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Part 3.

Ruth landed heavily back in the courtyard of the castle, his head drooping at the total waste of lives that had been shed on the Lutra road. The Queen's death alone would be enough to 'invite' the lioness in charge of the ambush patrol to be his or Arianna's guest...If Arianna gifted her to him; he would in turn gift her to Adam, even if she begged suicide. It was hard to say which was worse, infanticide or deliberately burning someone to death. He had decided not to try and follow the trail. The chances were the minute his shadow passed across them, Prince James would be executed as a matter of course...he would be safer in the hands of Electra as he was known to be a performer. Being made a 'pet' might even suit him.

A clean and fresh Sir Wolfie walked down the steps then towards him, a look of expectancy on his face...Ruth shook his head, "I was too late. The road is a mess, the Queen is dead and Prince James captured. The ambush was thorough, they didn't even get chance to draw swords. I am afraid the Knights are decorating the way on stakes again."

"Shit...where are they now?" Sir Wolfie asked as the King and Prince joined him.

"Heading towards Lutra of all places unless they have broken off the trade road. I didn't follow as I believe Prince James still lives. One of the cavalry was just hanging onto life when I arrived; he said Prince James was taken unconscious from the scene as he was fighting back. They were over forty in number, so following could have just ended James' life. I am fast, but I am not that fast. My best guess is that they will rendezvous with Electra by the morning, wherever she is." Ruth answered sighing.

"Then my mate?" King Lycanopous asked, not having heard the beginning of the conversation.

"She was burnt to death in the royal carriage. I am sorry. More than one of that patrol will be guests at my dining table before the next couple of days is out."

"It was too much to hope for...I guess my Son will die soon as well then." The King said holding his head in his hands.

"That depends...he still has the chance to be one of Electra's pets. That may save him until she is dead."

"Lord Ruth, will you allow a right of challenge?" Lycanopous said standing tall again.

"In what way?"

"By your rules, Electra's life is now forfeit," Ruth nodded, "I wish to challenge her to single combat in tourney. If she kills me, she will then have to face my champion, Sir Wolfie. I feel that is the only way the Lyonesse will respect us as a people when they have no leadership. She must die in fair combat at the hands of her enemies, not just by your talons."

"You do realize that you are likely to die?" Ruth asked.

"I have nothing left to live for if my people are destroyed. I have lost my only love, and my brother. It is the honourable thing to do, and will give Lupinia the best chance of survival as a kingdom."

"Rights of challenge are permitted. I will discuss with Arianna your proposal as you understand exactly what it means to you. I see no reason why you may not throw down the gauntlet at Electra's feet. The standard terms though are the winner takes all. Lupinia will be in the hands of the Lyonesse if both you and Sir Wolfie lose."

"Sir Wolfie is the best fighter I have ever come across, if she can defeat him, whoever takes her place at the head of Lyonesse deserves Lupinia as an annex."

"I don't think you understand Lycanopous...if you throw down the gauntlet and she wins...Arianna and I are bound to leave her in her position. We will take all the offenders from under her, leaving her unsupported, but she will still be Queen." Ruth said seriously.

"Oh..." Lycanopous looked at Sir Wolfie who nodded, "Without support though she couldn't rape the people here...could she?"

"That would be unlikely. With her bodyguards and generals our guests, she may not be able to control the guard or the army. I would say she will have to concentrate on staying alive and consolidating her power in the Lyonesse kingdom before she completes the annexing of Lupinia...if she survives of course." Ruth cocked his head on one side listening, "It seems that my 'date' is about to arrive. Maybe she can shed some light on the whereabouts of Electra and her main force before she forces me to engage her."

There was a flapping of wings and then Arianna appeared over the castle walls before she circled once and came into land neatly next to Ruth. A heavy scent enveloped the courtyard that made the King and the Prince start shuffling uncomfortably where they stood. "Hello again Pearly," she greeted, kissing him as he tried to pull away, "Are you ready for me?" She raised her tail invitingly, the scent becoming deeper and deeper as her winking vulva appeared.

"Arianna, please...must you? The King is about to soil himself..." Ruth protested.

Arianna glanced down at the shuffling wolf, "Mmm..." she reached out a single talon quickly and snipped through the King's belt letting his hose drop to the floor as his robes swung open. "Not a bad size oldster...let me help you out." She bent and licked him, coiling her tongue around his shaft as she tickled his balls with her talon. Lycanopous tensed and blew his load into her mouth after only a few seconds, "Not much stamina though, but good enough to get me on edge." She smacked her lips, glancing at the Prince, "It seems that our gay Prince is bisexual...or at least he likes my scent. Would you like to taste me while Sir Wolfie there warms up the main deal for me?"

Prince Lycanopous nodded, his shaft straining at his hose, "Y...yes Lady..." he stuttered.

"Very well, you may dock with my ass, it won't be tight for you but I dislike mammal cum on my scales, it stains. So make sure you are in before you blow...once you engage me though, you may not let off until Pearly there is ready to take his turn...no matter what happens." With that she shunted the cart containing the corpses to one side by the gate and lay down, resting her head on one of the staircases that lead up to the parapets. "I prefer the feral position, but I fear that Sir Wolfie would be crushed if he has to continue stimulation with you Ruth, so I will concede to this position to get what I want. Prince, I am ready when you are."

Prince Lycanopous shed his clothes...all of them and left them at his spent father's feet, and climbed up Arianna's thick tail until he found himself at the eighteen inch long portal to infinite pleasures on her belly. Her six inch ring was just a foot below it, perfectly spaced for him to guide his twelve inches into while his face was buried into her sensitive spots. Kneeling he engaged without hesitation, his swollen shaft barely touching the sides as it slipped within, but his lips soon found the dragoness' clit, which was almost as long as his shaft. He smiled, and began deep throating it...it was not all that different to being with a couple of males, as long as he didn't fall in to the gaping pit under his chest and belly!

"May I ask before you are unable to do anything but groan you whore...where is Electra and her army?" Ruth said as Wolfie began shedding his armour and clothes, folding them more neatly than the Prince.

"Mmm...He is not bad you know. You must let me have a straight or bisexual Wolf from your obsidian collection..." She ignored the whore jibe...as she knew she was. "Electra is around thirty leagues away and still marching towards here. Under the assumption that they press on through the dark, she should be here mid-morning. A patrol that I assume was the one that ambushed the Queen and young Prince was about five leagues from them and on an intercept course...The Prince was still with them, so I assume alive...Ohh...keep going Lycanopous...I would wake the population in a couple of marks, before she reaches them. She knows of our existence, and would smell a rat if sleep bespelled people were lying all over the place." The Prince's hips twitched once, and he buried his knot deep in Arianna ass, spilling his seed into her bowels. She clenched obligingly and just managed to grip it enough to prolong his orgasm through politeness. "I would say you should get to it now...it will take the Prince here another half mark or so of sucking before I will need you." Fluids began to seep from her and ran down her frenulum to pool around the Prince's still buried cock.

Ruth shook his head, "Let's get this over with then," he turned to Wolfie. "Work me up as fast as you can. You want me to take your ass, or do you want to be able to move freely tomorrow?"

"I think that I will need to be in top fighting condition..." Sir Wolfie replied as Ruth also settled on his back. It was obvious to the wolf that despite the clouds of pheromones that were impregnating the air and stones of the castle, Ruth was not even slightly aroused. Wolfie was, and he was ready to play. The sight of the Prince sucking on the phallus like clit of Arianna as his twelve inches thrusted in and out of her ass had done to him what just the female scent couldn't. It gave him highly inappropriate ideas above his station about what he wanted to do with the Prince in private...if they all survived.

"Wolfie...don't sound me this time. She will want my first and most potent seed. Dock and massage me, and then ride my shaft as I lube up. You will be a mess when we are done, but it can't be helped. When she signals, jump clear, but I will need you where I cannot reach to push me over the edge when I dock with her." Ruth instructed, snapping Wolfie's mind back to the task in hand...so to speak.

Wolfie approached the prone dragon, dragging his eyes off Prince Lycanopous' bobbing ass. He mounted Ruth's tail and climbed up to the so far quiescent belly cavity. "You may need to at least try Ruth," Wolfie said as he knelt and felt within.

"Just touch me in the right places, I will close my eyes to block out what is going on over there," Ruth said, complying. Wolfie found the slightly damp tip he was looking for, and began fondling it with his hands. He knew it was a futile effort, but he also lined himself up and copied the Prince, and buried his shaft into Ruth huge anus. Ruth opened half an eyelid, a trace of a grin passing across his face as he felt the penetration, "I told you last time you wouldn't reach..."

"I know, I know...but you said she didn't want to smell of cum, and it has got to go somewhere before long...it might as well be there!" Wolfie said grimacing.

"Well, it will lube the way for your arms I suppose," Ruth answered, closing his eyes again.

Wolfie grumbled to himself...this was not the way he wanted to play with this dragon again...he could almost feel the King's eyes boring into the back of his skull. He thrust slightly, switching his hips and getting no response, "I thought you said you could cum at will?" he asked.

"I can...I am not at will at the moment though," Ruth answered in an amused fashion.

"Well bloody well get at will then. I am doing my part, you do yours!" Wolfie growled.

"Do I detect a little anger there Sir Wolfie?" Ruth asked..."You wanting to play rough?"

"I just want to play...you obviously are acting the spoilt cub though!"

"Hatchling...let's play raid the castle then. You have left your gates unguarded!" With that Ruth whipped his tail into a coil and with unerring accuracy slipped it under Wolfie's in a single sharp thrust.

Wolfie howled as a good ten inches of rippled ridges penetrated his bowels in a single movement. Ruth flexed within and twisted his prostate where it was housed. He blew, his body almost torn apart by the orgasm as it hit him, trying to fill the dragon's sphincter with his seed.

Ruth grinned evilly, "Now I will play!" He let his erection grow as the Wolf lay panting across his cavity. The tip emerged, tilting Wolfie's head backwards slightly as it tickled his chin. As more and more length grew from underneath him, the Knight was raised from his slouch and hugged his arms around the glistening pole and held on until he was popped from his anal anchor by the draconic balls of pleasure as Ruth fully inverted, "Now ride me...ride me until she calls," Ruth said as Wolfie began to pretend he was on one of the greased poles used in contests of balance.

Wolfie did as bid, sliding his belly up and down the ridges and nodules of Ruth's shaft, dragging the dragons tail behind him as Ruth had not removed it from where it as resting on his prostate. Every slide down electrified Wolfie as the pressure on his gland brought him back to full arousal in record time. He lapped at the copious amounts of pre that were forming on Ruth's flared glans, tongue ticking at the source each time it passed over the three inch long eye in the middle.

Ruth grunted in pleasure, "Don't consume it all, and lube me up. I will drier than a dingo in a desert when I have to take her otherwise."

Wolfie grinned, and began handling each new glassy globe at it rolled out of his shafts eye, rubbing and spreading it with glee over the head of his new toy, and then further and further down the shaft until he was completely covered with the transparent slime. Wolfie's belly fur was a sodden mat, a mixture of his own sweat, pre, and musk glands combining Ruth's liquid as it soaked in right to the skin. He made sure that every ridge, every spine, and even a few strangely pulsing spiny feathers that he hadn't observed before were well and truly soaked. His crotch was aching with need and he wondered where his second load should be spent as Arianna grumbled loudly.

"Pearly...now is the time," she called, shifting her hips slightly to tip the suckling Prince off her pelvis.

"Shit...remember Wolfie...go for my prostate. Those feathery spines you were playing with must expand and seal her lips tight before I blow...or my seed will not take and we will have to do this all over again!" Ruth withdrew his tail-tip gently so as not to cause damage to Wolfie's behind.

Wolfie nodded as he slid off Ruth so he could right himself, his shaft bobbing up and down, slapping against his belly...He jumped as he felt two strong arms grab him from behind, "Need a hand with that?" Prince Lycanopous asked, grinning as Wolfie turned his head towards the grinning wolf.

"It is inappropriate..." Wolfie began as Ruth straddled Arianna in front of them, his still erect shaft aimed squarely at the dragoness' ass, before a hip thrust drove all of it an as his balls slapped the underside of her tail.

She groaned deeply, "That's more like it, the Prince only tickled me...make sure you pull out and plug the right hole before you blow though!" Arianna called, closing her eyes. Ruth had his eyes tightly shut, trying to picture Arianna as a male but failing as he felt his arousal start to wane. He thrust harder and harder, hoping that the manual stimulation of her scales would keep his body able.

"I saw you watching my ass bob as I serviced the Lady there...you want my ass don't you Sir Wolfie," The Prince continued as he began manipulating Wolfie's shaft from behind, his own pressed tightly against the overwhelmed wolf's spine.

"I...I...Well yes...but the King...your father..." Wolfie stuttered.

"Oh for God's sake take him Wolfie...It is better than him playing with the servants." The King said from where he was watching the whole thing from the steps. His shaft was semi-erect again, from the pheromones, and from watching Ruth take the female in front of him.

"I can't Sire, Ruth will need me again," Sir Wolfie protested.

"Then I will take you, that way your hands and body are free!" The Prince declared and lowered his shaft to Wolfie's target. "We can return favours in private...Yes?"

"Fuck it...yes!" Wolfie shouted and leaned back into the Prince as he was penetrated by the royal twelve inches, taking it all easily after being so recently vacated by Ruth's tail. "Knot me, tie me, and fill me with you Royal seed!" Wolfie called, using his vast experience to ripple his internal muscles in order to increase the Prince's experience.

The Prince groaned, his hips thrust as his knot swelled in record time, the six inches plugging Wolfie up as his ring closed around it...He didn't last even a minute, his second load of seed painting Wolfie's sore colon with its warm creaminess. The King chuckled as Wolfie blew his own load over the cobbles while the Prince gripped his knot tightly, "It seems, Son, that you have challenged the master," he said to himself grinning, "And met your match!" The Prince was completely unable to answer as Wolfie was continuing to manipulate him from within.

Ruth was fading, "Wolfie...I can't sustain. Do your best please," he called over his shoulder.

Wolfie and the Prince were well and truly stuck together, so with Wolfie leading, they shuffled up to the two dragons, "I will need to be on my back to reach his P spot, so this is going to be very uncomfortable for you." Wolfie knelt to aid the act, before rolling so that he was lying on Arianna's tail. The Prince whimpered as he was strained in his socket, shaft being forced downwards as his balls now wrapped around Wolfie's still inflated shaft. "Now back up and shunt me up before lying as flat as you can...this is going to be tight."

They inched their way up Arianna's tail as Ruth kept his feet firmly on the floor, making sure his hips and ass were high enough above her to avoid crushing the two wolves. Wolfie reached his target where the two draconic bodies met, "Ruth, engage her where she wants now and then lower yourself so I can reach you." Wolfie called as the two walls of scales receded slightly and Ruth's two foot shaft slipped free. Wolfie grabbed for it, massaging it briefly before guiding it to the gaping pink trench in the blue scales that was so eager for it, "I guess you are about to lose your virginity with a female eh?" Wolfie shouted as the shaft slipped within until the balls above him pressed hard on his throat...he was using Arianna's swollen ring as his pillow at the moment, and he only hoped that she didn't suck him in!

Both Arianna and Ruth rumbled with mirth, "Ha ha Wolfie, now get to it before I lose my erection altogether!"

Wolfie chuckled and slid back a little, shunting the Prince who was wrapped around Ariana's tail. Licking and teasing at the dangling white orbs resting on his chin, he plunged both hands deep into Ruth's ass, delving for the cabbage size gland he had found in their 'private interview' in Ruth's home cave. Gripping it this time with both hands, he hauled upon it, grinding his sword calloused palms across the slimy surface he felt the blood flow and pressure increase as Ruth's erection reached full flow again.

"Make sure both of you get out fast when he blows, I will orgasm to ensure the eggs are there for his seed, but my body will spasm. The two of you will get crushed unless you dismount me and get out of the range of my tail," Arianna called through her groans as she felt Ruth's shaft start pressing hard on her clitoral hood.

Wolfie just kept pummeling at his prize, "See if you can pull free now Lycanopous, we will have a better chance if we're separated!" Wolfie shouted, straining to relax his asshole enough.

The Prince pulled hard, his orgasm spent and popped free like a cork from a storage jar in the kitchens. He slipped down Arianna's tail, using the sexual juices that she had been spilling as lube, "Clear," he shouted.

Wolfie redoubled his efforts, straining his neck out so he could lap and tickle the base of Ruth's swollen shaft where it was buried in Arianna's now full entree. Ruth grunted above him, and he felt the feathers start to inflate under his tongues tip. Pulling particularly hard on Ruth's prostate he twisted it in its intestinal pocket, Ruth's balls contracting sharply and pulling away from his throat. He didn't wait for Ruth's instruction, and with a final tweak he pulled his arms out of his ass, and began inching his way down Arianna's tail as fast as he could.

Strong hands grabbed his feet, and he was whipped down the scaly slide in record speed by both the King and the Prince. Stumbling to his feet they helped him stagger to the entrance steps of the hall as Ruth pulled out once and thrust hard, pounding Arianna into the cobbles with his weight. Both dragons shuddered, their tails going rigid for a few seconds before they let out a synchronized moan into the air and their tails began to thrash.

Ruth let himself go, he thrust hard to ensure the seal was tight and then released the floodgates so to speak as his mouth closed on her throat. He knew it was the skilled manipulation of Sir Wolfie that had allowed him to get this far, and he just imagined he was releasing his bladder as his feral instincts took over and sealed his crotch tightly to Arianna underneath him. His spine feathers bound hard for the first time in his life, finding anchorage in her swollen lip scales while his glans flared and locked within her cloacal passage in search of the eggs released from her ovaries. Lowering his neck he gripped her throat in a choke hold.

**Being a mystical species, the Draconic race of true dragons had chosen to take the best if both types of peoples that were evolving around them. Technically they were still reptiles, as they laid eggs and when hatched, their young did not suckle...but as an integral part of a successful intelligence was pleasure, they had developed clitorises and swollen lips on the females cloacal tract. The males developed flares and spines, enabling painful but incredibly satisfying locks between two consenting adults. When they took the role of arbiters though, it was essential that they function at all hours of the day and night effectively, no matter what the season...so a self-regulated body temperature was adapted from the mammals to cope with that. There were other physiological changes in the head that allowed them to use and handle the stresses of magic, but they were not visible.**

Arianna smiled internally as her back was battered against the rough cobbles underneath her. She felt Ruth's feather spines catch her lips and lock, tearing through her scale membranes as he was bound to her. Her feral instinct went into overdrive as her orgasm struck while he was choking the air from her. As his glans flared at the entrance of her soon to be egg sack and dug in as he started to pump her full of his seed. And pump he did, she should have known when she saw his size that his load would correspondingly bigger than her previous dalliances. She was a mother five times over already, this clutch was going to be her sixth and largest. Ever since the White dragon had been granted maturity and been given stewardship of the Obsidian Mountain by the world council she had hankered after him, despite being three centuries her junior. Three of her seasons had passed since then, every fifty years or so where she had forced to take inferior males from other areas as was her duty to her species because Ruth had turned her down. She was thrilled when she had been given another chance, and had forced him into a corner this time and got her wish.

With luck all this brood would reach maturity, after all they had the strongest possible genes this time. She wondered what colour they would hatch...maybe a sky blue...she dreamed. The Prince had been very skilled with his mouth, and she toyed with the idea of inviting gay male prisoners to her horde cave when she wanted relief, as opposed to the straight ones she played with on a weekly basis. It was definitely something to be considered for the future. Of course the dragon males answered her calls whenever she wished, but sometimes snacking on her lover after the act made it all the more...intimate. One day, in maybe another three centuries or so she would take a newly mature male on to train to take her position...but until then, she'd wanted the previously unobtainable...the one who was now filling her loins with his seed. Life would be perfect, if only the bloody Lyonesse hadn't started their damned cub killing again. At least she could legitimately restock her captive caves with fresh blood, even though it would all be feline.

Ruth's pumping ground to a halt then, and with a twist of his hips he tore himself loose of his mooring, peeling the scales he had pierced back and causing her to shout an obscenity from the pain as her lips snapped closed tightly, the fresh blood she shed instantly clotting and binding her closed until she took another bath in a day or so. She had pissed on route, so her bladder would hold that long if she was careful what she drank; and a gentle scrub by her servants would cleanse her scales of her cum before that, making her presentable for her duties. This courtyard would never be the same though, her scents and fluids had impregnated the very stones, and she knew that anyone entering it for the next twenty or so years would become very horny...she grinned at the thought. Lupinia would end up emulating the excesses of the toga parties that were all the rage a thousand years ago...it would prove to create an interesting governing system!

"Well I hope you are satisfied now Arianna," Ruth said as he fully retracted back into himself.

"The world moved for me Pearly, you didn't exactly make a bad job of it yourself either," Arianna replied grinning, "Come join me again for my next season in fifty years or so..." she teased.

"I will pass thank you...by then I hope someone else of my taste will have reached maturity...then I can live in peace from all he clamouring females who call on me every time their loins swell," Ruth answered sharply.

"Oh that won't stop me...we could have threesomes. If another dragon was up your arse while you were buried in me...well I wouldn't say no."

"You are irascible. We have a situation here that could cost thousands of innocents their lives, and all you think about is sex?"

"Beats thinking about anything else, I'll let off now though as I have what I want from you. I am guessing that you have been discussing possible courses of action with the King here and your current pet wolf," Arianna said grinning.

"I, Lady, am nobodies pet. Speak like that of me again, and my life not withstanding I will challenge you to a duel," Sir Wolfie snarled.

"Calm down fluffball...You wouldn't even make an aperitif. I was only joking. You certainly pick the spunky ones to play with Pearly...how the fuck did you meet?"

"He slaughtered some of our kind who were investigating a dragon/fox hybrid in the woods. Upon me serving my judgment, he was found guilty only of ignorance, not intent. His soul is being watched for the rest of his life, if he steps over the line again, he doesn't just get to visit me." Ruth replied before Sir Wolfie could step in and cause more issues.

"You should have eaten him. I would have," Arianna answered.

"I did...in a fashion. He is as you can gather rather apt in bed." Ruth replied grinning as Arianna snorted in mirth. "It is each to his own as you know when we make our judgments, he was lucky he stepped over the line in my territory, not yours."

"I'm not getting at you; the Dragon council has never taken issue with any of your cases, so I will not also. If you want another one to be tied to your brain, well the choice is yours." Arianna shrugged, "So what did you come up with?"

"You will not like this...but King Lycanopous is going to throw down his gauntlet at Electra's feet in a twin match challenge. His champion against hers, King against Queen to be. Winner of each match takes on the other in a winner take all situation. Sir Wolfie is to be the King's champion." Ruth stated quietly.

"That's a tad risky isn't it? He could be gifting Lupinia to the Lyonesse." Arianna commented, looking for the first time at Sir Wolfie's frame, "The King will die of course, Electra is younger, fitter, faster and stronger than he is..."

"I am here you know." King Lycanopous interrupted, "I am well aware of that likelihood, but unless I issue the challenge, Lupinia is likely to be destroyed. Sir Wolfie is my best chance of leaving something behind worth fighting for."

"You understand that should Electra or her champion defeat Sir Wolfie, we must let her live?" Arianna asked.

"I do...but Lord Ruth also explained that all her generals, officers and personal bodyguards who are guilty of death crimes are subject to your power. She will have no support, and no power. I would guess that Lupinia will have a couple of years to reinforce itself as the Lyonesse fight over who rules them exactly. I think that in itself is a fitting punishment for a manipulative and evil bitch like the Princess. I will have died serving my people in the best way I could."

Arianna grinned an evil grin, "Agreed. I will dine on cat for at least a couple of months I think. Leave the head alive, but cut off the body...I like that. You were a wise King, Lycanopous. I only hope that your Son follows in your footsteps well. If Sir Wolfie triumphs, the Prince will have a small stable kingdom, and a huge turbulent one to win to his leadership over. The cats will never bow to a fag though...and you know it."

"If James still lives, he will take the Lyonesse throne. I am quite happy here as I am, though I wish that you would reconsider father," Prince Lycanopous said holding a hand out to the King.

"No...what must be must be. You will make a good ruler Son, and so will your brother if God has spared him. Now I must sleep, I want to at least begin to tire Electra before she kills me, so Sir Wolfie has a better chance. I am going to retire." The King said, turning for the steps.

"One minute," Arianna said, stopping him, "Do your people have anything against cremation for your burial rights?"

"No...the wealthy are often cremated to prevent the ferals in the woods from digging them up...why?" King Lycanopous replied.

"I like my meat fresh...the contents of that cart are starting to spoil. Could Ruth and I provide you the service of cremating it somewhere clean so the ashes can be swept together and buried as per your traditions?" Arianna asked politely.

The King glanced at the Prince who nodded once. "This yard is clean, back it against one of the corners in the walls, but could you wake a priest first please," he said quietly, "And remove the harlot traitor less she contaminate their memories."

Ruth nodded and stood on his hind legs, uttering a few words into the sky. The same shimmer appeared as before, spreading out from him in a haze across the city. Clatters were heard and voices as the people began to wake up. Sir Wolfie trotted up the steps, grabbing just his hose and hopped into them heading for the chapel to fetch the head priest.

Around half a mark later they all stood, head bowed as the Priest issued the final rights to the cart without the covers being lifted before stepping back. Ruth and Arianna stood, shoulder to shoulder as the crowd on the walls watched, not quite sure if they should be scared of the huge dragons in their midst. At a silent signal they breathed in in unison, pointing their nostrils at the Princess' gift, and exhaled sharply, twin jets of superheated flame engulfing the wooden frame and its contents in a firestorm that curled the hairs on all that were to near to it. The stones in the castle wall behind it crackled in the heat as it collapsed in on itself in a heap of glowing embers after barely a couple of minutes.

The two dragons stepped back and turned to the King, "That should be left to cool for at least a day; you will not even find bones in the ash. I will personally add yours to it when you have lain in state after the morrows match, and that of your queen. Go to bed King Lycanopous, and let us see what the rising sun will bring. Goodnight." With that speech, Ruth curled himself up on the cobbles, and allowed Arianna to use him as a head rest.

The others filed away to their own beds, though any who had been in scenting distance of the castle...would not be getting much sleep.

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