Prompt of the Week - Week 3

Johannus had lost count of the amount of times he told his sire that what he had set out to do was somewhere beyond idiotic and squarely in the realm of the utterly suicidal. So many times he had to remind him that no one ever even came close to that dragon’s den for a very good reason, and yet not once did that idiot ever listen to him. As their loyal squire, it was his job and utmost duty to follow his knight to the ends of the Earth, even if it meant walking straight into the mouth of a very hungry draconic monster… though he was having his doubts about his career choices.

Couldn’t exactly be knighted when he was dead, could he?

… could he, though?

Janus, meanwhile, had convinced himself that the best way to regain his “lost honour”, as he put it, would be to embark on a grand quest and bag himself a great treasure worthy of someone of his name. At no point did he consider that whatever honour he might’ve had to be lost had been long gone, ever since he decided to back the pretender to the throne, and that the only reason the old king even allowed him to keep his title was due to how utterly ineffectual and harmless he had been during the uprising. No, as far as Janus knew, he had been disgraced by his comments regarding Lady Maribel, and thus needed to go slay a dragon for whatever weird reason.

Madness.

Up the hills they went, climbing up the one place in the valley big enough to overlook the whole thing, whereupon sat an enormous cave that everyone knew was home to an equally-giant dragon. They very rarely left, only occasionally daring to brave the outside world whenever they felt like adding to their considerable hoard; after the kingdom adopted the use of firearms, trying to steal from the royal treasury became a lot harder for the beast, and so it spent most of its time eating the occasional stray sheep or hunting for food in the lakes below.

Then again, no one even tried to take the beast on, for the simple reason that as long as it kept to itself and didn’t bother too many people, everyone was content with accepting a few caprine losses in return for implied protection against foreign threats; not that the king had any kind of explicit deal with the creature, but dragons weren’t exactly known for being good at sharing, and if anyone decided to march in there with an army, everyone was sure the beast would make short work of them in its attempts at defending what was, all in all, a pretty damn good living arrangement.

That, and of course it was still a gigantic, fire-breathing dragon, and thus very likely to roast anyone stupid enough to try and kill it without a second thought. This was what Johannus kept saying, this is what Janus kept ignoring.

Once inside the cave, it was easy to spot where their target was; the creature wasn’t exactly stealthy, nor did it care to protect its hoard with anything other than itself. The multitude of charred skeletons lining the entrance to the cavern, a few of them bearing conspicuously golden stains melted onto them, should have been a good enough warning for anyone that wasn’t a complete idiot, hence why the knight kept on walking forward, unsheathing his sword and pointing it directly at the slumbering dragon.

As was usual, Janus delivered his bombastic speech at the top of his lungs, listing his many (defunct) titles, his diverse (and meaningless) accomplishments, as well as all the great and powerful (and entirely non-existent) creatures he had slain in glorious battle. Johannus had heard that so many times before that he ended up miming his knight’s posture, even mouthing the same words at the same pace with the same exaggerated lip movements. The dragon, meanwhile, looked more confused than anything, probably wondering why this very loud ant had decided to walk into their house and start shouting without even bothering to introduce himself properly. Funnily enough, both it and the squire exchanged a brief look; the creature was intelligent, of course, and therefore could at least understand that whatever it was the knight was doing… wasn’t all that sane or sensical.

Nonetheless, the beast had its hoard to protect, so while it could probably guess that the knight was of no threat to them, there was a certain obligation to play the role of the ferocious monster to be defeated. Their roar was so half-hearted and obviously lacking in any kind of enthusiasm that Johannus felt genuinely awful for his sire… who completely missed the fact that his quest’s goal had no intention of putting any effort into the fight and called for his squire to follow him into “glorious battle”.

The younger man had a few moments to appreciate how his knight charged at the dragon, his sword flailing wildly in his incredibly poor grip, while the creature tracked his every movements with a bored, disinterested look in its face. A single flick of a claw was enough to send the man flying, his armour clanking heavily when he scrambled back onto his feet and resumed the charge; at that point, the dragon was visibly sighing, almost missing the second swipe that bent the helmet so out of shape that Janus had to throw it away, proudly declaring that a brave knight such as him had no need for such things as helmets!

That’s when he got hit in the head with a handful of gold coins and passed out for a few seconds, leaving the squire to do something about it. He was going to try and provide medical aid, but the dragon turned their head towards him and huffed a gout of flames, letting Johannus know in no uncertain terms that he was to remain quiet while the beast sorted out its loud problem.

True to his boisterous nature, not even being knocked out cold by a fistful of gold could keep Janus for long, and the man was up and running back at the dragon in no time, much to the latter’s consternation. It was becoming dangerously clear that the creature was getting tired of wasting time, and thus after their fourth strike failed to do anything but make Janus flinch, it moved to end the threat permanently by effortlessly grabbing the knight in one claw and lifting him up to eye-level.

This is when Johannus actually started worrying; up until then, he thought that maybe his master would learn their lesson, maybe fall back after a few bruises if the dragon was merciful enough. Now though, there was a very real possibility that Janus might end up dead, prompting him to run forwards while wagging his arms about, trying to get the beast’s attention.

All this did was give him a closer look when the immense, draconic monster opened its mouth and chomped down on the knight’s midriff, effortlessly tearing through their armour and bissecting the now-deceased knight with a single yanking motion, throwing what remained towards the entrance of the cave and then unceremoniously spitting the bloody remains along with it a few seconds later.

The squire was in shock; it all happened so fast that he didn’t even know what to do or say. There he was, alone in a cave with a dragon that had just murdered his sire, and all he had was a club and a helmet that barely fit him. Was he supposed to protect himself with a leather jerkin and prayers?!

He began looking around for anything that might help, hoping the dragon’s hoard would have a trinket or two that he might find useful. The beast, meanwhile, had set its eyes on him, and figuring that the younger man was probably a bigger threat than the other one could ever be, moved to flatten him with a single paw, with Johannus narrowly avoiding a grisly death by tumbling out of the way. Grunting, the creature began trying to take him down in earnest, its spit alight with flames when it bared its teeth.

The squire, meanwhile, was sifting through the loose pile of treasure for literally anything of worth, finding nothing but coin upon coin, occasionally a goblet… before finally hitting something that just might be his ticket out of an early retirement.

He could feel its power thrumming in his hand, letting him know that it was both ready to use and in perfect condition. Removing it from the hoard revealed the wand to be in stunningly perfect condition, probably as a result of its wielder meeting with a very quick demise, whenever that might have been. Without thinking about what it might even do, Johannus pointed the damned thing at the dragon and performed the appropriate rites, hoping that it would activate the magical object and then vanquish his foe!

… and, well, it at least activated it.

It was anyone’s guess how a want like that ended up in a dragon’s hoard, but it was certainly not something he expected to find there. A disintegration spell, maybe, or perhaps some kind of freezing incantation meant to keep the beast still for long enough to plunge a blade into its heart. Quite literally anything, really, except for what he got after the blue beam of light hit the monster square in the middle of the chest and they began transforming.

Clearly, not only was that dragon feared throughout the land, but there had to be at least one wizard who thought they’d make good wife material, because instead of doing anything destructive to the damned thing, the wand began to turn them into something that looked less like a four-legged abomination from the pits of Hell itself and more a draconic facsimile of the human form. A very curvaceous draconic facsimile of the human form, if he could say so himself.

Much as he felt terribly wrong thinking such thoughts, there was no denying that the dragon was adopting a new shape that would not only draw every eye in every room, but seemed deliberately designed to poke at Johannus’ own buttons in ways he didn’t even think were possible. Everything, from the soft expression on her muzzle (for it was very clearly a she), to the way her scales glinted in the faint sunlight and golden glimmer of the hoard, to the more risqué elements like her ample, supple breasts and flared thighs just waiting to be grabbed and squeezed by someone who’d treat her the way she deserved to be. She was to be his queen and why in blazes was he even thinking those things?!

The squire had to physically shake those ideas out of his head, and even then some of them still clung on like lice. Didn’t help that the dragoness decided to take advantage of her new form to try and remove the intruder from her lair in an entirely different way either; maybe it wasn’t the first time they got transformed like that, but they seemed oddly comfortable with the idea of suddenly being a nine foot tall, statuesque amazon with tits that covered half their chest and thighs thick enough to sink her own hands into. They even sashayed and strutted slightly when walking towards him, imagine that.

“You know, that wand has a secondary effect,” she spoke, startling the poor squire so hard they jumped backwards and nearly hit the floor, “if you would be so daring as to try it~”

Her tone was inviting, her voice even more so. Clearly, even if the more wild aspects of her had been entirely eliminated, the more dominant ones absolutely weren’t, because all it took was for her to look at him for Johannus to feel like he was shrinking underneath her, unworthy of even being in the same room as someone like them.

The squire wanted to ask her what the wand’s other function was, but much as he needed to open his mouth to do so, he couldn’t force himself to talk back to the dragoness. It wouldn’t be rude on his part (she did talk to him first, after all), but the mere presence of her was enough to make him feel like less than what he usually did. From a bumbling knight to an overbearing, humanoid dragoness; what the hell even was his career?

He knew, deep down, that he would have to use the wand again. Her words were not merely informative, but a veiled command, one that he was well aware he’d have to abide by even if he didn’t want to. Thing is though, he… did kind of want to do it; if the first magical effect was turning the monstrous dragon into that, he could only imagine what it might do afterwards. Then again, it was entirely possible this “secondary effect” was just turning off the first one, and he was being led straight into a trap, thinking he’d be unleashing some kind of super dragoness only to allow her to chomp down on his body as easily she did with Janus’.

But with his feet firmly stuck in place and his mind unable to go anywhere either, there weren’t a lot of options for him to pick from. The dragoness wouldn’t just let him go even if he did manage to give her the slip, and it was unlikely the wand’s effects were permanent; his choices were, therefore, to either die right there and then, or die some time later at the hands of an even more pissed off colossal dragon spitting fire at him.

Besides, he was always a gambling man. A sin, yes, but a sin that had brought him quite a bit of luck in the past.

The words were spoken, the incantation intoned, and once again the magical energies contained in the wand began to course around him, yes, him, because rather than affect or attack the dragoness staring sultrily at him, the tiny object had turned on the squire, encircling him in its thaumic field and beginning to change Johannus much like it did with the draconic beast before!

The sensations were indescribable, but the squire could at least tell that they were supposed to make him feel like the most powerful thing to have ever existed; he could see his muscles bulging out, packing onto themselves as the sinew multiplied over and over again, granting him the type of bulk that even senior knights could only ever dream of. His clothes were ripped apart, not just from his body growing that much thicker and wider, but due to himself suddenly gaining a fair few feet in height as well, rapidly approaching the cavern’s ceiling and making the whole place look incredibly tiny.

The transformation itself was quick and painless, but the aftermath certainly wasn’t; unaccustomed to the kind of body he had just been given, Johannus’ first action was to bump into the wall and then trip over himself, landing directly onto his folded-up wings and giving him a lesson on how surprisingly sensible some parts of his powerful new form were. The dragoness, meanwhile, watched from atop her throne of gold, giggling to herself as she admired her new mate’s inability to even stand up straight. She waited until he was done fumbling and heaved himself onto a somewhat dignified position before sliding down the hoard, approaching him and wrapping her arms around his neck before the former squire could do anything to stop her; in just a few moments, the two were locked in a tight embrace and a deep, unashamedly tongue-filled kiss that fired him up so much he accidentally snorted a couple of gouts of flame onto the dragoness’ face!

Luckily, she seemed to be as fireproof as ever, leading her to giggle after feeling the sudden flamethrowers lap at her scales, only deepening the kiss and forcing Johannus to lie back against the ground. With the dragoness’ entire weight pinning him down, there wasn’t much he could do besides enjoy himself as much as he could… and goodness if there wasn’t a lot for him to enjoy.

The dragoness was as soft and plump as her very figure suggested, and if not for the fact that it was the result of some weird magical fuckery, the former squire would’ve declared such a body to be utterly impossible. Every inch of her felt like it needed to be worshipped, and soon enough Johannus just didn’t have enough hands to do what he had to; the dragoness truly was his queen, his goddess, even if he was about one and a half times her size. All of it had been designed purely so he could give her all the attention she rightfully deserved.

The kiss was finally broken once the dragoness decided that it had gone on long enough, her head resting on his toned chest; with a simple sigh, she let him know his hands were to remain still, for the time had come for the both of them to simply enjoy one another’s company without any kind of groping or lewd exploration. Johannus was more than happy to comply, even if he wasn’t really sure why that was; by all means, he should be terrified at his transformation, worried about how he had been entranced so quickly by a beast that, just minutes earlier, had tried to kill him after gruesomely murdering his former knight.

But she was soft, she was impossibly stunning, and above all she seemed to actually care about him, all qualities that had been lacking in Janus. Honestly, the former squire could see himself taking up a brand new life there with her, even if the effects of the wand were temporary. He was sure they’d find some way around it, even if it meant raiding some poor wizard’s stash.

He sighed. It had been a long day, but finally, he could get some rest.