Dragon Magic
By Lonelyrider

Big James asks his beloved girl's old flame Sir Wisbey the dragon knight if he'd be willing to teach James how to control his newly-learned dragon form spell.

James greeted Sir Wisbey who arrived on his frothing Fresian charger, Commander. The 6 foot knight hopped off his stallion and set him loose to graze in Jame's acreage behind the big man's manor.
"Sir Wisbey, thank you for answering my telegraph and coming today. Can I offer you anything to eat or drink?"
Normally, James was jealous of the knight despite liking him on a personal level (and vice versa) but he was focused on a task today which helped to alleviate that; plus, the knight had demonstrated recently that he was loyal to his wife and off the dating market, which assuaged James's insecurities despite his girl & the knight's closeness.
"No thank you, old boy. Perhaps later on. Now, now. Consider it a favor to Lonely, anything a suitor of hers needs I'll happily provide. So then, you wanted me to show you how to be a dragon?" Sir Daniel Wisbey asked, taking out his magical amulet that had been a gift from years of service to his draconic king.
"Oh yes, yes please! Guile taught me a spell yesterday and we discovered I inherited my father's talent for a dragonic battle & transport form. I'm so excited and I can't wait to show everyone, especially Lonely when I see her next, but first I want to have the hang of this." James gushed eagerly.
"Quite right. Say, what kind of dragon are you, then?" Daniel asked, feeling his chin in thought.
"Electric." James answered proudly, giving his beefy chest a thump with a huge hairy fist.
"Right, that tracks, per your lightning specialty. Let's get on with the show, old chap." Daniel slipped the magic amulet over his head and grew and cried out in pain as he dropped to all fours and kept growing, his teeth surging out and horns growing from his head, his snout elongating and wings bursting from his back, a tail growing from his spine, until he was transformed into a big red fire dragon and quietly watched as James muttered in Latin and his lightning magic arced all over, a ball of it at his hands, James too groaned in pain and his big angel wingspan grew and became bat-like, a tail grew ending like Daniel's in a big spiked club and horns sprouted from his head as his teeth sprang out and spikes jutted from James's now draconic head, James shook his big dragon form all over, he was yellow with gray spikes and horns & claws and was even larger and heftier than Daniel, like James's true angel form.
"My, what a stout brute you turned out to be. I do believe this is a tanking form, your armor plating looks very thick. I'll teach you how to fight." Dan said, poking an excited dragon James in his armored chest with his long claw.
"Oh that's simply marvelous. Oh, this electricity tickles!" James chuckled, licking his lips and showing thick sharp fangs, as little zings of lightning danced about his maw.
"Quite right. My wife had to teach me how to use my fire breath at first, since I'm not a spellcaster you see, but I know you're both a caster and a sword-wielder. Basically, when you want to use your breath power, you channel it like you would your magic, while exhaling at the same time. Watch." Daniel found a dead tree on James's property line and exhaled a long surge of fire onto it, making it crack and splinter until it dissolved into ash.
"Oh my, wow. Okay..." James inhaled hard and blew out, focusing his magic, a thick volley of lightning shot from his muzzle into the next field over, badly startling a farmer who was plowing his field with his two oxen.
"Oh my goodness, so sorry Farmer Mackenzie! It's James! Won't happen again sir!" James gushed sheepishly, as the startled man fanned his rear with his hat and kept plowing, waving at James, who waved back, the farmer still looking spooked from the two dragons.
"Whoops, poor chap. I wonder...James, aim your lightning breath at that cloud." Daniel asked, pointing with his clawed scaly hand, James copied his earlier breath blow and sent an arcing volley of electric breath into the cloud, which sparked and began to thunder itself.
"Whoa!" James cried, impressed and pleased.
"Interesting talent indeed. Now, I'll bet you already know how to fly, having wings outside your dragon form and whatnot. Go on, try it." Dan mused, watching James, who eagerly looked at his wings and sure enough, flapped them skillfully and started to hover, making a grand wind all about them.
"Yes, so we can skip the flying skills. Let's practice some combat and see if you really are a tanker drake." Daniel roared and swiped across James's chest plates, which barely bore a shallow scratch despite Dan's claws being fearsome.
"I hardly felt that." James gasped.
"Yes, definitely a defensive dragon. Combat is simple, really. Bite, slash. You control your tail with your pelvic muscles. See?" Daniel pounded his spiked tail on the ground, making it shudder; from inside the manor, James's butler Luke watched the fighting lesson in terror; he was deathly afraid of dragons.
"Mmm...ahh!" James groaned and sighed, pounding his own spiked tail club into the ground; it was even heavier than Dan's and got stuck in the dirt.
"Yes, you have to be mindful of that, especially if you're using it on something it can get snagged on, like a fallen tree. If that happens, use your lightning breath on the object if it's flamable until it combusts, like I do. Watch." Daniel purporsefully whacked his spiked tail into a fallen log and then set it on fire, as it burned it broke up and Dan was able to free his tail with minimal burns. "Great, now, you do it, old boy." Dan urged, James excitedly spied another big log and whacked his tail into it, but James's spiked tail club was so heavy and dense it acted like a wrecking ball and smashed the log into sawdust instead.
"Oh, good, looks like you won't have that issue as much, your heavy tail acts like a boulder. Okay, there's another log on your property line, try to set it on fire using your lightning breath."
James inhaled hard soon as Dan pointed and exhaled electricity onto the log, enveloping it in chain lightning which arced and crackled, James kept exhaling as long as he could, and the log started to smoke and finally exploded and what was left of it popped and caught fire.
"Oh my, you're a rather lethal beast, my goodness. Now, always remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Use it for the protection of those you love, for the greater good, and of course, with care, in sport. Right then, I think that's enough for today. How about a spot of tea?" Daniel requested, his dragon hand open tipped with deadly claws.
"Hey, wanna fight?" James asked playfully, his rear in the air like a puppy.
"Hmm, perhaps at another time old boy, you and I tend to get out of hand with that." Daniel felt his chin & laughed slightly; it was true, the two had accidentally gotten into a real fight at what was meant to be a friendly joust at a faire, each man's secret mutual jealousy over Lonely taking over. James stood up, his expression more serious as he nodded.
"Oh, that's true, yes, you're right. Luke! Oh hey, can you please put on a pot of tea for Sir Wisbey & I in the garden? With some extra meaty sandwiches for us to share? Here you go, good man." James held out a little sack of coin in his thick claws; Luke took it gingerly, shaking all over.
"Y...yess, sir. Sir....I'm sorry, but can you not assume that form around me, I'm not fond of dragons." Luke gulped.
"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry Luke! Absolutely!" James muttered in Latin and transformed quickly with a groan of pain back into his true burly angelic form, as Dan took off his magic amulet and also assumed his human form with a grimace of pain. Luke hurried away as James and Daniel both walked in cheerful silence to James's beautiful garden which held the iron table and chairs James and Lonely loved to hold their tea parties on; the many roses hadn't bloomed yet, but their leaves were greening despite the cold.
"Thank you again Sir Wisbey, so very much. I can't wait to show Lonely." James gushed, and he and Dan ate in warm yet masculine silence.
"Hmm, yes, quite." Daniel nodded, wiping his mouth with one of James's fine napkins. The men each gave the other a knowing smile, the friendly rivalry between them present but, for today, at an understanding, as they feasted together in the beautiful garden with a firepit keeping them warm as Luke brought a pot of fine black tea for the men.






📸 A big ty & credit to the photographer for making their work free to use on Unsplash.com

https://unsplash.com/photos/brown-c.....se-z0u5MCpLGbw