Esca.

He moaned into the foot where he buried his face, as if he had done so into the chest of his lover. His eyes opened after, and there it was that Ambros saw the entrancement that the human had fallen under – by virtue of his own aura. The aura of dragons that demanded love and worship, respect and fear – but under humanity’s corruption, the reverence that should have been shown to the dragon had been inverted – to the desire of possession.

It was a selfish, egotistic form of worship, to put his own needs above that of others, that of what the dragon deserved.

It was too late, though. For both Esca and Ambros. The two paths had been intertwined, and a new one emerged.

The rest of the world faded from Esca’s mind as he continued to indulge himself on the dragon’s soles, with ravenous licks and greedy slurps. His tongue tasted and teased the texture of Ambros’ feet, and then he graced the dragon’s toes with just as much lust and desire. The voice of the dragon seemed to not be able to reach the human anymore as the worship became much more zealous in nature, as if it was the one thing that still tethered Esca to the mortal realm.

The dragon shouted and put power into his voice. It was as silence. His words and commands no longer reached Esca.

The tongue and fingers worked together. Esca scratched. He licked. His fingers groped and caressed. Ambros gasped between roars of anger and piffles of snorted laughter. He tried to suppress it, keep his dignity intact – but as time passed, the dragon found it more and more difficult to do so. There was something in the mage’s potion that slowly increased the sensitivity of his feet as they were played with. Something that made him feel sensations elsewhere, too.

Ambros finally understood why he felt so abnormal. There was a fire in his crotch that was not there before. The mage’s potion didn’t just shrink him, but transformed his physical body akin to that of a mortal being, with all of their vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and equipment that was unnecessary for the divine dragon – equipment for procreation.

It wasn’t half-assed, either.

Ambros’ new shaft rised as the stimulation on his feet continued, and as the sensitivity of those soles increased so did his arousal. All of his power was still trapped inside him, sealed away and isolated, unable to assist him in any way but one – to keep him conscious, keep his vitals healthy. It would have been mercy for the dragon to pass out, but it was his own power that prevented it.

To say Esca was obsessed with Ambros’ feet would be an understatement when out of the corner of his eye he saw the dragon’s cock come into full erection. Esca’s lips curled into a smile. His eyes focused with purpose. With the dragon’s feet in his hands he approached the shouting Ambros, still ignorant to his voice. The mage’s vision narrowed until only the dragon’s large cock was in it, and then he toyed with the dragon’s shaft, too.

Ambros’ protests and anger soon turned into moans and cries. Fear crept into the dragon’s mind as he experienced sensations that he had never been privileged to for the thousands of years of his life. There was something that felt incredibly good, that his body craved – but his mind knew it was an evil that should be resisted. He struggled, conflicted within himself. The human heard none of the dragon’s pleads to stop. Rather, the dragon’s cock looked so inviting, and it fueled his desires of both physical intimacy and thirst for knowledge of the dragon’s inner makings.

He cast a spell to levitate the dragon’s soles to his face, to free up his hands. His tongue and teeth paid attention to the dragon’s toes while his hands now caressed softly the dragon’s newest and most private spot. Ambros cried with pleasure as his huge cock was stroked, handled, and pleasured in ways he never understood. 

It was a losing battle for the dragon. Every stroke tempted him further. He had no resistance against this. Not against an attack that did him no harm.

Secretly, Ambros wanted to explore further. His body answered the call that his heart would not.

Esca was entranced by the dragon’s shaft. It was as big as his forearm, and took both of his palms to rub and grind against the pleasure spots. He hugged it in his chest and felt how hot it was against his human skin. The dragon’s organ was free of his scales, and when their skins made contact the human felt rushes of magic, inexplicable and powerful, within it. His hand tranced the source of it to the dragon’s testicles.

Ambros’ nuts were as large as grapefruits, and when held in the human’s hands they were weighty and full. Esca leaned forward and buried his face into the dragon’s groin and inhaled the intoxicating scent of Ambros’ sex. The dragon whimpered meekly as his organs were fondled, which gave him pleasure like never before. Pleasures of the flesh that all mortals experienced, but not him. He had long seen the results of it from the acts of those he watched, and he finally understood for the first time why they insisted on placing such a high priority on it. With rituals and ceremonies and boasts. He felt firsthand the need to release something that was pent up inside him.

His tongue drooped from his mouth as the dragon’s eyes relaxed and closed. He no longer protested the way he was treated, but gave in to the loud moans and gasps that he had so far denied himself of. There was something incredibly arousing with the way he allowed himself to experience the freedom from his obligations, to experience the world as mortals would.

He felt shivers run up his spine, and he felt the tingling deep inside him below the stomach. He felt the twitches of his new cock and the itch and thirst of his prostate. He felt his heart race, the same way he was excited to watch the beginning of the universe. This time, though, it was pure arousal.

The hands returned to his cock, and the tongue returned to his toes. He felt his power recover along the heat, but only to the extent of allowing him to wiggle his fingers and toes. He curled them against the tongue that invaded their space, but they were easily pulled back by nothing but the mage’s mind. A simple magic spell to move small objects was enough to pull them back.

Ambros begged for release – not from his bondage, but from the pent up frustration in his cock. What he did not understand was that for his release to happen, his pelvic muscles would have to contract – which was fully prevented by the potion that petrified him. He did not understand the workings of the mortal body; at least not in that department.

And so the dragon cried and pleaded. Esca stroked the dragon, which seemed an endless task in itself, and neither knew that all that happened was the human kept the dragon on edge. Esca wondered if the dragon had great endurance, but then the dragon showed the first sign of surrenderance – by the way his cock leaked precum. It encouraged the mage to continue his handjob.

Then, Esca noticed something. Whether it was coincidental timing or if it was the dragon being receptive to his techniques, whenever he licked the dragon’s soles, the dragon seemed to leak more. The mage hypothesized that, perhaps, his potions have caused the dragon to become aroused when stimulated on his feet.

He chanted a few words and levitated several brushes. Fine bristles, rough bristles – it mattered not. In mere moments they flew towards the dragon’s feet and scrubbed mercilessly, as they were commanded. The dragon screamed of laughter as his eyes watered with tears. The sudden onslaught was too much for Ambros to handle.

And the sensitivity on his soles only seemed to increase with time.

Enchanted ropes wrapped around each of his toes and pulled them back, which ended with loops around the dragon’s ankle. Ambros’ soles were held taut as the many brushes competed for every last inch of surface area on the exposed, helpless feet. The sound of bristles scrubbing against the dragon’s poor feet was only matched by the animalistic screeches from the dragon’s mouth. To Esca, who had been so engrossed that he blocked out the dragon’s cries, Ambros’ predicament had long since passed from being an issue of concern. He pressed on.

He focused on the dragon cock that pulsated and twitched with every touch and every stroke.

Paint brushes were summoned from his tools. Dozens of them at a time, levitated and hovered above the dragon cock, which had now been modulated away from the dragon’s torso with the mage’s spell. Separated, it offered fully every angle the shaft and balls could be tormented. The paint brushes began to draw on them with horse hair, with rabbit fur, and mink fur. Each stroke was softer and more devious than the last. Three brushes focused on the head of the dragon’s cock, and they were relentless in their endeavor. 

And yet, Ambros was denied his wishes to released. He was physically unable to, and that did not bother Esca at all. The mage simply took it as a challenge that the dragon needed more stimulations, on his soles and his cock.

Whatever the dragon leaked, Esca carefully collected into his glass jars. It was a slow process that produced a miniscule amount, but even a single drop breamed with power. The mage sensed the incredible energy from it.

“Ah, this must be – the Milk of Eternity, then?”

He was close. The life force of the Gem Dragons was a phantasmic white, which would have been invisible to the naked eye. The results he had obtained were close enough.

Esca smiled as he was, so far, proven correct. But he needed more.

Much, much more.

He looked at the dragon, no longer with awe and reverence; but instead as a magic scientist, a scholar, and a researcher – who looked at the subject of his studies.

“We must run more tests, Lord Ambros.” He said, and grinned. “It is for the good.. Of everyone.”

—

Time passed. Untracked. Unknown.

For the Gem Dragon, it would have been trivial to break the human mage’s spell had it been only a matter of time, but even that, Esca conquered.

With the power of the dragon’s precum, Esca used the dragon’s power against himself time and time again. His capture was prolonged, extended, and the rest of his magic remained sealed.

The dragon’s torso had been wrapped in a layer of rubber, which had been coated in anti-magic properties to prevent a single ounce of power from leaking. Every piece of the dragon was covered until his brilliance of honey yellow scales no longer shined through, multiple times. He was trapped and petrified, frozen inside a magic crystal that was designed to keep him alive. Of course, that was unnecessary. Ambros was immortal, and death could not claim him. It would have been a release.

His arms and legs were kept in the same crystal pillar. Together, but separate. Wires and tubes connected these pieces to an external crystal, which acted as a battery to draw and contain the miniscule traces of energy that he shedded. The mage found this most useful.

His feet, however, were decorated and displayed in the heart of Esca’s lab – as was the dragon’s head and cock. The dragon’s soles and toes were tickled and  abused every single hour of the day, without rest. From his own shedded mana powered devices of Esca’s making. Rotary brushes between his toes. Mechanical scrubbers in the center of his arches. Pricklers and scritchers on the balls of his feet. Even the tops were feathered and flossed by plumes of all sizes and shapes. The offshoot energy went into a mild heater device that kept those soles warm and comfortable. Esca found that Lord Ambros was ill equipped for chiller climates, and it was only when his soles were roasted that they became the most sensitive. Those honey yellow soles had long since gained a state of permanent pink blush and a sheen of sweat.

As for his head, which was kept next to his feet – Esca had deemed it was necessary to blindfold the dragon to rob him of his sight, and to cover his ears with enchanted crystals to deafen him to the sounds of the outside world. The dragon was gagged, and a tube extended into his mouth to constantly drip Esca’s potions into the dragon’s throat that trinkled magic throughout the dragon’s separate body. The same potion kept him petrified, kept his magic sealed, and over time increased the sensitivity of the dragon’s body. Of course, his head was also wrapped in the same anti-magic rubber save for these holes.

Esca was pleased with his work. Lord Ambros only needed to focus on his treatment for maximized results. Within the enchanted crystals, Esca’s voice repeated the same words so many times that it was as if the voices were Ambros’ own. “A good dragon submits. A good dragon obeys. A good dragon cums. Lord Ambros is a good dragon.”

Still, after the many moon cycles that had passed, not once have Ambros orgasmed. Not once had he released the precious dragon cum that the mage sought after. He merely assumed the dragon had been defiant, when Ambros would give everything to just cum once.

Just once. Just once. JUST ONCE.

The dragon’s mind was kept intact only enough to crave the release of his cock. To beg. To pray. His prayers went unanswered. His gagged maw cried. That got the attention of the human mage, who looked past the dragon’s face, and whose gaze landed on the dragon cock that was constantly stimulated, constantly stroked by the many vibrators and brushes that were enchanted to attend it. Unlike the rest of the dragon’s body, his cock was not bound – but hovered in the air, much like the dragon’s soles, to allow the mage’s tool full access. The tip of the cock pointed constantly to a jar that sat underneath to catch every last drop of precious pre.

Esca dipped his finger in the collected pre and licked it. Instantly he was filled with life. He felt his body reinvigorate and renew, as if the damages of time had completely been lifted. He looked at the mirror and saw that his face had reverted back to the prime of his youth, when he had buried himself in books.

He stripped in front of the mirror and looked at his skin. They were firm, filled with moisture, and smooth. He took another lick of the dragon’s pre. His body shined with the dragon’s magic. He smiled to himself. His attention returned to the bound, endlessly edge, ‘defiant’ dragon.

“Lord Ambros.” He leaned forward and gave the dragon’s sweaty sole a kiss between the brushes, then kissed the dragon’s covered lips. “My love, my love. When will you be satisfied? How can I give you enough pleasure to cum?”

The dragon laughed into his gag, as he always did. Followed by moans. He would, if he could. He would give the human all of his cum. If he only could. It was the one thing he wanted. It was the one thing he was denied.

Esca looked over the cock, and kissed that too. Several more droplets of pre flowed. It gave the human hope that one day, he would be enough for the dragon he worshipped.

“I adore you, Lord Ambros.” Esca held the dragon’s head in his embrace. “Won’t you love me, too?”

Perhaps in time, Esca will discover his own mistake – but it remains unlikely for a virgin nerd to understand how orgasms happen. He was, after all, isolated in his labs and cared for none other than the dragon he obsessed over.

Until that mythical day arrived, though, Lord Ambros would be nothing but an eternally tickled, eternally edged, and completely broken dragon toy.

=The end=