Chapter 42 #3
She was different from what I expected. I had only seen one dragon before, a red one on Wolf Cave, and that had been very brief. She had been athletically built, wearing less clothing than jewelry.
Yet the dragon of the void before me actually had a far softer stature.
I would never call her chubby, but she was definitely soft around the hips.
And while I was certain she was strong enough to make me feel wildly inferior as a man, her height wasn't that imposing.
There was something about the soft, squishy, feminine curves she held that tempered that height.
If I had to guess, she was only a few inches taller than me, perhaps six and a half feet without her horns, but those added at least another six inches.
They were a dark, glossy black that matched the barely-there lacy dress and her dark, painted lips.
In fact, it seemed like she was wearing a lot of dark makeup that made her pale gray skin seem even lighter.
But even if I had seen her without transforming, I would have recognized her as a dragon. There was the tail, and she still had clawed, bare feet.
Though there was no way you would mistake this figure for anything but a woman. Even when Lily tried to make her chest bigger in the bedroom, they couldn't compare to what was being shown before me. They were absolutely massive, yet they somehow fit on her larger, soft frame.
"Hello." She smirked and held out a hand.
I blinked and then blushed furiously, realizing I'd been caught staring. "Sorry." I ducked my head and then lifted it, smiling. "I'm Captain—" I bent over, holding my side, and slammed my teeth down, trying to hold in the pain.
"Come here." She didn't give me much of a choice.
She was sweeping me up in her embrace and lifting me effortlessly into her arms, a long black nail of hers grazing gently against my forehead.
"You have been to the void for too long, and it beckons you back even now.
" There was a low, soothing husk to her voice that stirred something deep inside of me.
It made me want to just relax in her embrace and succumb to whatever she wanted.
"I'm not well," I said, and she hummed.
"So I gather." She glanced over at Melgara. "I see the void has yet to take you into its embrace."
"It tried, and I decided I didn't want to go just yet after all.
There's still too much to do," Melgara said in a formal tone.
"I'm currently trying to keep my captain.
" She nodded to me, though I was getting very cozy in her embrace.
It felt like a heavy blanket had been draped over me and was dragging me swiftly to sleep.
"Yes, the void reaches for him even now." She gave me a soft, motherly smile. "The void will take us all eventually, but you may turn away from it, if you like."
"I don't want to die yet," I said, and she nodded as if that was expected.
"Then let us let Melgara do what I assume you have her on the ship for, as your doctor. I am Mini’gl’a’h’grashmuarrrraa.” She made a random string of sounds that I couldn't even dream of pronouncing. It pretty much just ended in a low, guttural growl.
I blinked, smiling at her and feeling comfortable enough to ask, "Do you mind if I call you Minnie? Like Mel does?"
"Please, go right ahead. Most do. That is, until the void takes them," she said, and she sounded so incredibly sad with those words. "The void always reclaims them."
I felt bad for the dragon, yet very soothed as she continued to gently stroke my forehead with that long black nail.
"An apex predator, indeed," Lily said to my side. And I was shocked that she was even letting someone she hadn't met before touch me.
"Can you bring him up to medical for me, Minnie? It seems he's gotten quite comfortable," Melgara asked with a wide smirk.
"He has spent long in the void. Far longer than he’s spent out of it.
Of course, my embrace is comforting. It must remind him of the gentle embrace of death.
" That statement caused me to freeze up, but if Minnie noticed, she didn't say anything.
She just moved forward, carrying me. And that's when I realized every time she took a step, the ship plating underneath her thudded, like she weighed far more than she appeared.
That sound, the tempo of her walking, triggered something in my mind. It reminded me of when I died. There were the same heavy steps, the same tempo. And somehow, hearing it again, it simply felt right.
A wave of strange nostalgia washed over me as my body tingled, and I relaxed. All of the tension that had been building up since we started the duel with the two kikai, into the battle with the battleship and everything else, bled away. And in an instant, I became simply a puddle in her arms.
Melgara walked beside us and prepared an injector, flicking the vial several times before planting it against my shoulder. "Nighty night, Captain," she whispered and depressed the trigger. It hit me instantly, and my vision turned dark around the edges before it simply winked out to nothing.