The Bench Grew Cold

His throat produced another slow vibration when she carressed his ear. Raheerah had never truly known the tender physicality of love, be it platonic, romantic or otherwise. His family had given him up to the violent faction the moment his body showed the favorable mass of a warrior, and his eyes held that hot enthusiasm for war. Could he even remember them? Images of his brothers were faint, a mother and father even more vague. They were just ideas now, and by logic he knew he had them at some point, but their identities would escape him. For so long he had believed he was a cold creature, a monster crafted from his jail, such that love had never even existed for him.

What gentleness he knew was fear. Fear that he would be condemned for unleashing any harm upon Lham. Fear that Xi'nuata would no longer hold his favor. It was not prompted out of passion, but necessity. This was not the nature of the woman's actions now. It was done out of whim, simply because, he imagined, she wanted to make contact with the malicious, hungry soul resting between her legs. And he enjoyed its comfort, so he expressed it the only way he knew how.

But seeking to know his thoughts would bring him to rumble a second time, now in hesitation. Why would she want to delve into his mind? There was nothing of him here that existed beyond the moment they met. Raheerah's history was no more than blackness and void as far as she was concerned, and he had revealed all of him that he felt necessary. It took him small moments to understand her request. "Iii aammm displeeaasurred by momeents yoouu are not neeeaar." The dragon answered with a slow tact in his words, contemplating how he could articulate his response. "Yoouu aare a fragiile ideeaaal. Yoouur presennce eeaases my miind. Ii woould preferr iif yoou woould noott paart fromm my compaanyyy. Buut. Iii doo not contrroool yoou." He went on, expression still lacking as he put his focus into words, rather than what he could express silently. "Iiii wiill not restrraain yoouur freedom if dooiing so woould caauuse yoouu disliike of mee." The dragon huffed and his gaze dropped down to the floor of the den.