My arm is numb. When I move to stretch, Sarah murmurs softly. Her head rests on my shoulder, and she shifts, one hand moving across my chest and throwing a leg across me. Reaching with my free arm, I grab the blanket and pull it over us. The air is cool, for Tajss at least. Watching her chest rise and fall with even, regular movement, a swelling starts in my chest and expands until it feels like I’ll explode. A lightness fills me, an airy, strange sensation that radiates from a glowing warmth deep inside my core. My inner dragon hums with satisfaction, knowing that my treasure has accepted me. She is mine as I am hers. We are as it should be.

Nothing could feel better than her in my arms.

The storm is over. There is no sound except that of her breathing. Her heart beats against my chest, slow and steady, thumping strong against me. Thoughts flit through, things I should do, concerns and worries about what comes next but I push all of that aside. This moment, right now, here with her, everything is perfect. Everything else that is to come will be there when it is there.

It takes an effort of will to quiet thoughts of the future, but once I do the quiet settles over me. Closing my eyes, I focus on the sensation of her. The points of contact between our bodies are warm, and her soft skin is so enticing. So different than a Zmaj female, who would also be covered with scales, as I am. Her breasts, so open, boldly thrusting out to the world as all the human females’ do, are an endless sense of wonder to me. A Zmaj female’s breasts are covered with protective plates and are only exposed for feeding children.

The sensation of her soft mounds against my side hold my attention, and my cock stirs, giving a jump of interest as my attention focuses on them.

Pulling my attention from that single point of contact, I focus on each point of contact, where her hips rest against me down to her leg lying across mine. Idly I touch her hair and run my fingers through its silky softness. She stirs once more, and I stop, not wanting to wake her. I don’t want this moment to end, ever. This is what I’ve needed and wanted but never knew. Life since the devastation has been one day after another, surviving, because that is what I do. Living more for Visidion and the Tribe than for myself. Living with no hope, no purpose, knowing, whether any of us admitted it or not, that there was no future for our race. We had no females, no hope of a next generation. When we died it would be the end of the Zmaj.

It was life, and life finds a way. Ignoring the grimness of the situation, or at least refusing to look at it, we continued. The arrival of the humans changed everything. I was little more than a primal animal, operating on instinct alone, holding onto the last vestiges of humanity by clinging to the Edicts as a lifeline between myself and the endless rage of the bijass. Now I am a male again. A Zmaj warrior, as I once was.

A warrior.

Yes, I was a warrior. A cold chill races through me at the thought. Why? What happened?

The memories are buried deep in the bijass, hidden away and somehow I know that I don’t want them. I don’t want to remember. If I do something terrible will happen. I can’t look at it.

“Mmmm,” Sarah murmurs, shifting against me. Her breasts move along my side and my cock rises to greet her standing tall and erect as she stretches against me. “Well, morning.”

She laughs, turning her head up away from my erection to meet my eyes. Tilting her head back, she puckers her lips and I meet them with a kiss.

“Good morning,” I reply.

“Happy to see me?” she giggles.

“You are my treasure,” I say.

“Mm,” she grins.

She rises onto an elbow, then slides over and across me, rising up until she’s positioned over my erection. Slowly she lowers herself onto my hardness. She’s wet and warm. At the same time as the head of my cock enters her, a sigh rips out of me. It’s like coming home. Everything that is wrong with the world becomes right as our bodies join.

She throws her head back and gasps as she makes it down to the first ridge of my cock. By shifting her hips from side to side and then rotating, she works her way over the ridge. It enters her with a sensation of a pop that makes my cock spasm as it enters the tight, wet tunnel of her love. The intensity of sensation is enough to test my resolve and push me towards a climax long before I’m ready to give to such.

Reaching up I grab her soft mounds, cupping each of them in a hand and teasing her puffy nipples to hard points with my thumbs.

She throws her head back moaning, her hands covering mine. She lowers herself further, slowly, taking each ridge of my cock one at a time until I’m fully seated inside of her. Biting her lower lip, eyes closed, she rotates a slow, small circle. The sensations are overwhelming. I can’t keep my own eyes open, moaning, my hips push up against her almost of their own accord. Instinct and need drive my body more than any conscious thought. The warm wetness surrounding my cock as she rises up off then drives herself down onto me.

“Ah!” she cries out as she drives down.

“Sarah!” I scream her name.

Her hands find my face, tracing the line of my jaw as he hips work up and down on my cock. Trailing my fingers across her collarbone then tracing the line of her waist on either side, I find her ass and give it a playful slap. She moans in response, and my cock stiffens even harder.

She rises and falls on my cock until I find myself raising to meet her incoming descent and pulling back as she does. Our breathing falls into time with each other, my hearts pound in my chest, and I’m panting as I focus on staving off the building climax. Concentrating, I push it back, watching her through slitted eyes I can barely keep open, I see her pleasure building. Her eyes roll up in her head, she bites her lip harder, and then her hands clench into fists on my chest as she drives herself down, taking my cock fully and deeply inside her. She throws her head back and cries out a wordless sound as she gives herself to the orgasm. Her body stiffens, her back arches more, then I throw myself over the edge with her and my come explodes out, pumping into her.

She pants, moans, and I’m doing the same as my cock pumps stream after stream into her. The orgasm lasts longer than anything I’ve experienced.

“Yes, yes, yes,” she pants softly as spasms continue to wrack her body with the aftershocks of her climax.

She collapses onto my chest, breathing heavily while lying on top of me. Encircling her in my arms, I hold her while my cock softens inside of her warmth. After a time she shifts, rising onto her elbows, then leaning in and kissing me with her soft, perfect, full lips.

“Good morning,” she grins.

“Definitely,” I answer, running my fingers through her hair.

She rolls off of me, holding her head up on an elbow so she is looking at me. She runs a hand down her side then cups her sex.

“Damn, you’re so big,” she laughs.

“Did I hurt you?” I ask, concern rising.

“No, but I do feel well… satisfied,” she says, arching an eyebrow and shaking her head.

“And that is a good thing?” I ask.

“Oh yeah,” she says, leaning in for another kiss and cutting off any further words.

“We should get moving,” I say after an extended period of kissing.

“And do what? We’ve run away from all our responsibilities,” she says and only because I know her so well do I hear the hint of regret in those words.

“We need to explore this village, establish supplies, fortify a shelter and see what resources we have available.”

“Sure,” she sighs, sitting up. “If you insist.”

I smile and shake my head. A stray ray of light coming through a small hole in the roof hits her hair. It highlights her to perfection, and I can’t tear my eyes away from her. It outlines her with a glow that makes her look like a heavenly body somehow come to Tajss. I was never, that I recall, a religious male, but in her I have something I can worship. My treasure, the other half of me, the missing piece that makes life worth having.

“What?” she asks, noticing me staring at her.

“You’re perfect,” I say, my voice soft.

Her beautiful face becomes even more so as it flushes with a hint of red that makes her eyes alight as she quickly looks down shaking her head. She clasps her shirt to her chest, covering herself, but it only makes her more attractive. Hiding the nipples, but it draws my attention to the cleavage, where her breasts are pushed together by her crossed arms. The line from her shoulders down to her arms, the way she tilts her head, the sunlight casting light and shadows nothing could be more beautiful. My secondary cock stiffens, standing erect between us.

“You’re insatiable,” she laughs seeing it.

“It’s you,” I answer her honestly. “I can’t get enough of you.”

“Thank you,” she says, shaking her head side to side. “But you’re right, we should set about setting ourselves up while the suns are up. There will be time enough for that later.”

I can’t argue with her, though the pounding in my secondary cock wants me to. Climbing to my feet, I pull my pants on, but can’t help noticing her watching as they pass over my cock. I pause for dramatic effect, letting it hang out longer than is necessary, half-hoping she’ll change her mind. She bites her lip, and I know she’s thinking about it, but then she tears her eyes away.

Damn, she’s right though.

After tying my pants, I kneel next to my pack and close it up before slinging it over a shoulder. Then I grab my lochaber and go to the makeshift door we covered over and remove the barrier. Piled-up sand pours into the building as I remove it, and we have to step over it to emerge into the bright red suns of Tajss.

“There must have been a water source, possibly hidden inside one of these buildings,” I say pointing around us. “These villages are always built around water and usually near some other thing of value.”

“Oh, well that’s good,” she says.

“Maybe,” I say.

“Maybe?” she asks.

“There would have been one here when it was founded, but that doesn’t mean what was here survived the Devastation,” I answer her.

“Damn, yeah,” she says. “Well, water will be first then.”

We go to the first building and start exploring. I go in to each of them first, lochaber at the ready. It’s hard telling what might have taken up residence in any of these buildings. The first three we enter are empty of any life, but there are a few useful things we gather and carry back to the building we have chosen as home. Pieces of wood, some cookware, and a few shards of pottery. The fourth is on the opposite side of the square. As I push the remnants of the broken door aside, something stirs inside. Holding a hand back to keep Sarah from stepping close, I wait and listen. No other sound comes, so I glance at her holding up my closed fist. I stare into her eyes until she nods understanding.

Stepping to the opposite side of the door opening, I stare into the dim light inside hoping to see the source of the noise. Nothing. Using my lochaber, I thrust it inside hoping the motion will attract whatever is waiting. Again nothing happens. Ducking to avoid hitting my head, I step through the door, eyes darting around, blinking rapidly to adjust to the dimmer light.

A shadow moves to my left, and I whirl towards it, bringing the lochaber to a defensive position. Something whines, a sound that tugs at some distant, forgotten memory. Keeping the lochaber ready, I step forward, prepared to thrust. Something darts out of the shadow in a blur, moving along the wall. When I swing at the motion there’s a mewling sound accenting the whistle of the blade cutting through the air. It’s moving too fast to see what it is clearly. I turn on my heel, tracking, but it runs along the wall and towards the door.

Thrusting, I miss again, but it mewls loudly. Sarah is in the doorway, looking in. My heart leaps into my throat—the thing is running towards her.

“Run!” I scream, fear gripping my entire body in cold chills as I thrust my blade at the blur again.

It leaps into the air, jumping over my thrusting blade, but also towards Sarah. Her eyes widen and her arms come up, but she’s too slow. It’s going to hit her. Time slows to a crawl. Pulling my blade back and turning, I push it forward again, but I’m also too slow. The blur hits Sarah and she stumbles backwards out of my sight. I hear her crying out. I’m running forwards, but it feels like the air itself is working against me. Can’t move fast enough, can’t get to her. She’s crying out—she needs me. That thing has her, and it’s going to die. She is mine, my treasure. I must save her.

Emerging from the door, hissing my rage. Sarah is on her back, and the thing is on top of her. She’s rolling from side to side, struggling. Raising the lochaber back, I swing it with all I’ve got, intending to cut the thing in half.

“NO!” Sarah screams.

It’s hurting her, and I have to stop it. She looks at me, the smile on her face turning to horror. She rolls, taking the thing with her, rolling out of the way of my blade.

“Sarah, hold still!” I yell.

“No! Wait,” she cries out.

Stopping mid-swing at her command, the blade quivers in mid-air between us. She’s laughing. The thing on her chest, a hair ball, rests in her arms. She’s holding it tight against her as she rises to her feet. Now that it’s still, I get my first good look at it. It has four legs, a small, compact body covered with yellow fur that has a reddish tint and dark stripes that would allow it to blend in with the sands of Tajss. It turns its head and looks at me with eyes that are a deep emerald green. It opens its mouth revealing rows of tiny, sharp teeth and a tiny pink tongue. A long tail swishes back and forth and it mewls. Along its side, folded tight against it and blending in with the fur are wings.

“It’s a kedi,” I say.

“A what?” Sarah asks, then she’s laughing because it licks her face.

“A kedi,” I say again.

“It’s cute,” she says, scratching it between its pointed ears. “Can we keep it?”

Twirling the lochaber I slide it into its harness and cross my arms over my chest. The kedi licks her face then makes a low grumbling noise. Somehow I know that sound means it’s pleased. Some distant memory of a different time.

“As you wish,” I say, shaking my head.

Pushing aside intangible misgivings I move to the next house and continue our exploration. Sarah sets the kedi down and it follows her.