Because he was so big... or because some dragon traits lingered even in Humanization.
Varen’s tongue was unusually thick and long. Soft flesh filled my mouth. Sometimes it reached so deep it touched the back of my throat.
A deep kiss like that left me short of breath.
“Mm....”
A low sound leaked out of my throat before I knew it. Every time it did, the arm cinched around my waist tightened.
With our tongues tangling mindlessly, the inside of my mouth naturally went wet. Saliva pooled until I couldn’t tell whose it was.
Just then his tongue slid in deep and skimmed my palate. The jolt of it lifted my heels and made my shoulders hunch on their own.
And before I knew it, I swallowed. Dragon saliva always carried a sweet taste, without fail.
At the clear sound of me gulping, Varen paused the kiss. When I eased my face back, a silver thread stretched between our lips.
His voice, thick with heat, whispered in a pleased way.
“You said you were treating Tymer’s cub. What are you doing swallowing it?”
I shot him a look that refused to be outdone by his mischievous grin.
“Don’t push your tongue in so deep. You’re making me swallow.”
“Too deep, was it? I don’t know what counts as moderate.”
If we were going to kiss, then kiss—pressing lips together and whispering like this tickled me to death.
I took a quiet grip on his hair to tell him to focus and pressed down. As if he’d been waiting, Varen swallowed my lips again.
Maybe my peevish complaint got through despite the embarrassment; his tongue didn’t drive so deep that I couldn’t breathe anymore.
The pace eased, and his movements grew careful.
Which only made it harder to bear. When I was slipping into a stupor, I didn’t think at all.
Now the sweet taste of saliva, the hot breath, every piece of Varen stood out one by one, vividly.
...Damn it. Why does it feel good.
Pins and needles kept sparking in my fingertips and toes. It was getting hard to call this a kiss I was forcing myself through.
And—predictably—something heavy made itself known below on Varen. The hot press of it tripped a survival reflex that said we shouldn’t go any farther here.
I thumped his chest in warning, and Varen let my tangled tongue go.
He didn’t part right away; he sucked my lips one more time. Chup—the wet sound raised gooseflesh.
I didn’t like the way his eyes looked so satisfied.
“Ha... ha... Now, hand it over....”
“A little more.”
Smiling, Varen brushed my lips a few more times. I turned my head to dodge and, against my intent, had to take a flurry of kisses on my cheek and jaw.
“Quit... it, you bastard! I’m drenched in spit!”
Of course I was. He’d rubbed that wet everywhere.
Worse, we’d both been kissing, but I was the only one out of breath. I tried to be composed, like the older one, but the slower I tried to breathe, the more my chest heaved.
Varen pressed his forehead to mine now and snickered. Then he took my hand and brought it to his mouth.
A moment later, a bead rolled out between his slightly parted lips. About the size of a ping-pong ball, blue like his irises.
“This will be enough.”
“...So you can do it like this. Why did you keep licking me every time?”
“Because I want to.”
Varen tipped his chin up, shameless.
“You told me to live how I want.”
That was something I’d said, too.
I swore again not to drink even cold water in front of a kid.
***
I waited for my flaming face to cool and went back to find Tymer and her cub.
“Tymer, this should do it now.”
I knelt on one knee in front of the cub. When I unwound the bandage, serous fluid had seeped out in the meantime. The area around the wound was red and hot to the touch.
As expected, infection was setting in at the wound.
I carefully rolled Varen’s bead into the large puncture. The bead, which had looked hard, shed its skin the instant it touched the wound.
The liquid pooled inside moved as if it were alive. I’d thought there wasn’t much, but it swelled and swelled, filling the empty hole.
Through the clear liquid I could see straight into the wound. The rust from iron buried deep inside melted away with a soft slide.
New flesh budded in real time. It was like watching the healing process fast-forwarded.
I held the cub’s injured leg in both hands and gently bent and straightened it. The muscle moved smoothly, and the cub only cocked its head instead of crying.
“Our baby, all better. You mustn’t get hurt again. Got it?”
“Ki-yaang.”
God, cute. Kittens really are the best.
I almost set out right away, then upended my pack. I pulled out every last thing I’d been saving as emergency rations.
I had Varen boil a pot full of water and started simmering chicken. Kallen’s stomach growled where she sat beside me, but I pretended not to hear it.
I fanned the hot meat cool and shredded it fine. For a large predator it was a mouthful, but the completion of a restorative meal lies in the maker’s care.
The mother didn’t leave a drop of broth and cleared the boiled chicken. Full for the first time in a while, she even dozed, rumbling.
Then the cub, having come to its senses, went for the mother’s milk. Now that the hurt was gone, hunger must have finally registered.
It kneaded the mother’s belly with its forepaws and suckled. In a good mood, the cub purred its little song.
Only after I confirmed the peace of the big cat mother and child did I get to my feet. Watching them lick each other made the bridge of my nose sting.
“We’ll be going now. Be careful, and stay healthy.”
“Grrr-rung.”
“Ki-yaang.”
Mother and cub offered thanks in turn.
And unlike when we arrived, Varen wore a satisfied smile when it was time to leave.
“If you get hurt again, come find me. I’ll give you medicine anytime.”
I’d left my lips unwashed on purpose; they were shining.
***
Not long after treating Tymer’s cub, Varen’s high fever began. He was staggering even though the sun hadn’t set yet.
Tonight’s hideout wasn’t a cave but the middle of a broad jungle. It should have felt unsafe, but with Varen groaning and unable to get water down, I had no time to spare nerves.
While I was absorbed in doctoring the dragon, Ella and Rami volunteered to stand watch tonight. Serif circled lower in the sky, keeping an eye on us.
“Ha... why am I like this today.”
Varen’s condition had been decent lately. It had been a while since his fever ran this hot.
By day he made me grab the back of my neck, but a brat is still my brat. Every time Varen was sick, it felt like it was all my fault.
Kallen, who’d been wound tight from running into Tymer, blinked sleepy eyes. Even so, when I held out a cloth, she poured on cold water.
Yawning wide, Kallen mumbled.
“Even for a dragon, getting caught in a trap must be hard to treat, I guess.”
“That so.”
“Yeees. And Tymer was bigger than Ceryl.”
Words that sounded like sleep-talk hit my ear.
“Why compare her to me?”
“Mmm... it was like this last time, too. When Ceryl got caught in a trap....”
“He was like this after treating my wound, too?”
Kallen rubbed her hazy eyes with the back of her hand.
“Right. He told me not to tell Ceryl....”
For saying not to tell me, she’d already spilled it all unfiltered.
Anyway, the moon hung on the treetops—it looked like bedtime had passed. A girl in a growth spurt should sleep; I decided to put her down.
When I told her to sleep first, Kallen rolled up a shabby blanket and hugged it to her. Then she bowed and told me to sleep well.
She’d slept fine on hard cave floors; now that we were in the jungle she went looking for a patch of soft moss. Laid thick, it made a natural mattress.
The moment she lay down at the base of an old tree, she started snoring. She’d picked a spot a fair distance away, so the loud snoring was tolerable.
Once Kallen was out, I set to full-on nursing Varen. Truthfully, I was censoring °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° myself for indecency in front of a minor.
Having done it once, I didn’t hesitate to strip off Varen’s top.
The sculpted muscle underneath twitched. With every breath, as if tight, his neatly cut abs clenched and unclenched.
“You stubborn brat. If you’re going to collapse like this, you should’ve said so.”
Instead of trying to bargain for a kiss.
And to think he was like this even after he treated my ankle. Dragon saliva, which I’d thought of as a panacea, came with a steep price in several ways.
I regretted squeezing him for dragon saliva so late. If I’d known, I would’ve stopped at first aid for Tymer’s cub.
It felt like I’d pushed my own cub too hard to heal someone else’s. I washed his neck and armpits with all the care I had, packing the apology into it.
Only after dousing him with cold water for a long while did Varen come around.
“Ha... ugh, hot....”
“Varen, you okay?”
At my voice, he pried his eyes open with effort. His gaze, blurred with heat, found me.
“Ceryl... it hurts....”
When he was a dragon, scratching him here and there helped a little. In human form, where was I supposed to touch?
I swept back his long, sweat-damp hair however I could. I scrubbed under his jaw with my nails; I wasn’t sure it helped, but there wasn’t much else I could do.
Varen, who had been quietly letting my hand do what it wanted, spoke in a faint voice.
“Hold me....”
Whatever shape he wore, when he was in pain he always came into my arms.
A door-sized body was a load, but it was still better than a house-sized dragon.
I lay on my side beside him and carefully gathered his head. His steaming forehead sank against my chest.
Different form, same behavior. The memory of the Spirit’s Domain surfaced, and I let out a small laugh.
At that, Varen groaned and burrowed in deeper.
