The long, long, exceptionally longly waited finale to the tale of the fate of that little coastal settlement. I won't spoil it, if you've been following this story, you won't want it spoiled, and if you haven't been... you should probably read from the beginning.

A big thanks to the commissioner on my Patreon https://www.patreon.com/user?u=9679574 who pushed me to finish this series, I hope it satisfies you all


With weary hands the village’s doctor placed a new candle into place, a flicker of light from the previous, dying candle flaring it into life, illuminating the inside of his meagre house.
“I’m not the right man for this, Frederick” he muttered, shooting the, half comatose carpenter a forlorn look “I’m getting old, and truth be told I was never smart enough to learn this profession well…” he lifted a dried cloth from Frederick’s forehead, replacing it with a fresh one. A light tickle of herbal scents drifted from the soaked rag.
“A belly ache I can help with, bruises, cuts, injuries… very well… but this…” he settled back into his chair, looking over his patient. They were alone now… Frederick had settled into a deep sleep, so he’d let the burly men go off… to his understanding, they were now plastered in their own beds, soaked in dragon slime.
“That’s the issue, isn’t it” he spoke aloud “the slime… I understand. Slime carries a property, like an herb… a physical thing. But you… not a drop on you, but yet… deeper than all the others. Concerning indeed…”
He leaned back, tempting himself with sleep as his eyes sagged “surely there must be some… symbiotic purpose behind all of this, but less and less do I trust whatever the dragon has in mind is good for us in the long run…”
With a sigh, he adjusted his posture, sitting straight to fend off the sleepy drooping. He looked to Frederick… such a strong, charismatic presence… brought down in such a strange, secretive way “if the dragon singled you out to put so very deeply under… I dread to think what else could be in that devious mind…” He rested a hand to Frederick’s chest “I wish you were awake and of your own mind… maybe you I could… convince to guide people…”
Frederick remained unconscious, and the doctor sighed, settling back into his chair. If only, he mused to himself, he understood that slime better… he’d had several minor bumps coming into his house the last day, people staggering around under the influence of the slime… they had one thing in common, a deep eagerness to always feel like they did in that shroud… even if it meant going back into the dragon’s belly.
“Concerning indeed…”

Azorm drifted back to the shore, the night surrounded him still… his mind lingered on his rendezvous. The beautiful dragoness. He sighed, bubbles drifting up past his snout. He felt the reduced weight in his belly. The first little one… still curled up in there. He’d keep that one till tomorrow… that would be a good dose…
He shook his head to himself, diving under the water as he drifted into the bay. He just had one more thing to do… then he could go and think all he liked. The nest of the humans was quiet, he suspected they were happily sleeping. He’d gotten most of them… but there was one he had paid, close attention to.
He knew the particular nest amid the cluster. Slightly larger than some, a little further from the water than he wished. Slowly he poked his muzzle out, looking around. Nothing moved. He rolled his forepaws slowly from the water, barely disturbing the surface as he beached his chest. His eyes glowed softly in the night, seeking through the sharp shapes of the human nest, eyes settling on the little nest. An intriguing light glowed inside, his snout followed towards the beacon, one long clawed paw reaching further onto the shore to balance him, as he drew his snout closer and closer. Eyes sought entry and found, a little… square opening in one wall.
His jaws widened, his tongue rose, and he flexed the tubes beneath them. Inside he heard a noise… an alert maybe… it didn’t matter now. He brought his jaw closer.
In the night, the tinged mist burst into the little house, trickling out from under the door, the cracks in the roof, swirling and collecting in the confined space as Azorm’s vents sprayed it inside. There was a brief clatter of objects, and a low thud, a brief hiss as the light disappeared.
By the shadow of moonlight, the dragon’s head withdrew, tongue running chops as he slid back beneath the water, disappearing as if he’d never been there.

“It’s really mellow…” Alice murmured, leaning back in her chair, a brief wobble which forced her to grasp the table “I feel a little clumsy… that wears off”
“It does” James confirmed, his elbows to the table, thinking about, very little. “First, you’re dizzy… then you get really… calm” he smiled just lightly “Well… unless you spend all night in him… then you’re dizzy for days… but the mellow, lasts a lot longer”
Alice sighed, rolling a hand to her head “yeah… I feel strange but… certainly good…”
James nodded slowly, yawning as he idly wondered what to do with his day… it had been… how long now… he lost track. Time was a blur. He moved through life dreamy and content, occasionally his mood dipped, but, it was only a safe little trip down the regal snout of Azorm from being happy again. He could doze off in there and let the dragon’s body do its work.
Still… something was bothering him, an itch he couldn’t scratch… He wasn’t sure why his feelings were mixed, seeing his sister finally yield to the now common little journey into the depths of Azorm.
“I think I’m going to go help with the dragon” James mused, easing from his chair, and wandering out. Alice didn’t respond… he knew how she felt. It was hard to focus sometimes… it was fortunate Azorm made sure they were so well fed.

The day was bright… a little, too bright. James rose a hand to block the sun away as he staggered out. The sea air sobered him from the deep contentment he could sink into these days… everything seemed, good… but he could keep more alert out here. Azorm was sprawled out in the bay, relaxing in the sun. Some of the fishing boats were out, but, more and more they let Azorm fish, and contented themselves grooming his vast long body… a little boat was bobbing where the dragon’s hips were settled half out of the water, giving them a better angle to rub his muscular body.
The sight brought a smile to James’s face. It was nice that Azorm had grown so comfortable. It was hard to think much about life before the dragon, he remembered he had been so worried about things… worried about what he was doing with his life… but now, he was Azorm’s friend, that was all he had to be.
The dragon opened an eye as James approached, a deep rumble stirring the air “there you are, haven’t seen you for a day or two… long dizzy time?”
“Mm, hmm” James murmured, rolling his hands to the tip of the dragon’s snout, it was warm, an interesting texture to the hands, he could just zone out rubbing Azorm. He got the feeling everyone felt that way. They could just, turn their minds off, sink into the warm contentment and groom, motivated by happy purring.
“I suppose I should let you out in shorter bursts” Azorm mused, head cocking just a little “but I like you, James… I like having you inside me”
“You like everyone, Azorm”
“Yes…” the dragon conceded slowly “but you’re a special one… the first one”
James petted the long snout, rubbing slowly and letting himself zone out. This was life now… and, life was good…

“I can’t remember ever eating this well before” James mused. He’d sat himself by the shore, fish on his plate, grilled and delicious. It was a world away from thin soup with a few chewy shellfish in it. Meat with every meal, and without the pressure of running around to find it. He speared a chunk on his knife and ate with a warm sigh… the days when a bit of dried fish was luxury… it was staggering to him now, but he couldn’t be mad or distressed about it, everything was good.
“I know” Alice noted, putting her plate down “I feel a little bad… eating this well” she looked off “but… everyone is… it’s not like I’m taking it from someone… except Azorm”
“He wouldn’t give it to us if it wasn’t spare… he’s a dragon, he’s a good hunter” James reasoned
Alice shrugged in answer “still… I suppose I can’t complain to being warm and full…”
The crunch of boots drew their attention, and James looked up to see the hulking stone smith, Andrew. He nodded as greeting.
“James… do you have a moment?”
“Sure” he took a mouthful of fish
“You haven’t seen Frederick’s boys, have you?” the man rolled a hand to his arm “I’ve not been progressing on their house fast as I’d like… honestly in part because their father is still… dazed. I need to let them know it’ll be, a while”
James rolled a shoulder “Haven’t seen them… hadn’t really thought about it honestly…” he couldn’t deny he tried to avoid them as much as possible “could be anywhere… maybe they’re checking on their father… or working on their boat or… maybe they’re in Azorm or resting off the dizzy spell…” James shrugged. There were plenty of people he hadn’t noticed for a while… People came and went lately… into Azorm, into the stupor, everyone was in their own hobbies.
Andrew grunted, but moved off, presumably to keep looking. James shrugged and went back to his fish. He was sure they’d turn up… hopefully nowhere near him. Eventually James put his own plate down, stretching as he stood “I think I’ll go sit on the rocks tonight… I like the moon and the stars over the sea” he mused wistfully
“Don’t stay out too late” Alice pressed “you come back before the rocks get too dark to see… I worry about you slipping”
“I’ll be careful” James placated her, wandering for the edge of the village, the familiar path to his much-loved rocky shore. He did mean it though. He’d almost slipped a few times, since the dragon’s slime had sunk in. He liked the warm happy feeling it settled into him… but, he didn’t like how it shook his co-ordination… maybe he’d try to lay off it for a few days… enough he could scrabble on the rocks with his old ease.

The crash of the sea on the rocks was familiar and soothing. Even sedated James was nimble, clambering over the uneven rocks, manoeuvring around deep rockpools, leaping to a new, thicker finger of stone when he got further from the shore. Sometimes he wondered, if this place was special. The occasional trader had remarked on the sheer overwhelming rocky nature, how deftly they moved over it all. It made him wonder, what the shores were like elsewhere. Maybe Azorm would know.
Bit by bit James moved out towards his favourite spot in the evening light. He stopped short of it, the last few leaps to the deepest strewn rocks a little more than he was confident he could make in his state. But, there was a large rock he could sit himself on, and except for those last few little rocks, nothing but the sea was in his view. It glowed amber as the sun descended, rippling calmly now against his perch. James sighed, resting his elbow to his knee, and his head to his hand, staring out over the shifting tide. A little flicker of a memory teased its way into his mind, just enough to snap him out of his stupor. The migration… it would be happening soon… but how soon… he’d lost track of the days.
Perhaps, had he not been alert, not been thinking about it, he wouldn’t have noticed, the swell under the sea off the rocks, in the deep. Azorm was his first thought… but, it was bigger… much bigger. He sat up straight. For just a moment, he saw a snout peek above the water, a pair of luminous eyes looking out of the water, right at him… the head, he would have guessed it was three times the size of Azorm’s… but then it was gone, back under the waves. James just blinked, letting the new information slowly absorb. There were two of them…

“Oh, her…” Azorm huffed when James asked the dragon the next morning. Somewhere in the bay there was a cry as a swish of his tail overturned a boat. James was puzzled… It wasn’t the reaction he’d expected. He’d thought, it would be warm, or angry… a friend, or an intruder. This, hesitant murmur was, odd
“A friend?”
“Not exactly” Azorm’s tendrils weaved a little, eyes drifting. Humans were eavesdropping… but then, James hadn’t kept his sighting secret
“It’s…” Azorm mused “complicated… I want a mate… and she swam into my territory. She says she will have me, which is exciting, but…” Azorm sighed, licking out to James’s chest “well, she was supposed to keep herself hidden… she’s been wanting to meet you all… make you her friends too, I guess… but you’re my friends”
“Can’t we be both?” James mused, thinking about the, huge snout “she could, well, probably swallow around half of us down…”
“I know…” Azorm looked off for a moment “It’s complicated… I don’t really want to talk about it”
“I hear relationships are complicated” James murmured “can’t say I’m the person to talk to about that…”
“I know…” Azorm smiled a bit “things seem simple for you land beasts… or maybe I just haven’t seen it. It’s complicated for me…”
“I mean… you can talk to more people than me…” James added “or, I can try to understand”
“I appreciate it…” Azorm smiled just a little “Maybe sometime… I’d rather not bring you all into it, if I’m honest… friends are friends and she… is something different”
James nodded quietly, resuming his grooming of the long muzzle. It was a relief that the, big dragon wasn’t an unknown... but he didn’t know what to make of Azorm’s cryptic replies… But he shrugged it off. He was sure Azorm had a reason…
The sea dragon’s head lifted away from the attention of the humans on the beach, grunting as his tendrils briefly coiled to James’s side “I need to eat… I will return later” Azorm noted, sliding back into the bay, under the swelling tide, the departure particularly sudden. James shook his head, brushing a hand down his side where the dragon had left him wet.
“There’s a topic he doesn’t want to discuss” James observed to himself, though he couldn’t think why… maybe it was embarrassing.

It was strange, when Azorm was away. James found himself sitting on the beach, submitting to the dizzy presence of the fog in his mind… waiting for the dragon to come back. It felt like the village was holding its breath, anticipating the return. He’d been noticing a pattern to it. When he came, those who had gone longest since a trip within would clamour to his muzzle, his bright eyes would select from the crowd, never more than three at a time. Those who weren’t chosen, would begin to groom and rub the vast settled dragon, some with, what James hesitated to call desperation. Everyone wanted to be the dragon’s friend now… wanted to be noticed, be a favourite. Wanted to increase their chance of being chosen when he had to pick.
For James, the situation was strange enough he could see a little bit through the stupor… his position in life couldn’t have reversed more completely. He had gone from… the embarrassment, the boy without a role, the childish waif who scrabbled on the rocks… to the dragon’s closest friend. Sometimes he caught people looking at him, doing things for him… it was a little creepy. He liked that he felt, content, that everyone got to feel like this. That life wasn’t a struggle. And yet… it didn’t feel right seeing everything stagnate.
It was a relief when the water in the bay swelled, the promise of dragon a pleasing distraction from the unease settling in. He wasn’t the first to spring up, but then… he didn’t need to compete for Azorm’s attention. He spotted Frederick amid the gathering. Since the doctor had come down with the same deep haze as Frederick, the whole… concern had ebbed. Frederick seemed to be, slowly coming back to himself, very slowly. Sometimes he seemed lucid, other times in a haze, but he flocked almost ravenously for Azorm when his haze began to abate…
Seeing him made James wonder about what Andrew had been saying. He hadn’t seen Frederick’s boys for a while…
The rush of approach froze as the swell in the bay grew, vaster. A boat bobbed, and was thrown skywards, crashing to the beach with a sharp crack, the huge blue muzzle rising out of the waters. It wasn’t Azorm.
The female was immense. A single taloned paw settled onto the beach, sinking the ground into the sea, her head rose just free enough to peer down at those gathered. Her vast shoulders nudged aside the last of the boats in the bay, the rest of her body drifting in and out of sight at the entrance of the bay, and beyond… Azorm slid into the bay like an oversized boat, she was like a landmass.
Tendrils at her jaw, almost thick at the base as a human drifted down towards the crowds, people backing a hesitant step away as they were brushed by the long coils. A rumble echoed in her throat, thunder on a clear day. Her colours weren’t as vibrant as Azorm… she didn’t match the sea’s blues, but her eyes were luminous, they shimmered like the moon as she peered down upon them.
James stood frozen in place… this, huge dragon… she was just too big…
“I wish, the finest” Her voice drifted into them like silk, but yet vibrated into their bones. Her eyes blinked once, head cocking just a little “present the one to me”
James looked around, finding, all eyes were turning to him. And hers followed. He staggered forward a few steps… maybe she meant him, chosen by the dragon… the voice of the dragons to his people. He smiled nervously. A strange role…
“Too small” she noted, though her tendrils moved in close. Not the gentle roll he knew from Azorm. One caught him across the middle… perhaps intended to be gentle, but he was winded, before another caught behind him. His vision was blocked as they rolled, coiled, felt him, but then left as quickly “you smell strongest of Azorm… no, not you”
Her head turned, eyes leaving him. James collapsed to his backside, panting for breath. He could only watch her as she drifted her tendrils closer to those nearby, before finally she gave a little nod “perfect” her tendrils wove down, and Frederick was lifted from the crowd enwrapped in the translucent tendrils. Confusion warred in James, and he assumed others… was this, just normal… or, should he be concerned…
Her jaws parted, head tilted back till he couldn’t even see her fangs. Frederick brought over the chasm and dropped. He fell, her jaws clicked, and a deep swallow reverberated in the air. The pulse showed in the scales of her neck, but only the flex of her own muscles. Frederick was nary a lump. The dragoness licked her chops “better…”
“Will you take three… like Azorm does?” A voice asked, a tinge of hope “or more… you’re so much larger”
Her gleaming eyes flicked down, the scales of her jaws twisting in something like a smirk “just one…” Her bulk began to sink away, claw retreating back into the water, followed by her head and last the weaving tendrils. The waters of their bay disturbed as she wormed her way backwards out of the shallows, taking Frederick with her as she descended into the deep.
James watched her go with a slight sick feeling in his stomach. He didn’t know why he was so worried… but… something in the back of his mind, some… foggy memory. It was just a sea dragon swallowing someone, it happened daily… but yet… something about this time felt, very wrong…

The sea was where James always went when he felt troubled, and the salt air ate away at the har shrouding his thoughts. So once more he sat on the rocks, and thought about his life, while staring out at the sea. He wished he could just leap into it and be a sea dragon… and swim away.
He sighed, resting his head into his hands. It was the same dream… the same, wistful dream to leave. Life wasn’t better… it had changed, but not in the way that mattered. He didn’t want to be, the boy without a purpose, and he didn’t want to be the chosen of Azorm, accepted solely because his attention meant Azorm’s attention.
“I just want to belong” James sighed to himself. It felt better to say it “feel I belong where I am…” he looked out to the sea and sighed deeper. The bitter melancholy was familiar… the slime really must be wearing off…

“You have a nice territory, Azorm”
He purred, drifting in lazy circles around the female that drifted in the deep waters. Nearby was the deep crevice in the tall rocks where he had made his home. It had all he needed, a big air pocket inside, and… enough room for a female to turn herself and lay.
“Thank you, I like it, a lot” He chimed, leaning into the touch of her tendrils, drifting closer when she felt to his snout and jaw
“I do mean it though” she crooned, bring her snout right to his. He felt a forepaw of hers grasp softly to his side, thumb claw pressing to the lump in his middle, his friends “I have been drifting along many coasts… but few males have such a convenient shape of land… nor, a well tamed collection of land beasts.
Azorm nodded more slowly, feeling a little uneasy, and queasy… when she stroked to him like that he had to fight the reflex to purge his stomach up for her to eat from…
“I like that in a male” she rolled her jaw to his, making him tremble, he felt his body warm “land beasts… such a wonderful, delicious treat… I haven’t tasted their sweet, salty flesh since I was young… the male my mother chose had a fine, vast crop of them… he’d go to shore and bring them for us when we had been good” she sighed, licking her chops “you were wise to choose this place with them… they are nigh impossible to catch unless a male is involved… The taste lingers so deliciously”
Azorm hummed, drawing his snout from her jaw “still?”
“Oh, I took one earlier” she crooned “it didn’t even run… you have them well trained”
“Oh…” Azorm hummed, his hind leg glancing close to her long belly. He didn’t feel anything
“You needn’t worry, they objected not a jot” she rumbled “One even requested to join… the willpower not to feast right then… but I want to save it…”
Azorm hummed “you desire to feast on them?”
“But of course,” she looked over his snout “we can leave enough to breed and repopulate, if you’re concerned… or are you saving them for another female?”
“Only you are in my eyes this season” Azorm asserted, his head turning as she licked to his jaw… but his eyes and senses were directed through the waters towards the shore… the little nest of his friends.
“Good male… you will provide a cherishable food gift, and you will be male to my young this season”
“I want that…” Azorm huffed faintly “I really do…”

Fate had a funny sense of humour. So, James thought as he stared out at the sea. The cold was creeping in through his jacket. It had been a while since he felt cold. It felt so long ago he used to sit here and dream of dragons. Now they were in his life, and he dreamt of life without them. Maybe that wasn’t quite true, he corrected himself. He liked Azorm… but… things had gotten so complicated. He didn’t like his life revolving around only the dragon. The rocks were cold, miserable, wet, and his mood hadn’t been improving… but it was still the most refreshing afternoon he could remember lately…
His attention drew to a bubble that rose from the water, followed by a snout. Pink and white flashed as a deep breath was gasped in through the long muzzle, a soft click as jaws shut. James blinked but, sat still… that, wasn’t an unusual sight these days. It was soothing the snout was Azorm this time…
“Down deep, Azorm?”
The dragon’s head turned, eyes, shockingly wide, before the pupils settled, a watery snort flaring his nostrils. Slowly Azorm drifted closer, deep scratching sounds as his claws raked a hold to the rocks, head settling as he let himself drift in the shifting waves
“I didn’t know you were out here…”
“Haven’t been for a while…” James considered his surroundings “pretty close to where we met…”
“Mm” Azorm nodded “when I first settled here, I knew you land beasts lived here… it was one of the reasons, but I didn’t know, any of you came out here. I liked to drift here, it had a nice feel… then I saw you”
“Good place to sit and think” James rolled a shoulder “where the land meets the sea…”
Azorm sighed, his breath warm against James’s legs “I just gave the humans back at the nest, swam to the sea floor to chew these… um… long, plant things… they help the stomach... but I still feel queezy”
“Oh…” James reached to pet the snout “are you ill…? I… mmm, our doctor is a bit… out of it at the moment”
“I know… but I don’t think it’s like that”
James nodded slowly “How did you convince him to let you swallow him anyway… never could figure that out, he was so nervous of it”
“I didn’t” Azorm reflected, closing his eyes a moment “I’ve never swallowed the elder one”
James sat up a little “how can that be true?”
Azorm huffed “I, suppose I can show you…” his head drew back, jaws parting a little, the dipping light pouring into and illuminating the soft pink maw. The tongue rose. Snug into the underjaw, right near the back were two… distinct fleshy… tubes of sorts. The tongue flowed back, and the jaws clicked “It’s like the slime inside me… but stronger, and I spray it”
James swallowed faintly “you did that to Frederick too… didn’t you”
“I did” Azorm settled his head “I wanted them to like me, and… they wouldn’t let me swallow them”
James looked out over the sea “stronger… will they, recover…? It wasn’t a good thing you did, Azorm…” he sighed “when is that dragoness going to bring Frederick back anyway…”
“Oh… he’s the one she took” Azorm sighed “that is sad… I liked that one” he looked to James, his words slow “she’s not bringing him back, she ate him…”
“Ate? But you…” James’s words drifted away “you said, ate… you say swallow when you talk about us…”
Azorm sighed “she ate him, he’s gone… I’m sorry”
James blinked, the words, sinking in slowly “gone… you, mean he’s… dead? She killed him?”
“I told her not to take any of you” Azorm huffed “you have to believe me… I thought she’d be content with the two I gave her… but it only gave her a taste for you…”
“The two you… Oh Azorm…” James rose from his rock, taking a step back, the morose sadness replacing with horror “you, you didn’t… Frederick’s sons… they haven’t been seen for a while…”
“I gave them to her” Azorm confirmed, eyes flicking down “I didn’t think you’d mind… I heard them be so very mean to you… you’d be even happier, and she’d be content… that’s what I thought”
“Azorm, you killed them!” James burst out “they’re… gone”
“It didn’t hurt…” Azorm winced “the slime makes it… easy, and calm” his tail flicked noticeably under the water “I thought you understood… I told you, back then… it would happen, sometime…”
James felt a chill sink into him. The pieces so suddenly slotted together, a clear picture of what this was… “We’re your larder…” he murmured “you’re like a squirrel burying nuts for winter… you were always going to eat us”
“No” Azorm whined, shaking his head till water splashed at James’s ankles “I hoped I’d never have to… not till you were, very old or… already gone, it’s…”
“reserve food” James folded his arms “rainy day preserves… that’s why everything about you is… drawing us in… dammit”
“James…” Azorm’s ears pinned down, as James backed away from the water “I just… I just wanted little friends, and a pretty female… and a warm beach, I don’t understand…”
“No… you don’t” James turned, fleeing across the rocks, back towards the village, A high pitched, keening roar like the scream of the wind echoing behind him.

“James, you need to calm down…” Alice pleaded, holding his hand gently as he panted, gathering breath to speak again. His shouting, if slightly, unintelligible had roused plenty… and drawn them in. Honestly, he suspected it was just that tie he had to the dragon which made people stir to pay attention from their stupor. He saw it all the clearer now. People sprawled, boats idle, nets rotting in unused heaps. The whole village had just, stopped
“We’re his larder I’m telling you” He declared, gesturing towards the water “that’s the secret, that’s why he comes, why he can make us feel like this… why he feeds us” he grimaced as he considered telling them where Frederick’s boys were right now… or how to tell them “it’s why Frederick isn’t coming back, and his sons are missing… the, other one, he’s courting her, so we’re her larder too…”
“Can this be true?” A hesitant voice murmured, loud in the silence.
James sighed “ask yourselves, if Azorm came onto the beach and opened his mouth wide… would you crowd in without question?”
The silence deepened, a sickening stillness to the air for a long moment. He knew why. They’d not only go without question… they’d fight to be the ones to slide down.
“But… we could just walk off, he can’t mean it to, be that”
“The door is in our blood” James grasped his arm “dizzying our thoughts… that, slime, it makes us happy… makes us want more, makes us stay where we can get it. Our cage is gilded… maybe we could leave, but, would we have?”
Andrew loomed in the crowd, clearing his throat a little “Say it is all true… what do we do?”
James looked down, unable to look into the eyes that turned his way “I just don’t know…”
The discussion broke, as the water roared, eyes leaping to their bay as foaming sea erupted, the sleek, terrible muzzle of, the large female raising from the bay. People froze, watching as vast forepaws came free, a little boat, strewn with keel up ended up under one paw, cracking like a twig under her weight as her neck wove out, casting the villagers in shadow. A tongue thick and wide as any of their little fishing boats rolled out along her scaly chops. Her eyes… were not gentle.
“Run!” the cry came from somewhere, but it caught in every mind. The gathering turned landwards, rushing for the two ways out of their bay village. The route James chose had a paw slide across the land into their path, talons raking earth. He looked back, in time to see her head looming on those that went the other way. A blue-ish fog erupted from her jaws, engulfing them, dissipating quickly, to show them collapsing to the ground. She licked her chops again, head looming towards James’s group
“Not a moment too soon” her voice crooned “where are you little morsels running to? Your time of service has come…” her head leaned a little closer and, people shifted as the two tendrils adorning her jaw wove in. A cold, wet coil wrapped James’s middle, a little squeal escaping his lips as he was lifted from the ground, one of their fishermen held in the other tendrils. The vast muzzle lifted, getting them clear of reach of their fellows. Bright eyes glanced between them “I hope you’re wrigglers…” She grunted suddenly, as her supporting paw sank, rock shearing as the face of their bay changed “can’t talk… so you can all go to my guts without preamble… the land is not my domain”
James gripped the tendril with fervour, eyes on the muzzle as it parted. The moist cavern of the deep maw, bluish mist still clinging around the deep path to his doom… this… was not a swallowing he, or any of them would survive. He could only pant, the coil too tight to speak. From his vantage he had, a view of their doom. Already the paw that had blocked him was scooping that crowd back for the water, the other group seemed comatose… she was going to eat them all.
“Put them down” The words came as a roar, making the dragoness’s ear flick. The world for James spun as her head casually turned, looking back and down. Azorm looked so small beside her, his muzzle poking from the water
“Sorry to start without you” she mused, lowering her head and tendrils a little closer to him “you did say they were likely to panic. So, we should enjoy them before they get out of reach, yes?”
“No…” Azorm’s ears pinned down, his eyes finding James, dangling “Put them back on the land and… leave them alone”
A snort escaped her nostrils “you command me? You forget your place. I am tired of being polite… I desire these land beasts, the whole collection if required”
“Leave” Azorm’s voice broke on the word, his eyes flicking away “put them down, and leave…”
For a long moment she was silent, but James felt a painful tightening of the coils
“You had best measure your words carefully, male” her tail lashed under the waters, a wave crashing to the shore
“I have… they are hard words to choose but chosen none the less. Put my land beasts back and leave. I will not offer my nesting grounds to you”
She snorted, but, her head turned, slowly, and then the grip was gone, James falling into the shallows, watching her behemoth talons sliding past him as she sank back into the water
“Misguided male… very well, I have no patience for one who will not share their bounties”
Azorm drifted closer to the shore, allowing the dragoness to pass, confronting James with his swimming bulk, so close in the shallow water.
Slowly, the sea dragon turned his head, and his eyes met James’s. For a moment they stared at each other, soaked human and dismal dragon.
“Why…?” James panted finally, catching his breath still
“I don’t know…” Azorm looked away, lowering in the water till only the top of his muzzle and head poked out “I’m so confused… I really, really wanted to be friends, to make you all happy, honestly, I really did…” he sighed, a bubble popping past his snout “and I wanted her… I, I really thought I was making the right choice…”
James dragging himself back, onto the sands, a chill was spreading into his skin, but the breath of the dragon was warm “you’re storing us like food, Azorm…”
“I… don’t see it like that” Azorm huffed “I just wanted to make you all happy… I thought, I was making you happy. I kept you fed, and… yes, I suppose… if I was ever likely to starve, I hoped you all would repay” he looked to James briefly “is that so wrong? It wasn’t anything I, wanted to happen…”
James looked back, to the village. Those who were collapsed, the remainder who were tending to them “Azorm… look at this place. We’re stagnating. The happiness you give it’s… it’s not, real” James shook his head “it feels good, it makes us forget our worries, maybe even can help us through hard times, but… it’s gone the moment you’re gone. That’s dependency, not friendship. We need to make our own happiness, we need to work, not be idle, not, stagnate… maybe in little doses what you do could help with the, strain, but you took it from us entirely… that struggle, it keeps us strong… your way, we’d forget how to fish and survive without you. If you died, we’d die, if you left, we’d die… if you got hungry, there would be no answer but to eat us” James nodded to himself, looking to Azorm “You made us dependant on you for everything… you made us, livestock”
“I see…” Azorm looked down, away from James “I’m sorry… I, I hope you can believe I didn’t mean to…” The muzzle sank an inch lower “I’ll leave, I, won’t come back”
“Wait, Azorm” James slowly reached, to rest a hand on the muzzle “you… have made a mess, can’t let you leave without fixing it”
“fixing it?” one of Azorm’s ears perked slightly
James smiled faintly “well… that crazy ex of yours, dazed a lot of the village… and who she didn’t, a lot are still a bit dopey. We might need you to bring us some fish, or we could starve”
“But you…”
“A little fish” James raised a finger “say, only what you can fit in your mouth? Just enough to keep us from starving. Hunger is motivation, you know”
A faint curl came to the edged of Azorm’s mouth where it showed beneath the water, and then the dragon was gone, descending with a plop, the waters stirring as the dragon swam out of their bay.
James ran a hand through his hair… he was soaked. His eyes flicked to their bay. Those claws had done a number on the land… wrecked net stands, pierced and crushed boats. He sighed a breath, looking out to the sea “might as well give a dragon a second chance… if you’re likely to starve if you don’t…” he smiled just a little bit “and thanks for saving me…”

Three weeks Later

“James, come on, up”
A low groan stirred out of James’s throat, heavy with the sheer weight of bedlust as his eyes opened a crack, peering up to his looming sister
“Come on… it’s not polite to make him wait”
Slowly he nodded, waving her away as he sat. She stood, till his back was propped to the wall, then conceded, moving back to her tasks. Silently James fought a war of willpower to stay sitting and not lay back down, the battle waged for a full few minutes before he slid his legs over the edge of his bed, and slid out, shivering a little in the cool morning air as he dressed. Alice was right, of course.
The day greeted him dispassionately as he wandered out into the crescent shaped village. The sky bore clouds, the sea roiled discontentedly at the shore. Pretty normal really. The air was filled with the hopeful calls of circling gulls and the repetitive thud and clunk of people at work. Nets were being woven in their dry little nook between the houses, Alice back amid her fellows. A few of the fishermen were hefting shovels on the beach… they were still trying to put the bay to rights. He couldn’t fault them though… the village had only, fully woken up in the last few days.
A familiar, if long absent sound was music to his ears though, the grinding roll of saw on wood. Down in the bay, working on a new boat, the wood bright and fresh and uncoated. Somewhat young for a carpenter, particularly considering how essential their boats were… but the fishermen seemed content he did good work. In some ways, there was no better time to lose their carpenter. The dragon migration brought all sorts to stare out at the sea, and that wandering traveller had stayed. And why not, a trade, a set of tools and a house to inherit with the vital role. What young aspiring carpenter wouldn’t jump at the chance.
James sighed, allowing himself the brief melancholy of memory. Frederick, and his family. He’d liked the man… but the village had mourned as it always did. He had been lost to the sea, lost to its dragons. There was no staying angry at dragons, same as there was no point being enraged at the sea. Frederick wasn’t their first death that year to the water and its denizens… he wouldn’t be the last probably.
He shivered and got himself moving. A har was blowing in, no time to just stand around. His path took him for the rocks. He nodded quietly to those he passed. It was the strangest thing. Now he’d found a role in his community, it didn’t seem all that important. Just, what he did. Still… it was nice to meet people’s eyes, and not feel, ashamed of not doing his part.

He knew the rocks so well. He moved over them with grace and poise, fighting to keep his eyes on his footing, and not on his destination. The end of the long rocky spire, where the stormy blue muzzle was poking from the sea.
“Morning Azorm” he called out as he got closer, hearing the low rumble of reply. Some had thought… maybe even hoped Azorm would swim away with the migration… but it seemed that migration was a female thing… those, larger beasts needed so much food they had to chase it all over the ocean. Or so Azorm had said. Males like him… found bountiful regions by the shore and claimed them, offering it as nesting site to a female, and of course, getting to father for their trouble. When he’d put it that way, a lot had clicked into place for James. Oddly enough, humans had long gathered on bountiful regions of coast… the sea dragons had adapted to exploit that, alternate food source… in a way that wouldn’t scare people away.
Still, even knowing that, he smiled fondly to the dragon whose muzzle poked shyly from the waves. That was his biology, not his personality.
“How is everyone doing?” Azorm mused “the new, floating thing coming along well?”
“It is” James sat, resting his hand to the scaly muzzle with a smile. This was his role… the ambassador to the dragons. In some ways he did regret not getting to see the migration this year… but the whole village had either been comatose, or caring for those that were… still, he was happy it had carried that behemoth female away.
“That is good” Azorm flicked his ears, rolling his snout to the touch a little, tongue poking out to lick at James’s wrists, once, before retreating
“You’re getting good at restraint” James praised, noting the way the water got wavy behind the dragon in reply “I’ve been talking around the village, as your… representative. People are coming around… never, back to what it was, but… something more, friendly”
Azorm nodded under his touch “friendly. I’d like that”
James petted the snout “things could have gone a lot worse… and… the way I see it, maybe we’ve just been lucky no dragon has moved in here before… better one we know, right? So long as you, do respect our wishes”
“Yes…” Azorm hummed “I’ve done a lot of, thinking since last time”
James nodded, but paused in his stroking, looking past Azorm… for a moment, he swore he saw, a muzzle… maybe, twice Azorm’s size, poke from the water, looking his way before diving under.
“Azorm… is that…?”
The dragon’s scales warmed under his touch “I need to go, James”
“Hold on… if that’s what I think…”
“Just a small one” Azorm smiled wryly, and dived back under the waves, the sea rocking as the dragon dived deep.
James blinked, staring out to sea, before chuckling faintly, and shaking his head, standing to walk back for the village “dragons…”