A slow steady beat of a wing was the only sound to be heard. The sound of a dragon flying. The young girl shifted a bit in the basket. A basket that was surprisingly comfortable.

Above her, a huge dragon lazily flew, and here she was in a basket securely held in said dragon’s talons. If someone had told her a month ago that she was going to be turned into a girl a bit over a decade younger, and then spend a week flying in a basket held by a dragon she would have thought that person crazy. Yet that was exactly the position she found herself in. Oh, not to forget she was also naked, but there was nothing she could do about that. Asking a nature dragon for clothes was like talking to a wall. It accomplished nothing, and wasted energy. Being in a basket high in the air also meant she could not go out and find something to make her own either.

Her stomach growled, but she ignored it. She wasn’t too hungry yet, and she certainly didn’t want to tell the dragon she was hungry. That dragon didn’t seem to understand human children very well. She knew that her body had not only switched genders but had regressed in age as well. Even so, she was not as young as the dragon seemed to treat her. She did not need to be fed mashed fruit like a toddler. At least it wasn’t breastfeeding, that would be worse. At least the dragon didn’t seem equipped for that, but she had a feeling the dragon would find a way if she felt it was needed.

The girl sighed and was about to speak up wanting to know how close they were to their destination when she heard an unfamiliar wing beat. Something was flying towards them. That surprised her, as pretty much every flying creature knew to avoid a dragon.

Shifting in the basket, she looked around. The girl wasn’t worried about falling out, the basket was quite large and spacious. Not to mention rather stable in Zemoria’s grip. Before she could find the source of the new sound, the old dragon spoke. “Eris, she is the other way, and be sure to behave yourself. She is not a person you want to make angry.”

She winced when she heard her new name. The dragon had renamed her, it even showed in her status. She had thought that a Renaming could only be done in a temple. It seemed she was wrong. That name however was just yet another reminder of her change. A change she had never wanted. If she could go back in time just a week and stop herself from trying to steal from a dragon she would do it in a heartbeat. It had been a foolish idea.

The young girl shifted again to look in the other direction and soon spotted a small figure flying towards them. It was a young girl with large scale covered dragon-like wings, and she was close enough to make out some details. Such as the fact that she had deadly talons instead of feet. “Who is she?”

“I doubt her name would mean anything to you, but one of her many titles might. She is the Primordial God-Queen, even gods are wary around her.”

Eris nodded silently as she made a mental note to avoid drawing attention. Her mother was a priestess, and Eris had learned a lot about gods from her. Enough to know she did not want to have anything to do with them if she could help it. She shrank a bit in the basket but watched silently as the flying god came up alongside the Dragon.

“Zemoria, it has been a while. Nice to see you again!”

The dragon regarded her and said “It is nice to meet you again as well. When was it that we last spoke? Was it...

“Hmm, let’s not speak of that. Anyway, what can I do for you? Oh! What name do you go by nowadays?”

She replied, “I go by Arlie nowadays. Although you don’t need to tread lightly around me. It has been a very long time since I lost Marcus. Besides I seem to have found something he left behind. I was heading to do some damage control. I figure Kuwi could keep an eye on it.”

“I guess that means you don’t need anything. Mind if I come see what this is?”

Arlie gave her a look, “I do actually kind of mind if you tag along. Kuwi will already be enough of a problem. I don’t need any more extras.”

“In that case I will just go back to looking for something I heard about. A little miss foolish told me about something interesting out here.”

Arlie suddenly looked towards the basket, “I can see that. I guess you have one of Markus’s toys. I’ll let you keep it for now, but don’t think for a moment that I will let you use it without restraint.”

Zemoria gave her a look, “You know I am just trying to return this world to the way you originally made it. A paradise with an almost entirely female population. As I recall of the mortal races only humans were of mixed gender. All others were entirely of one gender.”

Arlie shook her head, “Worlds change, mortals need room to make their own choices. There are limits to how much you can impose your will onto others before they push back.”

Zemoria laughed, “I guess we will see about that.”

Arlie sighed, “Well the place you are looking for is called Bordertown. It is not far from here, and if you do visit you better behave yourself. Any funny business and I will turn you into a common reptile.”

With that Arlie flew away. Eris watched her go, and then heard the dragon Zemoria give out a sigh of relief. It seemed the encounter was a little stressful for the terrifying dragon. She just didn’t know what to say. Zemoria after a moment finally said, “Well that went better than expected.’

“It did?” Eris replied with a frown. Not that Zemoria could see her expression.

The dragon beat her wings and said, “It might be a little obvious, but she doesn’t exactly approve of me. There was a time when we were friends, but after she lost Marcus we... drifted apart.”

Eris nodded, and then remembered Zemoria could not see her here, and replied, “I can see that.”

Then her stomach growled again, and this time it seems Zemoria noticed. “Ah, yes. It is about time for you to eat again isn’t it.”

Those were the last words she wanted to hear She did not want another feeding session quite yet. In her mind, she was wishing someone would rescue her from this dragon. Preferably someone not a god or goddess.

She noticed the dragon starting to drop in altitude, and she sighed. Already she knew what was going to happen, but she had already given up complaining. Idly she fingered the mark burned on her chest. The one that made fighting Zemoria rather pointless. The mark allowed Zemoria to simply make her do something like a slave. It wasn’t a slave mark though. The mark was far more interesting.

The Dragon’s Mark (Zemoria: servant variant): The bearer of this mark has been marked by a dragon, in this case Zemoria. As a servant the bearer’s will is superseded by their master. In addition their actions are known by their master. Grants the trait Dragon’s Aspect. Allows the bearer to learn draconic magic. Greatly boosts magic ability and affinity based on the master. Grant’s innate spell, Nature’s Breath.

Slave marks did not make a person stronger. Having so much time to herself had also allowed her to familiarize herself with that new spell and trait. They were dragon abilities, the aspect trait was interesting. It allowed her to temporarily take on the aspect of a dragon. Boosting her abilities and stats for a short time. The spell on the other hand was a breath attack. A dragon’s most potent natural weapon. In this case it was the nature elemental version of it. Although it strangely resembled a breath of green flames. She had no idea why, but she was rather hesitant to really look into the new spell. Given she spent most of her day in the air, the why was kind of obvious.

Before she knew it, they were on the ground. They were in a small clearing, to her left was a well-trodden path. She didn’t quite recognize it, but it was clear they had landed near a road. What really gave it away was that some mage had clearly packed the earth. Well that, and the fire pit in the middle of the clearing, along with the fact that the clearing was also flat packed earth. This was a designated camping site for travellers.

She climbed out of the basket, and began to stretch her legs. Zemoria had already vanished, but she knew it was pointless to run away. She had tried it already.  Eris remembered it had been that first day when she woke up with the mark and had been told that she wasn’t being let go until after the dungeon she had mentioned was confirmed to exist. At first she was fine with that, well mostly. That was until it came time to eat. After being fed like a toddler once, she tried to run when an opportunity showed up.

It did not work out like she had hoped. Zemoria didn’t even lift a claw to bring her back. Eris remembered how weird it had been when her body suddenly stopped obeying her. She simply stopped running, and walked back. Zemoria had used the mark to control her. The young girl did not like the feeling of just being a passenger in her own body. Eris had read of mages controlling people in a similar fashion, but unlike with the spell she knew of the mark bypassed all her defenses against it.

Zemoria was back before long with a clawful of fruit. Without a word, the dragon produced a large bowl and started mashing the fruit. The sight was a bit comical, but she certainly wasn’t laughing. She knew that bowl contained her next meal. Although she really wanted something else to eat, and the chance to eat it herself.

Before she knew it, she was sitting on a stone seat near the empty campfire. Eating mashed fruit from a floating spoon while watching the dragoness carve magical symbols in the dirt. This was a little new to her. Zemoria was not paying as much attention to her as she normally would. Instead focusing on her symbols.

She wanted to ask what the dragoness was doing, but she was not exactly being given an opportunity. Eris was kind of regretting her previous behavior come meal time because at the moment she could feel the now familiar feeling of the dragon controlling her limbs. Maybe she should not have been so difficult the last few days, but she did not exactly enjoy being treated like a toddler. Now the dragon didn’t even give her a chance to protest, but simply took control of her limbs and fed her. Strangely, she felt like the dragon was treating her like an errant child.

The feel of her magic grip was like being gently held in place. Like someone restraining a fussy child so they could feed them. It was a rather humiliating feeling, and she was glad no one else was around to see this. 

Eris tried to ignore what she felt about this, and focused on the symbols. The symbols were very different from anything she had seen before. They seemed very old, and quite magical. With a practiced claw, the dragon carved them with precision. She was not slow at it either, but rather quick. She had been at it for only a couple of minutes and she already had seven circles of symbols drawn in a large circle. One that encompassed her entire body, and most of the clearing. One that seemed even smaller than it was with the large dragon in it.

She wasn’t an expert, but her mother was a priestess. Eris had seen quite a few rituals, and this looked like a ritual. The symbols were different, and strange. Swallowing another spoonful of mashed fruit she studied the symbols as the dragon drew an eighth ring. Each symbol taking mere seconds to form in the hard earth. By the time she was forced to swallow another mouthful the ring was finished.

Finally there was a pause in the spoons giving her an opportunity to speak. “What are you drawing?”

Zemoria looked over, and then shoved another floating spoon in her mouth while answering, “Nothing much. Just a bit of a ritual. I am a little large, and dragons tend to invoke panic when they are seen flying over towns. Invoking a panic doesn’t exactly suit my purposes. Not that it will help much with the dungeon, the border of its awareness is a couple hours walk that way.” The dragon pointing a claw down the road.

Eris was confused. She had no idea what Zemoria meant by awareness. Not that she had much room to ask questions. Her mouth was almost always blocked by a spoon, and she couldn’t do anything about it with the dragon mentally holding her in place. As for how this ritual was meant to avoid a panic she soon found the answer. When Zemoria activated the ritual, and before she knew it the large dragon had shrunk down. In her place stood a small woman with wings and scales. A rather naked dragon lady.

She stood maybe a hundred and fifty centimeters tall. Her skin was covered with green scales that glistened in the sunlight. Her wings stretched out behind her and were covered with elegant feather scales. She now had silver hair that fell to her shoulders framing her face. The scales on her arms and legs gave the impression of gloves and socks respectively. Her feet ended in sharp talons, and while not as impressive, her hands were still clawed. Although they now seemed more practical for using tools. Her belly and crotch seemed devoid of scales and hair for that matter. Well aside from three lonely scales on each labia. More scales formed a half bra that cupped the bottoms of her modest breasts. A half bra that didn’t cover her nipples. Eris could see her small delicate nipples, and the small pink areolas quite clearly. The dragon ladies eyes were a crystal clear silver that seemed to pierce right through her. 

Eris stared at the vision of exotic beauty in front of her. If she had still been a young man, she would have an erection right about now. Instead that reaction was strangely missing, not that she noticed her new bodily reaction. Even if she felt wholly inadequate before such a beautiful young woman one she would have been lucky to have been noticed by. Not that it would ever happen now. She looked away once again suppressing a line of thought. Not wanting to think about her change if she could help it. It did not help much, as she was once again thinking about her lost manhood.

Zemoria broke her line of thought when she took the spoon away, and with a smile said, “Alright let’s get walking. I don’t care when we get there, but I am sure you would like to get there before sundown.”

Actually she didn’t, but she had given up trying to explain her need to be clothed to Zemoria. It was like talking to a wall. With a bit of reluctance, she got up happy to find her limbs were hers to control again and followed after the naked dragoness.