Immortal Souls 1/14
May. 1st, 2017 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shay_unknownTitle: Immortal Souls
Author:shay_unknown
Pairing: belldom
Rating: E
WARNINGS: abo dynamics, dubious consent, murder, the usual
Summary:
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
Author’s note: feels weird posting anything after so long.
Chapter One
Dom was surprised when his first heat hit, though looking back he really shouldn’t have been. While his family had hoped for their odd line of alphas to continue unbroken, Dom had never shown any of the alpha characteristics growing up other than an unusual delay in presenting.
Not that the date mattered. He was an omega, bottom line.
He was nineteen when his body started to heat up and a strange slick started to slide down his legs.
The medics explained the lateness away by saying that his family was naturally dominated by alphas, his hormones were off, and the pressure of ruling a dragon clan caused the heat to delay.
Not that that was any reassurance to him or his family.
His father had been the first to notice aside from Dom himself, sniffing the air with a scowl. As King, he was expected to always be stoic and in control, even when it came to his basic alpha instincts. He’d scented the air for no more than a second before spinning on his heel and facing Dom with all of his alpha power pressing down on Dom’s shoulders.
Dom’s eyes had immediately dropped and it was only because he was a prince used to being in the presence of kings that he didn’t fall to his knees and prostrate himself before his father.
He’d been stowed away in one of the caverns at the far back of their mountain’s tunnels for three days and was left to take care of his first heat alone.
Sometime during that horrible mess his father had sent out a letter to all of the nearby clans to inform any available alphas of the Mountain Prince’s new status. Dom would need a mate; clan tradition ordered it.
When the haze of his heat finally left him, Dom dragged his sorry tail out of that wretched cave and through the winding caverns. The smell of omega slick and heat filled the space so completely that any alphas in any other nearby caves had been asked to leave shortly after he had first stumbled in.
He found the King waiting for him in the main hall, sitting on the carved out throne that their ancestors had crafted straight from their mountain’s walls. He didn’t look away from the parchment in his hands when Dom entered - didn’t even spare him a glance as a servant came close and held out a goblet of what Dom assumed was a rich wine imported from one of the other clans.
Dom knew he still reeked of his waning heat - knew that his skin would stink up the entire mountain no matter how hard he scrubbed at it - and he knew that it was affecting his always under control father by the way his golden scaled tail was twitching back and forth behind him.
“I assume you’re recovered?” his father said once he’d placed his goblet to the side and gone back to reading the parchments. “You’ll need to take a bath and wash yourself before coming back here. We sent requests for offers of your hand days ago. I expect some to arrive any moment now.”
Dom swallowed and nodded his head, bowing down respectfully. “Yes, father,” he said before turning and heading back through the caverns to the pools.
He bathed and washed himself as ordered, wincing when he ran a rag between his legs and cleaned the stinky mess off of his raw skin. In half form, his scales weren’t nearly as visible as the adults in his clan but they still popped up here and there on his skin. Where his father’s were a bright and shiny gold, Dom’s were a matted silver and lacked the definite shine that royalty usually brought to dragons in their clan. The more that he thought about it, however, the more he convinced himself that the shine wasn’t a result of royal blood but yet another trait of being an alpha. The omegas that his family had been married to, his mother especially, all sported scales of different colors, and while some of them were bright they still lacked the eye catching shimmer of smooth, hard scales that the alphas paraded around.
He sighed and curled his tail forward, running his hands over his scales and down to the lone spike that made up the end. He didn’t have a very strong body. He was small, but lean where it counted. While the alphas that he’d grown up with would now easily be able to take him down by just shoving their alpha stink into his face, he had been able to best a few of them just days prior to presenting.
At nineteen, his muscles still hadn’t filled out, and his wings weren’t as large as some of the other dragons. But he was quick and agile, and any alpha in the neighboring clans that had received the notice from his father would be well aware of his fiery personality - a bit too fiery for an omega.
Would anyone actually respond? Marrying into their clan’s line would be big for any of the other clans, though Dom certainly had his reservations about a few of the options.
The mountain clan - Dom’s clan - lived high and deep inside of the Grey Mountains, and while visiting the clans below on the even ground of the planet was done on occasion… it wasn’t something that any mountain dragon enjoyed.
Being an omega, however, meant that Dom was likely to be mated to a dragon on the ground, under the ground… or even those that were said to live in the skies that no one had seen in centuries.
He wasn’t sure which clan he preferred. If any. Another mountain clan? He could only hope.
“Dominic?” a voice called from the mouth of his cave. “Are you all right?”
He smiled back at his mother - a pretty omega from a clan beneath the ground. Her own transition to mountain life had been… traumatic to say the least, and while she never spoke aloud of her discomfort of the cold stone the mountain offered, one could often find her standing at the opening of their clan’s caverns and just staring down with want at the green grass beneath them.
“As fine as an omega prince can be,” he answered as he pulled a loose tunic over his head. It wasn’t usual for dragons to walk around with clothing on, even in half form, but it felt strange for him to walk around bare now that he knew what he truly was. The alphas in the caves would be driven mad by his scent as long as he was unmated, and he wasn’t particularly keen on getting attacked by the dragons that he had grown up with.
His mother smiled, her black colored scales flickering in the soft glow of the candlelight as she came deeper into his cave.
“We’ve received two offers from the earth clan,” she said, taking a seat on the piled up blankets and pillows that served as his nest. “One I will reject without showing you. I know the suitor and they’re… rather horrible.” Her upper lip curled up in a sneer and her tail flicked hard once behind her.
Dom thanked her with a smile.
“We haven’t received any from the other clans, though I expect they’ll take longer to get here.” She shrugged and patted Dom’s hand. “How was your first heat?”
Though he knew it was common talk between omegas - sharing in the combined pain of a heat while being unmated - it wasn’t something that he wanted to talk about with his own mother. “Uh, was all right,” he mumbled down to his feet, trying his damndest to keep the images of fake knots and lube out of his mind.
“Are you feeling well?”
“Yes…”
“Sometimes the first heat can be overwhelming.”
“Oh god…”
“I know that there aren’t many omegas that you can freely talk to besides myself, so if you have any questions I can answer them.”
Dom covered his eyes with his hands, scratching his nails against his forehead as his blood rushed to brighten up his skin.
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Dominic. Your next heat will be much stronger and a lot more painful if you do not have a mate. You need to know what to expect.”
He peeked out from between his fingers and stared at his stony faced mother. While she was a wonderful mother and not nearly as cold as his father, they had never been particularly close. Most dragon families weren’t. This would mark the most personal conversation he’d ever had with her.
She raised a blond eyebrow at him and tilted her head to the side. “You’re an adult now, Dominic. You were raised and brought up to be an alpha, groomed to take your father’s place. I imagine that all of this is a bit of a shock for you.”
Dom dropped his hands and dug his nails into his palms to distract himself from his embarrassment. “It’s not what I expected,” he admitted.
His mother smiled at him again and patted the blankets next to her, beckoning him to sit. “I can’t really say that I know what you’re going through,” she said as he got comfortable. “I was not surprised when I presented as an omega. It didn’t really set in what that meant until the suitors showing up.”
Dom frowned and poked and pulled at the few scales on the back of his hands. He didn’t know what to say or what to do. She was right in that he had been raised to believe that he would be an alpha. He had planned on mating with the earth clan in order to strengthen relations. He hadn’t thought twice about bringing an omega up into the mountains - hadn’t even considered how life changing and traumatic it would be.
Now, faced with the reality that he would be the omega being married off and escorted into some new and strange place… it was terrifying.
“Are there any alphas that you are particularly interested in?” his mother asked, nudging at his tail with her own to bring his attention back.
Dom shook his head. “I don’t know. I only cared to know them for the kingdom’s sake - never my own.”
“A political marriage is acceptable,” she said with a sad smile. “I’ll bring some of the responses to you this afternoon. You can look through them and see if any appeal to you.”
Dom shrugged and didn’t respond. She left him to his thoughts.
--------------------
Dom flipped through the letters that his mother had given him the moment he had come back into the hall. He sat at the main table with the royal family and a few close, trusted dragons as drinks were passed around and meat was piled out onto plates.
His mother sat silently to his left, as was her customary seat next to the King during mealtime. Dom could feel her attention, however. He could feel her brown eyes staring just as hard at the parchments before him as he was.
“Are you curious about any of them?” she asked silently, keeping her voice quiet even though every alpha in the room would still be able to hear her. “We received a rather suspicious one from my old clan. It was from a dragon that I’d known before I’d left. He would have to be closing in on one hundred at this point.”
Dom cringed.
“I took the liberty of throwing it out with the rest of the garbage,” she finished, picking apart the cooked meat on her plate with her transformed claws. The backs of her hands, usually covered only by a sporadic scale or two, were now covered completely with her natural black scales.
“Thanks,” Dom replied, pushing the last parchment away with a sigh. “I don’t care for any of these.”
Most offerings were flowery and entirely too ridiculous for him to even read through seriously.
“You’ll want to pick some, Dominic,” his mother said before taking another bite of food between her teeth.
“Why? I’m going to have a hard enough time picking one.”
“It’s customary. Pick a clawful, we’ll send a summons to the clans and there will be a tournament.”
Dom rolled his eyes. Of course, how could he have forgotten the tradition that he had once been so eager to take part in? A fight for an omega.
It wasn’t normal for dragons of lesser standings to fight, but for royalty it was a requirement. It allowed the clans to mingle on peaceful terms, allowed for the exchange of information and friendly conversation. ”Good for relations,” Dom’s father had once told him. It had been the only explanation he’d needed at the time. He had been so eager to show himself off for his prospective mate.
Now he thought it was all a moronic show and a complete waste of resources.
“We’ve received more messages, my King,” a dragon said as he entered the hall. He was carrying another bundle of letters.
His father flipped through them, uninterested, passing them along the table to his mother before she passed them to him.
Most were written on parchment that was familiar to him, thick cream colored and with black ink. Given how similar everything tended to be when it came to offers, Dom wasn’t surprised when his father kept a strange blue colored parchment to himself.
He read through his letters out of duty, setting a couple aside as his mother had requested, but not seriously considering them.
“Now this is odd,” his father said quietly, but his alpha voice carried just enough to hush the dragons in the hall. “The sky clan hasn’t contacted anyone in centuries.”
Dom’s eyes snapped up to his father’s face, the King’s curious expression morphing into a grin as he unfolded and read the letter.
“It’s an offer for Dominic.”
Dom’s eyebrows climbed up, the spikes and scales along his spine straightening and growing as his attention focused harder on the blue letter. His wings, which he usually kept hidden in his half form, suddenly unfolded from his back and spread out widely in a proud display that only alphas usually showed.
A few of the younger dragons sitting further down the table were glaring at him, their own wings curling and drooping in submission. Dom couldn’t help but smirk.
Eventually his father passed the letter down the table, and when his mother took time to read it, Dom couldn’t help but lean over her shoulder to get a glimpse himself.
Matthew of the sky clan offers himself.
Dom slumped down a bit. “That’s it?” he whispered. She only shrugged and handed him the letter.
How was he supposed to make a decision on seven words?
“It is intriguing,” his mother said, her eyes still on the parchment. “If you accept, this dragon - Matthew - will be summoned for the tournament. He’ll have to fight.” The sky clan would have to come to the mountain, a strong power play for any clan able to boast such a thing.
Dom frowned, curling his wings about himself to hide from the curious eyes of those who had no business peeking.
“I suppose,” he replied, setting the blue parchment aside in his hesitant ‘yes’ pile.
-----------------
The date for the tournament was set quickly once Dom picked a few suitors, and the days following the announcement went by just as fast. It was a mess of preparations for their guests - cleaning out caves, going on endless hunts, and gathering more furs than any clan ever needed. Dom was already looking forward to the end of it all.
When the first suitor arrived - a green dragon from the earth clan - Dom greeted him stonily, as was customary of mountain dragons. Outsiders wouldn’t find much warmth here save for that of the fires they’d built and the food that they’d cooked. It took a fair bit of drinking before the clans were actually comfortable enough to mix and converse as his father had always told him the occasion was for.
It wasn’t until the fourth day of the gathering that the sky clan finally came.
It was a magnificent sight, though none of the dragons watching would ever, ever say so.
The sky clan consisted of mostly blue dragons, with pure white ones mixed in here and there. Only ten had come, but Dom assumed that was a fair amount given that he’d only received a single offer from them.
He watched them all closely, trying to pick out which one they were coming here for - who Matthew was.
Two dragons landed at a time on the edge of the mountain, shrinking down into their half forms as they sauntered inside with their heads held high and a powerful air surrounding them.
Dom watched, having to consciously keep his head up instead of bowing like his omega instincts were screaming at him to do in the presence of such power.
Even in half form the sky dragons’ scales were still all mostly visible, a sign of just how untrusting they were. The sky clan were isolationists. They didn’t mingle with the other clans willingly, going so far as to skip the yearly festival just to keep to themselves.
Centuries, Dom reminded himself. It had been centuries since anyone had even seen a sky dragon.
The group didn’t hesitate as they came further into the cave, coming to a stop right before Dom’s father and dropping to a knee. It was a very, very old custom and spoke even more of how isolated these dragons were.
“Welcome,” his father greeted after the shock of the show finally left him. “Which one of you is the suitor?”
A dragon in the middle of the group - smaller and covered in bright blue scales - stood up. “I am,” he answered, holding his head up high as Dom’s father looked him over with a skeptical brow.
Dom scented the air, trying to pick his suitor’s smell out from the rest of the alphas now crowding the hall. It was too hard to distinguish between them. He gave up with a sigh.
His father, ever the great King, kept his smile on his face and spread his arms out wide to repeat the greeting. “Welcome, sky clan.”
Normally when the clans met for great events, the hall would be loud. Even if things were awkward between them, even if a mountain dragon had nothing in common with a simple earth dragon, or even if war was close between two clans, they would eventually strike up a conversation and the hall would come alive with sound and movement.
Now, however, everything was silent. All eyes were on the small group of blue dragons in the center of the hall, still bowed down in respect save for Matthew.
Showing off more scales than everyone else, it was easy for Dom to pick out the dragon like features on Matthew’s face. His horns curled back and around, barely visible in Matthew’s matching black hair. The smooth scales on his face darkened around his bright blue eyes, showing them off brilliantly. His hands were still transformed into claws with the blue scales traveling far up his arms before trailing off into the pale skin of his chest. He was thin for an alpha, but still obviously muscled.
Of all of the suitors there, his showing was the most impressive.
“Make yourselves comfortable,” his father continued, his voice booming out and off of the stone surrounding them. “Share in the food and drink. We have many things to discuss.”
While the dragons of the other clans were relaxing and eager to learn what they could about the strange clan of the sky, the same could not be said for the blue dragons if their expressions were anything to go by. They were empty and harsh.
“They’re very cold,” his mother whispered to him.
Dom nodded in agreement.
“The tournament begins tomorrow,” his father continued. A few of the alphas in the crowd cheered at the declaration. Any chance to show off their strength was always welcomed.
---------------
Though Dom tried to seem interested in all of the fights, there was only one dragon that he could actually pay any attention to when he entered the center of the hall in the makeshift ring.
Fighting dragons needed space, but having the tournament in the mountains meant limited space and compromises. The stronger dragons couldn’t go all out at risk of destroying some of the hall. The bigger dragons struggled to move around the ring, tails nearly knocking dozens of onlookers aside every time they turned around.
Matthew, throughout all of his fights, didn’t seemed bothered. He was smaller than most of the other alphas fighting, and where they counted on brute strength, he could outmaneuver and take most of them down without so much as a struggle.
It was, Dom hated to admit, enthralling to watch.
His wings were just as large as the other alphas’, and he used them without reserve to get around or away from his opponents. Where they were hesitant to fly, since living on the ground didn’t require such practice, Matthew knew what he was doing when he spread his wings wide to block the light from the mouth of the cave, or when he spun in the air to land just his opponent, or when he whipped his wings mockingly at the other dragon’s face.
Dom watched on the edge of his seat during the last fight. Matthew had made it through the rounds and was fighting some dragon from a far away underground clan. He hadn’t even spoken a single word to the sky dragon and yet he was still silently cheering for him to win.
“You seem like you’ve already chosen your mate,” his mother said from her seat beside him, watching the fight just as eagerly as the other dragons around them. “I’m surprised that you would want to leave the mountain.”
Dom ignored the way his tail twitched and his wings flared even though he was trying to keep them hidden. The movement caught the eyes of nearby dragons who laughed at his unease.
“I haven’t decided anything,” he answered, forcing himself to look away from the fight. “It’d be nice if the underground dragon won. Living in the ground is probably similar to living in a mountain.”
His mother nodded. “It was… easier than living on the ground would have been. I find it strange to think of open sky above me instead of some sort of barrier.”
Dom nodded. He tried to appear interested in the conversation, but Matthew had just wrapped his tail around his opponent’s leg, digging his spikes up and underneath the scales that were supposed to be protection. Only a bit more pressure and no doubt a few scales would be ripped off.
Above them, sitting on a stone railing that had been built as decoration between the columns in the hall, the sky dragons cheered. It was clear who would win. No one had been a challenge for Matthew.
It wasn’t long before the other dragon was laying flat on his belly with his legs spread out beneath him. Matthew was holding him down with his claws digging into his shoulders and his mouth opened wide against his neck.
“Enough!” the King shouted, clapping his hands together and laughing. The fights were meant to prove an alpha’s worth. They were not to end in death. “Matthew of the sky clan is the champion.”
Dom hadn’t realized it before, but he could notice nothing other than his claws shaking as he curled them into fits, unable to control himself as Matthew released the other dragon and shifted into his half form. He let most of his scales retreat then, leaving a bare and pale body that had only a few scratches on it. Some were deeper than others and would require attention from the doctors. That would happen later, though.
For now, his father was striding over to his son’s would be mate with a wide smile on his face. There would be a mixing of the families during the feast, which meant Matthew would spend time with the King and Queen, while Dom would have to sit with the rest of the sky dragons.
“Are you okay with this?” his mother asked, putting her hand against his arm for a moment before taking it back. “You don’t have much longer to back out.”
Dom smiled at her and shook his head. He had a duty to his clan. He couldn’t turn back on that.
“Then you better join the sky clan. Everyone will notice if you hesitate.”
---------------
Dom spent most of his time listening to two sky dragons talking about political issues that he didn’t know or care much about. Humans were causing problems in the sky, ruining the air and killing a few dragons in the process. It wasn’t many, just two or three, but to a dragon clan two or three was too many.
“Does the mountain clan have dealings with them?” one of the dragons asked, staring at Dom with dark eyes, strange for a creature of the sky. He’d introduced himself earlier as Tom. A strange name for a strange dragon.
“Them? Humans?” Dom asked, his voice barely loud enough to be heard over the roar of voices in the hall. “They don’t come up the mountains much. Only the occasional stray that wants to prove something.”
The dragon laughed and smacked his friend next to him. “They’ve actually seen the beasts!” he yelled, falling forward as his laughter grew.
The dragon next to him - Christopher - just rolled his eyes. “It’s a benefit of living in the sky,” he explained. “While we don’t see them or have to deal with their day to day business, a few dragons have encountered them during excursions on the ground. They’ve proven… interesting.”
Dom could only shrug. “I’ve never seen one myself.” He was prince of the mountains. There was no way his father would let him leave the mountain without an escort, and his escort would never let humans come near their prince. “Just heard stories.”
Christopher hummed in response, his eyes flashing with interest. “Are you not trained, then? For battle?”
“I’ve trained,” Dom answered, shifting around in his seat and looking away from the prying eyes staring back at him. He glanced over to where Matthew was sitting with his father, the blue dragon’s head dipped in casual conversation with the King. He seemed to be handling everything much better than Dom, anyway.
“You’re a silver color, aren’t you?” Tom asked as he reached across the table to poke at the scales on the back of Dom’s hand. “Your dad’s a dark brown and your mom’s an ebony color. Why are you silver?”
“My grandfather was silver,” he explained, staring down at his hand. “You know, the last king?”
Tom and Chris shrugged at each other. “We never met him.”
Dom stopped himself from questioning their isolated clan, but the line of thought wouldn’t leave him so easily.
Would he ever see his family again? Would he be stuck in the clouds for the next century or two, eventually forgotten like the sky clan had been before this tournament?
Tom must have noticed his nervousness, and he once again took to poking at this scales. “You’re pretty shy for a land dragon,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
Dom lifted his lips in what he hoped was a passable smile. “You are all more talkative than I had first expected given your entrance.”
Chris smiled down at his plate of meat before ripping a strip from bone and popping it into his mouth. When he turned his smile to Dom, his eyes flashed red and his fangs were visible. “We have never gotten along well with ground dwellers.”
“I don’t understand why,” Dom said, trailing off and looking aside. He could feel his own eyes flash in response - always submit.
Tom clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Now, now. This conversation is definitely not suited for this hall,” he interrupted. They left Dom alone after that, falling back into their cold masks as if they hadn’t spoken to him at all.
--------------
“I have to do what?” Dom hissed, staring wide eyed at the blue dragon in full form at the hall’s entrance.
“Consummate the mating. Come now, Dominic, you learned all of this when you were younger,” the King replied, laughing as he looked around at the dragons watching them.
Yes, Dom had learned about it all when he was young, but that was back when everyone was teaching him the alpha side of things. He hadn’t paid attention to the omega customs. He hadn’t cared - hadn’t even considered what it meant or how it would feel.
“I can fly myself,” he argued, knowing that it would get him nowhere but still stretching out his own wings nonetheless.
“It’s customary for the omega to ride the alpha to their first nest.”
Dom’s face flamed at the wording. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Resigned to his fate, Dom started towards the dragon, glaring at the beast as he came up to Matthew’s side.
If Matthew had been in half form, Dom imagined he would be raising an eyebrow at him. The look in his shining blue eyes screamed amusement, though it was dampened a bit by the red ring that was starting to bleed into his iris.
Dom’s body - try and stop it though he might - reacted to the display. His own eyes flashed, his vision sharpening for a moment before clearing. His dragon was pleased.
“Hello,” Dom said, waving his hand awkwardly before sliding it up and over Matthew’s thick neck. He looked back once at his family before he climbed onto Matthew’s back, settling down between two black spikes on his spine. “Let’s get this over with,” he mumbled.
Matthew’s head tilted a bit, as if trying to get a look back at him, but it was no more than a breath later that the dragon pushed off of the ground and into the endless sky above.
Author:
shay_unknown Pairing: belldom
Rating: E
WARNINGS: abo dynamics, dubious consent, murder, the usual
Summary:
A few of the younger dragons sitting further down the table were glaring at him, their own wings curling and drooping in submission. Dom couldn’t help but smirk.
Eventually his father passed the letter down the table, and when his mother took time to read it, Dom couldn’t help but lean over her shoulder to get a glimpse himself.
Matthew of the sky clan offers himself.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
Author’s note: feels weird posting anything after so long.
Chapter One
Dom was surprised when his first heat hit, though looking back he really shouldn’t have been. While his family had hoped for their odd line of alphas to continue unbroken, Dom had never shown any of the alpha characteristics growing up other than an unusual delay in presenting.
Not that the date mattered. He was an omega, bottom line.
He was nineteen when his body started to heat up and a strange slick started to slide down his legs.
The medics explained the lateness away by saying that his family was naturally dominated by alphas, his hormones were off, and the pressure of ruling a dragon clan caused the heat to delay.
Not that that was any reassurance to him or his family.
His father had been the first to notice aside from Dom himself, sniffing the air with a scowl. As King, he was expected to always be stoic and in control, even when it came to his basic alpha instincts. He’d scented the air for no more than a second before spinning on his heel and facing Dom with all of his alpha power pressing down on Dom’s shoulders.
Dom’s eyes had immediately dropped and it was only because he was a prince used to being in the presence of kings that he didn’t fall to his knees and prostrate himself before his father.
He’d been stowed away in one of the caverns at the far back of their mountain’s tunnels for three days and was left to take care of his first heat alone.
Sometime during that horrible mess his father had sent out a letter to all of the nearby clans to inform any available alphas of the Mountain Prince’s new status. Dom would need a mate; clan tradition ordered it.
When the haze of his heat finally left him, Dom dragged his sorry tail out of that wretched cave and through the winding caverns. The smell of omega slick and heat filled the space so completely that any alphas in any other nearby caves had been asked to leave shortly after he had first stumbled in.
He found the King waiting for him in the main hall, sitting on the carved out throne that their ancestors had crafted straight from their mountain’s walls. He didn’t look away from the parchment in his hands when Dom entered - didn’t even spare him a glance as a servant came close and held out a goblet of what Dom assumed was a rich wine imported from one of the other clans.
Dom knew he still reeked of his waning heat - knew that his skin would stink up the entire mountain no matter how hard he scrubbed at it - and he knew that it was affecting his always under control father by the way his golden scaled tail was twitching back and forth behind him.
“I assume you’re recovered?” his father said once he’d placed his goblet to the side and gone back to reading the parchments. “You’ll need to take a bath and wash yourself before coming back here. We sent requests for offers of your hand days ago. I expect some to arrive any moment now.”
Dom swallowed and nodded his head, bowing down respectfully. “Yes, father,” he said before turning and heading back through the caverns to the pools.
He bathed and washed himself as ordered, wincing when he ran a rag between his legs and cleaned the stinky mess off of his raw skin. In half form, his scales weren’t nearly as visible as the adults in his clan but they still popped up here and there on his skin. Where his father’s were a bright and shiny gold, Dom’s were a matted silver and lacked the definite shine that royalty usually brought to dragons in their clan. The more that he thought about it, however, the more he convinced himself that the shine wasn’t a result of royal blood but yet another trait of being an alpha. The omegas that his family had been married to, his mother especially, all sported scales of different colors, and while some of them were bright they still lacked the eye catching shimmer of smooth, hard scales that the alphas paraded around.
He sighed and curled his tail forward, running his hands over his scales and down to the lone spike that made up the end. He didn’t have a very strong body. He was small, but lean where it counted. While the alphas that he’d grown up with would now easily be able to take him down by just shoving their alpha stink into his face, he had been able to best a few of them just days prior to presenting.
At nineteen, his muscles still hadn’t filled out, and his wings weren’t as large as some of the other dragons. But he was quick and agile, and any alpha in the neighboring clans that had received the notice from his father would be well aware of his fiery personality - a bit too fiery for an omega.
Would anyone actually respond? Marrying into their clan’s line would be big for any of the other clans, though Dom certainly had his reservations about a few of the options.
The mountain clan - Dom’s clan - lived high and deep inside of the Grey Mountains, and while visiting the clans below on the even ground of the planet was done on occasion… it wasn’t something that any mountain dragon enjoyed.
Being an omega, however, meant that Dom was likely to be mated to a dragon on the ground, under the ground… or even those that were said to live in the skies that no one had seen in centuries.
He wasn’t sure which clan he preferred. If any. Another mountain clan? He could only hope.
“Dominic?” a voice called from the mouth of his cave. “Are you all right?”
He smiled back at his mother - a pretty omega from a clan beneath the ground. Her own transition to mountain life had been… traumatic to say the least, and while she never spoke aloud of her discomfort of the cold stone the mountain offered, one could often find her standing at the opening of their clan’s caverns and just staring down with want at the green grass beneath them.
“As fine as an omega prince can be,” he answered as he pulled a loose tunic over his head. It wasn’t usual for dragons to walk around with clothing on, even in half form, but it felt strange for him to walk around bare now that he knew what he truly was. The alphas in the caves would be driven mad by his scent as long as he was unmated, and he wasn’t particularly keen on getting attacked by the dragons that he had grown up with.
His mother smiled, her black colored scales flickering in the soft glow of the candlelight as she came deeper into his cave.
“We’ve received two offers from the earth clan,” she said, taking a seat on the piled up blankets and pillows that served as his nest. “One I will reject without showing you. I know the suitor and they’re… rather horrible.” Her upper lip curled up in a sneer and her tail flicked hard once behind her.
Dom thanked her with a smile.
“We haven’t received any from the other clans, though I expect they’ll take longer to get here.” She shrugged and patted Dom’s hand. “How was your first heat?”
Though he knew it was common talk between omegas - sharing in the combined pain of a heat while being unmated - it wasn’t something that he wanted to talk about with his own mother. “Uh, was all right,” he mumbled down to his feet, trying his damndest to keep the images of fake knots and lube out of his mind.
“Are you feeling well?”
“Yes…”
“Sometimes the first heat can be overwhelming.”
“Oh god…”
“I know that there aren’t many omegas that you can freely talk to besides myself, so if you have any questions I can answer them.”
Dom covered his eyes with his hands, scratching his nails against his forehead as his blood rushed to brighten up his skin.
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Dominic. Your next heat will be much stronger and a lot more painful if you do not have a mate. You need to know what to expect.”
He peeked out from between his fingers and stared at his stony faced mother. While she was a wonderful mother and not nearly as cold as his father, they had never been particularly close. Most dragon families weren’t. This would mark the most personal conversation he’d ever had with her.
She raised a blond eyebrow at him and tilted her head to the side. “You’re an adult now, Dominic. You were raised and brought up to be an alpha, groomed to take your father’s place. I imagine that all of this is a bit of a shock for you.”
Dom dropped his hands and dug his nails into his palms to distract himself from his embarrassment. “It’s not what I expected,” he admitted.
His mother smiled at him again and patted the blankets next to her, beckoning him to sit. “I can’t really say that I know what you’re going through,” she said as he got comfortable. “I was not surprised when I presented as an omega. It didn’t really set in what that meant until the suitors showing up.”
Dom frowned and poked and pulled at the few scales on the back of his hands. He didn’t know what to say or what to do. She was right in that he had been raised to believe that he would be an alpha. He had planned on mating with the earth clan in order to strengthen relations. He hadn’t thought twice about bringing an omega up into the mountains - hadn’t even considered how life changing and traumatic it would be.
Now, faced with the reality that he would be the omega being married off and escorted into some new and strange place… it was terrifying.
“Are there any alphas that you are particularly interested in?” his mother asked, nudging at his tail with her own to bring his attention back.
Dom shook his head. “I don’t know. I only cared to know them for the kingdom’s sake - never my own.”
“A political marriage is acceptable,” she said with a sad smile. “I’ll bring some of the responses to you this afternoon. You can look through them and see if any appeal to you.”
Dom shrugged and didn’t respond. She left him to his thoughts.
--------------------
Dom flipped through the letters that his mother had given him the moment he had come back into the hall. He sat at the main table with the royal family and a few close, trusted dragons as drinks were passed around and meat was piled out onto plates.
His mother sat silently to his left, as was her customary seat next to the King during mealtime. Dom could feel her attention, however. He could feel her brown eyes staring just as hard at the parchments before him as he was.
“Are you curious about any of them?” she asked silently, keeping her voice quiet even though every alpha in the room would still be able to hear her. “We received a rather suspicious one from my old clan. It was from a dragon that I’d known before I’d left. He would have to be closing in on one hundred at this point.”
Dom cringed.
“I took the liberty of throwing it out with the rest of the garbage,” she finished, picking apart the cooked meat on her plate with her transformed claws. The backs of her hands, usually covered only by a sporadic scale or two, were now covered completely with her natural black scales.
“Thanks,” Dom replied, pushing the last parchment away with a sigh. “I don’t care for any of these.”
Most offerings were flowery and entirely too ridiculous for him to even read through seriously.
“You’ll want to pick some, Dominic,” his mother said before taking another bite of food between her teeth.
“Why? I’m going to have a hard enough time picking one.”
“It’s customary. Pick a clawful, we’ll send a summons to the clans and there will be a tournament.”
Dom rolled his eyes. Of course, how could he have forgotten the tradition that he had once been so eager to take part in? A fight for an omega.
It wasn’t normal for dragons of lesser standings to fight, but for royalty it was a requirement. It allowed the clans to mingle on peaceful terms, allowed for the exchange of information and friendly conversation. ”Good for relations,” Dom’s father had once told him. It had been the only explanation he’d needed at the time. He had been so eager to show himself off for his prospective mate.
Now he thought it was all a moronic show and a complete waste of resources.
“We’ve received more messages, my King,” a dragon said as he entered the hall. He was carrying another bundle of letters.
His father flipped through them, uninterested, passing them along the table to his mother before she passed them to him.
Most were written on parchment that was familiar to him, thick cream colored and with black ink. Given how similar everything tended to be when it came to offers, Dom wasn’t surprised when his father kept a strange blue colored parchment to himself.
He read through his letters out of duty, setting a couple aside as his mother had requested, but not seriously considering them.
“Now this is odd,” his father said quietly, but his alpha voice carried just enough to hush the dragons in the hall. “The sky clan hasn’t contacted anyone in centuries.”
Dom’s eyes snapped up to his father’s face, the King’s curious expression morphing into a grin as he unfolded and read the letter.
“It’s an offer for Dominic.”
Dom’s eyebrows climbed up, the spikes and scales along his spine straightening and growing as his attention focused harder on the blue letter. His wings, which he usually kept hidden in his half form, suddenly unfolded from his back and spread out widely in a proud display that only alphas usually showed.
A few of the younger dragons sitting further down the table were glaring at him, their own wings curling and drooping in submission. Dom couldn’t help but smirk.
Eventually his father passed the letter down the table, and when his mother took time to read it, Dom couldn’t help but lean over her shoulder to get a glimpse himself.
Matthew of the sky clan offers himself.
Dom slumped down a bit. “That’s it?” he whispered. She only shrugged and handed him the letter.
How was he supposed to make a decision on seven words?
“It is intriguing,” his mother said, her eyes still on the parchment. “If you accept, this dragon - Matthew - will be summoned for the tournament. He’ll have to fight.” The sky clan would have to come to the mountain, a strong power play for any clan able to boast such a thing.
Dom frowned, curling his wings about himself to hide from the curious eyes of those who had no business peeking.
“I suppose,” he replied, setting the blue parchment aside in his hesitant ‘yes’ pile.
-----------------
The date for the tournament was set quickly once Dom picked a few suitors, and the days following the announcement went by just as fast. It was a mess of preparations for their guests - cleaning out caves, going on endless hunts, and gathering more furs than any clan ever needed. Dom was already looking forward to the end of it all.
When the first suitor arrived - a green dragon from the earth clan - Dom greeted him stonily, as was customary of mountain dragons. Outsiders wouldn’t find much warmth here save for that of the fires they’d built and the food that they’d cooked. It took a fair bit of drinking before the clans were actually comfortable enough to mix and converse as his father had always told him the occasion was for.
It wasn’t until the fourth day of the gathering that the sky clan finally came.
It was a magnificent sight, though none of the dragons watching would ever, ever say so.
The sky clan consisted of mostly blue dragons, with pure white ones mixed in here and there. Only ten had come, but Dom assumed that was a fair amount given that he’d only received a single offer from them.
He watched them all closely, trying to pick out which one they were coming here for - who Matthew was.
Two dragons landed at a time on the edge of the mountain, shrinking down into their half forms as they sauntered inside with their heads held high and a powerful air surrounding them.
Dom watched, having to consciously keep his head up instead of bowing like his omega instincts were screaming at him to do in the presence of such power.
Even in half form the sky dragons’ scales were still all mostly visible, a sign of just how untrusting they were. The sky clan were isolationists. They didn’t mingle with the other clans willingly, going so far as to skip the yearly festival just to keep to themselves.
Centuries, Dom reminded himself. It had been centuries since anyone had even seen a sky dragon.
The group didn’t hesitate as they came further into the cave, coming to a stop right before Dom’s father and dropping to a knee. It was a very, very old custom and spoke even more of how isolated these dragons were.
“Welcome,” his father greeted after the shock of the show finally left him. “Which one of you is the suitor?”
A dragon in the middle of the group - smaller and covered in bright blue scales - stood up. “I am,” he answered, holding his head up high as Dom’s father looked him over with a skeptical brow.
Dom scented the air, trying to pick his suitor’s smell out from the rest of the alphas now crowding the hall. It was too hard to distinguish between them. He gave up with a sigh.
His father, ever the great King, kept his smile on his face and spread his arms out wide to repeat the greeting. “Welcome, sky clan.”
Normally when the clans met for great events, the hall would be loud. Even if things were awkward between them, even if a mountain dragon had nothing in common with a simple earth dragon, or even if war was close between two clans, they would eventually strike up a conversation and the hall would come alive with sound and movement.
Now, however, everything was silent. All eyes were on the small group of blue dragons in the center of the hall, still bowed down in respect save for Matthew.
Showing off more scales than everyone else, it was easy for Dom to pick out the dragon like features on Matthew’s face. His horns curled back and around, barely visible in Matthew’s matching black hair. The smooth scales on his face darkened around his bright blue eyes, showing them off brilliantly. His hands were still transformed into claws with the blue scales traveling far up his arms before trailing off into the pale skin of his chest. He was thin for an alpha, but still obviously muscled.
Of all of the suitors there, his showing was the most impressive.
“Make yourselves comfortable,” his father continued, his voice booming out and off of the stone surrounding them. “Share in the food and drink. We have many things to discuss.”
While the dragons of the other clans were relaxing and eager to learn what they could about the strange clan of the sky, the same could not be said for the blue dragons if their expressions were anything to go by. They were empty and harsh.
“They’re very cold,” his mother whispered to him.
Dom nodded in agreement.
“The tournament begins tomorrow,” his father continued. A few of the alphas in the crowd cheered at the declaration. Any chance to show off their strength was always welcomed.
---------------
Though Dom tried to seem interested in all of the fights, there was only one dragon that he could actually pay any attention to when he entered the center of the hall in the makeshift ring.
Fighting dragons needed space, but having the tournament in the mountains meant limited space and compromises. The stronger dragons couldn’t go all out at risk of destroying some of the hall. The bigger dragons struggled to move around the ring, tails nearly knocking dozens of onlookers aside every time they turned around.
Matthew, throughout all of his fights, didn’t seemed bothered. He was smaller than most of the other alphas fighting, and where they counted on brute strength, he could outmaneuver and take most of them down without so much as a struggle.
It was, Dom hated to admit, enthralling to watch.
His wings were just as large as the other alphas’, and he used them without reserve to get around or away from his opponents. Where they were hesitant to fly, since living on the ground didn’t require such practice, Matthew knew what he was doing when he spread his wings wide to block the light from the mouth of the cave, or when he spun in the air to land just his opponent, or when he whipped his wings mockingly at the other dragon’s face.
Dom watched on the edge of his seat during the last fight. Matthew had made it through the rounds and was fighting some dragon from a far away underground clan. He hadn’t even spoken a single word to the sky dragon and yet he was still silently cheering for him to win.
“You seem like you’ve already chosen your mate,” his mother said from her seat beside him, watching the fight just as eagerly as the other dragons around them. “I’m surprised that you would want to leave the mountain.”
Dom ignored the way his tail twitched and his wings flared even though he was trying to keep them hidden. The movement caught the eyes of nearby dragons who laughed at his unease.
“I haven’t decided anything,” he answered, forcing himself to look away from the fight. “It’d be nice if the underground dragon won. Living in the ground is probably similar to living in a mountain.”
His mother nodded. “It was… easier than living on the ground would have been. I find it strange to think of open sky above me instead of some sort of barrier.”
Dom nodded. He tried to appear interested in the conversation, but Matthew had just wrapped his tail around his opponent’s leg, digging his spikes up and underneath the scales that were supposed to be protection. Only a bit more pressure and no doubt a few scales would be ripped off.
Above them, sitting on a stone railing that had been built as decoration between the columns in the hall, the sky dragons cheered. It was clear who would win. No one had been a challenge for Matthew.
It wasn’t long before the other dragon was laying flat on his belly with his legs spread out beneath him. Matthew was holding him down with his claws digging into his shoulders and his mouth opened wide against his neck.
“Enough!” the King shouted, clapping his hands together and laughing. The fights were meant to prove an alpha’s worth. They were not to end in death. “Matthew of the sky clan is the champion.”
Dom hadn’t realized it before, but he could notice nothing other than his claws shaking as he curled them into fits, unable to control himself as Matthew released the other dragon and shifted into his half form. He let most of his scales retreat then, leaving a bare and pale body that had only a few scratches on it. Some were deeper than others and would require attention from the doctors. That would happen later, though.
For now, his father was striding over to his son’s would be mate with a wide smile on his face. There would be a mixing of the families during the feast, which meant Matthew would spend time with the King and Queen, while Dom would have to sit with the rest of the sky dragons.
“Are you okay with this?” his mother asked, putting her hand against his arm for a moment before taking it back. “You don’t have much longer to back out.”
Dom smiled at her and shook his head. He had a duty to his clan. He couldn’t turn back on that.
“Then you better join the sky clan. Everyone will notice if you hesitate.”
---------------
Dom spent most of his time listening to two sky dragons talking about political issues that he didn’t know or care much about. Humans were causing problems in the sky, ruining the air and killing a few dragons in the process. It wasn’t many, just two or three, but to a dragon clan two or three was too many.
“Does the mountain clan have dealings with them?” one of the dragons asked, staring at Dom with dark eyes, strange for a creature of the sky. He’d introduced himself earlier as Tom. A strange name for a strange dragon.
“Them? Humans?” Dom asked, his voice barely loud enough to be heard over the roar of voices in the hall. “They don’t come up the mountains much. Only the occasional stray that wants to prove something.”
The dragon laughed and smacked his friend next to him. “They’ve actually seen the beasts!” he yelled, falling forward as his laughter grew.
The dragon next to him - Christopher - just rolled his eyes. “It’s a benefit of living in the sky,” he explained. “While we don’t see them or have to deal with their day to day business, a few dragons have encountered them during excursions on the ground. They’ve proven… interesting.”
Dom could only shrug. “I’ve never seen one myself.” He was prince of the mountains. There was no way his father would let him leave the mountain without an escort, and his escort would never let humans come near their prince. “Just heard stories.”
Christopher hummed in response, his eyes flashing with interest. “Are you not trained, then? For battle?”
“I’ve trained,” Dom answered, shifting around in his seat and looking away from the prying eyes staring back at him. He glanced over to where Matthew was sitting with his father, the blue dragon’s head dipped in casual conversation with the King. He seemed to be handling everything much better than Dom, anyway.
“You’re a silver color, aren’t you?” Tom asked as he reached across the table to poke at the scales on the back of Dom’s hand. “Your dad’s a dark brown and your mom’s an ebony color. Why are you silver?”
“My grandfather was silver,” he explained, staring down at his hand. “You know, the last king?”
Tom and Chris shrugged at each other. “We never met him.”
Dom stopped himself from questioning their isolated clan, but the line of thought wouldn’t leave him so easily.
Would he ever see his family again? Would he be stuck in the clouds for the next century or two, eventually forgotten like the sky clan had been before this tournament?
Tom must have noticed his nervousness, and he once again took to poking at this scales. “You’re pretty shy for a land dragon,” he said, raising an eyebrow.
Dom lifted his lips in what he hoped was a passable smile. “You are all more talkative than I had first expected given your entrance.”
Chris smiled down at his plate of meat before ripping a strip from bone and popping it into his mouth. When he turned his smile to Dom, his eyes flashed red and his fangs were visible. “We have never gotten along well with ground dwellers.”
“I don’t understand why,” Dom said, trailing off and looking aside. He could feel his own eyes flash in response - always submit.
Tom clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “Now, now. This conversation is definitely not suited for this hall,” he interrupted. They left Dom alone after that, falling back into their cold masks as if they hadn’t spoken to him at all.
--------------
“I have to do what?” Dom hissed, staring wide eyed at the blue dragon in full form at the hall’s entrance.
“Consummate the mating. Come now, Dominic, you learned all of this when you were younger,” the King replied, laughing as he looked around at the dragons watching them.
Yes, Dom had learned about it all when he was young, but that was back when everyone was teaching him the alpha side of things. He hadn’t paid attention to the omega customs. He hadn’t cared - hadn’t even considered what it meant or how it would feel.
“I can fly myself,” he argued, knowing that it would get him nowhere but still stretching out his own wings nonetheless.
“It’s customary for the omega to ride the alpha to their first nest.”
Dom’s face flamed at the wording. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Resigned to his fate, Dom started towards the dragon, glaring at the beast as he came up to Matthew’s side.
If Matthew had been in half form, Dom imagined he would be raising an eyebrow at him. The look in his shining blue eyes screamed amusement, though it was dampened a bit by the red ring that was starting to bleed into his iris.
Dom’s body - try and stop it though he might - reacted to the display. His own eyes flashed, his vision sharpening for a moment before clearing. His dragon was pleased.
“Hello,” Dom said, waving his hand awkwardly before sliding it up and over Matthew’s thick neck. He looked back once at his family before he climbed onto Matthew’s back, settling down between two black spikes on his spine. “Let’s get this over with,” he mumbled.
Matthew’s head tilted a bit, as if trying to get a look back at him, but it was no more than a breath later that the dragon pushed off of the ground and into the endless sky above.
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Date: 2017-05-02 06:38 am (UTC)Poor Dominic having to adapt to a life that sure as hell wasn't in his plans :D And Matthew isn't the easiest person to deal with on top of it. Good thing there's Tom and Chris #TeamTomtopher \o/
MORE. NOW. Please? <3
PS: re tags on DW, there's indeed no box when you create an entry which I - personally - find really, really, really stupid and it makes no sense to me. I guess the work around of "edit tags" is the best option until they add it.
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Date: 2017-05-02 09:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-05 06:53 pm (UTC)I'm so excited for the next bit! <3
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Date: 2017-05-08 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-28 03:25 pm (UTC)