He looked at her carefully, his dubious expression clearly showed his doubt. She sighed. “As far as most monsters are concerned, one human can essentially be as useful as another. In the end, all that matters is that they get stronger. We’ll outlive our human masters most of the time anyway.”

“So, I’m just a convenient person for you then?”

“Yes, is that a problem?”

He shrugged then shook his head. “If anything that makes life simpler. Maybe we can become friends eventually since this situation isn’t as forced as I thought it was.”

Her face began to heat rapidly at his simple, heart-felt, words. “Friends, huh? I’d like that, I think.”

“Oh yeah! Let’s start over then, consider this like a first meeting.”

He stuck his hand out and smiled. “My name is Scott, Scott Hunter.”

She took his hand and shook it politely. They both smiled at the silliness of such a casual handshake between people who had already seen each other naked.

“Well, if we’re going to be friends can you tell me your name now?” Scott asked. He already knew her name, of course. Still, it was part of the charm of the moment.

The red haired dragon smiled softly. “I suppose it would not hurt. Learning a queen’s name is part of taking ownership. So, when I tell you my name and openly acknowledge you as my master we will be one step closer to creating a bond.”

“Ok.” He waited for her to answer, but it seemed obvious that he was impatient to hear the answer. He was fidgeting again.

She took a deep breath then released it slowly. “My name is Aurenia Sedu Scarlet. I am yours to command master.”

“What a pretty name. Would you like to be called Aurenia?” He did not mention that she had not spoken the rest of her name before now. All he had known to call her was Scarlet.

“If you don’t mind master, it is traditional to refer to monsters by their family name or as an acronym of their name. This keeps their true name secret when in the presence of people they haven’t met.”

“Oh, so, would you like to be called Scarlet? I’m not sure you want me to call you an acronym of your name.”

“Yes, if you would please.” It would be cute in private to respond to that name, but it would be painful to respond whenever he called for ASS in public.

“I bet! So, what now?”

Scarlet shrugged. “Well, we need to do a few things.”

“Like what?”

“We need to get you some experience. I’d suggest that we take the bus when it comes through, and ride it till we reach a decent sized town. We should be able to find a few quests to do.”

“Ok, but what do you mean by quests?”

Scarlet grinned at him. “Oh, nothing too serious. At your level I would suggest day labor like courier work, or weeding someone’s garden. It doesn’t matter what the job is. At this point anything is better than nothing.”

“Seriously? I can get experience points for weeding a garden?”

“Exactly, humans who don’t spend their time training, or hunting, build up experience points throughout their daily lives.”

“Weird. When I get done I just gain extra experience?”

“Yes. You can also find an official part-time job.”

“I doubt simple jobs provide much experience, though.”

Scarlet nodded at her master. “You are right, they don’t. Thankfully we just need to get you to level five. We can start bigger jobs then.”

“Why level five?”

“Even weak monsters would easily kill you at your current level. I’ve seen humans of around your experience level grouped together with three or four others just to hunt rabbits or my weaker subjects.”

“I’m supposed to be level twelve, though.”

“You were, but you’re only level one now. I don’t know why, either.”

“Man, this sucks! It makes no sense. Nothing is working the way it is supposed to here.”

Scarlet remained silent while Scott vented. He’d had a rough few days and it was important that he speak his mind about it.

When he finally calmed down he said, “I suppose it should not be too hard to get to level five.”

“Exactly. Once you reach level five we should go hunting to find another monster to join us as well. We could probably beat an easy monster queen like a horned rabbit. She’d probably be very low level, like ten or twelve. So, you’d practically be able to train her from scratch.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to buy another monster? Not that I feel right even saying that.” He had lost a lot of his squeamishness about how humans survived here using monsters. The way the monsters acted in the woods had opened his eyes to the truth. Still, he had lingering dislike for the idea of slavery and the trade of intelligent beings.

“Easier, yes. Doable? No, probably not. Queens are expensive to purchase. Even weak low-level monsters can cost several hundred gold coins. We would be better off to hunt for one. If we catch one and don’t want to keep her, you can put her up for sale at the market.”

Scott shuddered visibly. Scarlet wondered idly about how he seemed so put off at the idea of buying and selling monsters. What kind of world did he come from?

“Hmm, I suppose that makes sense. If we catch a few and sell them, they’ll be out of the wilderness and no longer harassing people. We get money, humans get eaten that much less, and the monsters find a stable situation that will let them get stronger.”

“That’s pretty much how it works out. Plus, it might give another monster a chance to evolve into a queen.”

Scott smiled at Scarlet but the smile faded. “I’m not a fan of beating people up and selling them into slavery.”

Scarlet rolled her eyes. “We want to bond with humans for the most part. We just need to be defeated before we can accept a master, any master. As long as we are wild and free, we are capricious and aggressive beings who don’t care about anyone but ourselves. Wild monsters that aren’t raised around humans might even develop aberrant thought processes.”

The words aberrant thought processes reminded Scott of the fox, Kitsune. She had seemed to be not entirely sane. “Does that include you?”

“Absolutely. Before I was captured I terrorized small villages and towns. I killed many hunters and did whatever I felt like without restraint.”

“I’m sorry that I did not properly defeat you in glorious battle, or whatever.” Scott briefly considered whether fighting her would have been better than sharing food.

Scarlet sighed but did not allow that depressing thought to linger. “It’s fine. I got the chance to meet a nice human like you, so it worked out. Besides, no human had ever invited me on a picnic before.”

Scott’s face began to take on a reddish hue. “I suppose it doesn’t hurt that I’m just so pretty, too.”

She blinked and he grinned at her. They shared a laugh before Scott spoke again. “What I don’t understand is the harem angle. Why would monsters want to share their master?”

“Tradition is partly to blame. A master is a master after all. It’s mostly because it is better overall. Fighting other monsters in the wilderness and lengthy quests to explore ancient ruins tend to give the most experience. Things like that are necessary for humans to grow stronger after a while. The experience needed for gaining a level increases by a large amount each time.”

“Oh, it’s a safety in numbers sort of thing? The more people in the group, the less likely they are to be taken down?”

“Yep!” She stretched luxuriously then smiled at her master. “A harem with lots of powerful monsters and a strong master can usually take down most wild monsters of a similar level with little effort.”

“Ah, it sounds like there are a lot of different species!”

Scarlet leaned forward and grinned in a feral way. “Lucky for you, you have the strongest type of monster already!”

“I do?”

She snorted then folded her arms across her impressive chest. Her expression turned angry and prideful. “Yes. Obviously! I’m a dragon, remember?”

Scott’s eyebrows scrunched together. “I’m not from around here.”

Her haughty and angered expression softened. “Oh! Yes, that’s right. I do keep forgetting.”

The newcomer chuckled softly then patted her on the shoulder. “It’s ok. I keep expecting to wake up at some point, so I get how hard it can be to deal with things like this.”

“Well, I can’t fault you for not knowing how amazing I am, I guess. Oh, would you like to see my battle form again since we’re starting over, or whatever?”

“You can change shape?” Scott looked to Scarlet with an expression of faux-surprise. He had seen her transformation before.

“Yes, but only my human and natural form. My true power is sealed for now.”

“Yeah, I’d love to see your natural form.”

“OK…”

Scarlet stood up and walked to the corner of the room in order to have more space. She took a deep breath then thrust her fists downward. “Haaaaa!”

Light erupted from the core of her body. It became too intense for Scott to look at it and he averted his gaze. When he was finally able to look again Scarlet had changed drastically. Before, she had looked pretty and feminine, but athletic. Now she was well-toned bordering on muscular. She had large leathery wings, a lengthy tail with a spear point at the tip, fangs, clawed finger nails, and her pupils had become serpentine.

The dragon walked forward in a sensual motion that caused Scott to blush heavily. She had been pretty and cute before, now she was a dangerous kind of sexy that both frightened and excited him. Admittedly the sudden shift had not been as surprising this time, but it was still something beyond what he normally expected to be possible. He could not help but stare.

As the sleek and deadly girl walked toward him he felt that he needed to say something. Yet, he did not trust his voice. Instead he lifted his hand and raised his thumb.

She giggled at him then swished her tail from side to side. “I take it that this means that you approve.”

He nodded his head rapidly then squeaked a little. Scarlet laughed happily then threw herself forward. She knocked Scott back onto the bed and kissed him tenderly on the lips.

“You know, most humans are afraid of dragons…” She ran a clawed finger gently along her master’s cheek.

Scott lifted his hand and experimentally traced the curve of her jawline. “I’m terrified.”

She pouted cutely. “Am I really that scary?”

He grinned at her. “Yep, I thought that I would have a heart attack from all the sexy you just threw at me.”

Scarlet snorted then giggled despite her effort to seem more in control. “I look so different now, though. Doesn’t it bother you?”

“Should it? You’ve been so kind to me in my time of need. Besides, you went from adorable to freaking hot. Have you seen yourself in a mirror?”

She fought back against the blush that threated to overwhelm her face. “Humans usually run away from me.”

“Well, we’ve established that everyone is an idiot but me. You’re beautiful. To be honest, you might be prettier this way than the other way. Though, I’ll admit that it could be the hunger pains talking. I haven’t eaten in a while.” Scott babbled nervously for a full minute before she finally placed a finger to his lips to silence him.

“Such sweet things you say.” She looked at him lovingly then leaned down to kiss him softly on the cheek. Her eyes widened slightly when he moved his face sideways to capture her lips with his.

He slid his arms around her then ran his hands along her lower back. He softly caressed her silky flesh, a movement that elicited a murmur of approval from the girl.

He chose not to rush things or allow them to progress rapidly like they did a few days ago. As attractive as she was, he was still unaccustomed to such speedy relationship developments. Plus, she had wings and a tail. It was hard to overlook those obvious features. So, instead of pressing the issue, he decided to embrace her tightly and nuzzle his cheek against her cheek.

Scarlet sighed gently then responded in kind. “This is so nice.”

Her master ran his fingers through her hair then kissed her on the chin. “Yeah, it really is.”

She smiled at him tenderly. Her expression changed to a more thoughtful one, however. “Master, do you know what you want to do?”

“Hmm? I barely know what I’m doing, much less what I want to do.”

The dragon grinned at him then kissed him on the nose. “No, I mean. What do you want to do long term?”

“Well, at first I wanted to find a way to go home. Now, I think there might be something worth staying here for.”

“Really? What?” She looked at him innocently, curiosity etched in her features.

He held her face in his hands and looked at her gently. “You.”

She froze completely for a moment then her entire body seemed to blush simultaneously. The heat that radiated from her was overpowering. “R-really?”

“Yeah. This world tried its best to kill me this week. Yet, it is amazing to me, and I want to explore it with you.”

“Oh, master…” Her eyes shimmered then tears traced a path downward across her cheeks.

“Hey, why are you crying?” Scott kissed her softly on the cheek and she hugged him tightly in response.

“No one has ever said something like that to me. I probably would not have cared before I was captured, but with the bond we’ve forged it overwhelmed me for a moment. I’m sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize to me for being happy that I care about you. We’re friends, right?”

Her lower lip quivered softly then she made a loud gulping noise. “OK.”

They passed the next several hours in a tender embrace. Scott learned the ways of the world anew. Scarlet began to understand how wonderful it can be to have someone in her life that treated her like a real person instead of a hideous hell-beast.

The splendid evening came to an end and they slept in each other’s embrace until morning. When the bus arrived they were ready to start their lives anew. Scott paid their way onto the bus and they settled in for the long ride. There was no way to know what life might have in store for them, but as long as they could face it together they would be happy.

Episode 2: Epilogue

It was a world of twisting shadows and barely seen creatures, the landscape of a nightmare. Scott did not care about this fact as he wandered across the jagged and torn wasteland. It was a dead world; nothing besides him truly seemed to live here. Even those barely seen creatures were little more than twisting shadows themselves.

He did not know why, but he was drawn to a distant pin-point of light. Something about that tiny dancing radiance made it impossible for him to ignore its existence.

Time did not seem to exist in this place. It would not have mattered even if it had. The only thing that mattered was the light.

He arrived at the base of a mountain and knew that the light he sought was high above at the top. How could he reach that light?

Scott fretted and grew frustrated. He needed to reach that light. He could not say why, but he absolutely knew that he had to reach it!

He stood there for a while. Then, as he started to turn away, a softly lilting voice spoke to him in a whisper.

The voice made no sense. Scott could barely hear anything that it said. The message repeated itself several times, but each time it sounded like the speaker was using an ancient radio and there was a great deal of interference.

He did piece together one thing before he was torn away from the nightmare world he had wandered through. Scott opened his eyes and spoke those words aloud, “Starlight soldier.”

“What, master?” Scarlet mumbled softly then snuggled closer to him. They were still on the bus. The long ride had put them both into a restful and thoroughly bored state of mind. He had fallen asleep.

“Nothing, Scarlet. It’s nothing.” He kissed her on the forehead then looked out the window. It had been nothing but a weird dream anyway.

He knew that his new life here in this place was no dream. They both faced a very real and harsh reality.

Scott casually squeezed the dragon girl’s hand and took comfort in her presence. In time there would be other girls in their group. There would be little choice if they wished to survive. For now, though, she was a beautiful rock that held him fast in the break water of an incredibly ugly sea.