After leaving Kovis and traveling on foot for about an hour, Joseph found a somewhat secluded spot behind a group of boulders to shift at. For a moment, he eyeballed his wings and them climb on top of one of the rocks so he could dig his claws in. He hesitated for a moment before flapping his wings. Initially, he didn’t do much of anything until he figured out that it was a bit more than a simple up and down motion. Only then did he start getting some form of lift. However, by this point, the muscles in his back had already begun to tire. Either way, he considered it both a learning experience and a nice work out.

He picked up his satchel strap in his mouth and started to the northwest. While he didn’t know, exactly, how far the forest was, he figured that it really wouldn’t matter. The weather didn’t seem all that bad and nothing suggested that a late spring storm would pop up. So, after a short time of traveling he finally broke out into a dead run. With miles upon miles of empty scrubland, there was nothing to stop him.

Joseph could certainly run for long periods of time if he kept a steady pace, but at top speed he could only maintain it for short bursts and he finally had to slow down to something more manageable. Either way, he’d enjoyed being able to really stretch his legs. City life didn’t really allow him to vent the pent-up energy, but Charlie and the others seemed understanding enough. Unfortunately, a part of him worried that it was only because they felt sorry for him. For the time being, he pushed these thoughts out of his mind; he wanted to enjoy himself.

He reached the forest around dusk and after stashing his satchel in a safe spot, went hunting. The yearling stag he found satisfied his hunger and he lazily gnawed on the remains of a leg bone as he searched for a place to sleep. Finally, he settled under a massive tree that was big enough around that three men wouldn’t be able to touch hands. The roots were twisted and gnarled but formed a near perfect spot for him to curl up and sleep. Plus, with how dense the canopy was? He doubted that rain would touch him, if it decided to storm.

Something brushed over the ridge above his right eye, stirring him from his sleep, and he sleepily pulled his head away. Then he heard a woman’s voice speaking, soft and musical. “It’s adorable. I wonder if it wandered down from the mountains?”

A second woman spoke, her voice somewhat squeaky, like tree limbs rubbing together. “Perhaps. It’s large enough to have left the nest.”

“It’s old enough to hunt.” A third spoke as she rolled his hand over and ran a hand along his first finger, down to the claw.

Finally, he yawned and raised his head to stare at three…Honestly, he had no idea what they were. The three women sat next to him, each a similar shade of brown with almost lichen like markings. Their grey hair reminded him of hanging moss and their amber color eyes were somewhat larger than a human’s. Then, he looked around and realized he’d stumbled into the oak grove. Looking back to the women, he figured that these must be the dryads Charlie had mentioned.

The one at his head suddenly scratched under his chin and he couldn’t help but half close his eyes. They really didn’t seem all that bad, but perhaps that’s because they didn’t know he was generally human. He also hadn’t planned on turning human, anyway.

However, his enjoyment of the chin scratches came to a sudden halt when the dryad by his hip suddenly poked between his back legs. Immediately he half sat up and snorted at her while tucking his tail slightly. The dryad that’d examined his hand laughed.

“I don’t think it liked that.”

“He.” The dryad at his hip corrected. “For a dragon, he’s surprisingly calm.”

A fourth dryad materialized as she stepped out of her tree. Much like the first three, her skin was brown but almost seemed to be covered in moss. “That’s because he’s not a typical dragon, you cackling twits. Do you not feel the subtle tug of your magic towards him?”

He pushed himself up into a full sitting position and eyed the dryads as they suddenly focused on him. The fourth dryad seemed to be more knowledgeable, maybe she was older? For the moment, he decided not to do anything since he wasn’t sure where this would lead.

“He’s a magic eater.”

This prompted the three dryads beside him to suddenly scuttle away from him, hissing viciously. He merely tilted his head to the side, feeling confused since he had no intention of eating them in any sense of the word. Unlike the others, the fourth dryad continued walking towards him, a vine formed around her hand and shaped itself into a sword.

“And magic eaters are always shapeshifters. Capable of wearing a human’s face. Why are you here?” She pointed the sword at him.

Decidedly, he’d worn out his welcome. Turning around, he pressed against the tree he’d slept under with the intention of slinking off, back the way he’d come. Instead, he suddenly found vines wrapping around his legs, dragging him back to his prior spot. Just as quickly, the sword had been pressed against his throat.

“Why are you here?”

Finally, he changed back and tried not to focus on the sword still at his throat. “I was curious about the grove, but didn’t realize I’d found it when I was searching for a place to sleep.”

“But why were you seeking out the grove in the first place? To eat the magic here?” She demanded, forcing the now human dragon to press his back against the tree behind him.

“I was curious! I don’t even know how to eat magic!”

After a moment, she lowered her sword. “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

Joseph sighed and lightly rubbed his throat to make sure he wasn’t bleeding. “Because I was raised by human parents. I barely know what I am, alright? Look, I get it that I’m not wanted around here. I’ll go, I promise.”

Finally, the sword fell apart into vines and she crouched down in front of him. “I apologize. I protect this grove, or what’s left of it. I worried you were here to kill the last of us.”

“No. I was just curious.” He gave her a wary look as she reached out and brushed his hair away from his face.

“My sisters were correct: you are young. You may stay, for a short while, as long as you don’t harm the oak trees.”

“You know what I am…Or at least, something.” He briefly shifted his weight to brush away the stick he’d been sitting on. “Can you tell me?”

“Perhaps, but what do you have to exchange for the information?”

Joseph’s face went blank. His things were off towards the edge of the forest, but even then? He doubted he had anything worth offering them. After a moment, he slumped his shoulders and shook his head as he looked down. “I’d have to come back another time. I don’t have anything to offer.”

The dryad who’d examined his hand laughed. “He’s young and naïve. It’s honestly adorable.”

He wouldn’t really deny that statement. “Well, I raised basically raised by myself by my Father.”

Somehow, the dryad who’d been at his hip was suddenly crouched next to him, staring at him with wide eyes. “So, you’ve never laid with another?”

“I’m guessing you don’t mean platonically.” He commented, drily. “No, I haven’t. The nearest town saw me as a freak and no one would have me. So, I didn’t bother.”

The elder dryad seemed unimpressed with what her younger sisters were planning. “You three are making all sorts of plans and you haven’t bothered to ask him.”

Three sets of eyes suddenly focused on him and he shifted slightly, uncomfortable under the intense stares. “I’m not entirely against the idea, but I honestly wouldn’t know what I’m doing. I know the basic idea, but that’s it.”

“I found him first, I call dibs.” Announced the dryad who’d been at his head, causing the other two to sulk and slink away.

Suddenly, Joseph found himself doubting his decision as he watched the dryad crawl over to him where she climbed into his lap to straddle him. She didn’t smell bad, earthy mixed with a bit of green. It mostly just reminded him of all the times he’d rolled around in the grass. His thoughts halted when she kissed him and he struggled to return it.

When she pulled away from him, she almost seemed to pout. “You really don’t know what you’re doing.”

He glanced to the side and shrugged slightly. “Well, I told you I didn’t.”

“Sex is sex.” She replied, flippantly as she slipped off of his lap and kneeled down between his legs. There, she took his cock into her mouth and began to lightly suck. Above her, one of her sisters swooped in to kiss him.

Honestly, he didn’t really know what to think and simply tried to return the dryad’s kiss the best he could. Between his legs, the dryad there began to softly hum, the sensation intensifying slightly when he started to stiffen. The one who kissed him pulled away and looked down at her sister, then grinned slightly before pushing her head down, forcing her to take all of his cock. This caused the first to pop her head up and glare.

“Unlike you, I like taking my time.”

He just sat there, baffled on how the dryad between his legs hadn’t choked. Then again, they weren’t human, so perhaps that had something to do with it. Since the two of them seemed to know what they were doing, he chose to just sit there like an idiot.

This caused the dryad next to him to kiss his jaw. “Isn’t he adorable? He’s perfectly clueless.”

The third dryad sat off to the side, blatantly sulking. “Probably hasn’t had his first rut yet.”

“Have too.” He retorted. “I always just spent them by myself.”

Immediately, he had four dryads giving him sympathetic looks. He really didn’t know why. After all, it wasn’t as if he had anyone to spend them with. So, he’d always just handled matters himself. “I already told you four that I don’t know what I’m doing. You don’t have to keep reminding me.”

Rather than replying, the first dryad climbed back into his lap. This time, she smelled of something spiced and earthy; it made his mouth water. Instead of waiting on her to kiss him, he kissed her first. Then he pulled away to groan when she sunk down onto his cock. Slowly, she rocked against him.

“Like that, hm?” Carefully, she pulled herself up and allowed herself to sink back down. “So. Burning question, dragon. You big like this in your other form.”

Joseph had buried his face into her neck to inhale more of the spiced scent. Quietly, he muttered out, “Got two, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“…Oh, that sounds fun.”

He pulled away from her neck and gave her a quizzical once over. “…I don’t think that would physically work.”

The dryad merely gave a wicked grin before tensing herself around him, prompting a groan. She kept the same slow pace, simply waiting to see what he’d do. By this point, he’d only started to weakly buck his hips into her, as if afraid. Finally, she leaned forward to whisper into his ear. “You’re not going to hurt me. Only certain magics can harm me…So long as my tree is healthy, so am I.”

This made him blink a few times before letting out a lame ’oh’. Then, he held onto her hips before surging forward, prompting her to let out a startled yelp when she landed on her back. It took him a moment to figure out how to position his limbs, before he started working on finding a comfortable pace.

Beneath him, the dryad moaned and arched her back, then wrapped her legs around his waist. Slowly, he sunk down into the mental fog of several years’ worth of pent up sexual frustration. He felt the dryad’s fingers dig into his back and his sunk his teeth into the soft flesh of her shoulder. Rather than making a sound of pain, she only moaned louder.

By this point, his breathing had started to come out as throaty, opened mouthed purrs as he frantically thrusted into her. Finally, he groaned and nearly collapsed when he came. Slowly, he pulled out of her and simply flopped over onto his side before rolling over onto his back. The whole act had left him feeling tired and surprisingly sedate. Sleepily, he stared up at the canopy above him, but blinked a few times when one of the first three dryads suddenly peered down at him.

She gave a wide grin. “My turn.”

“…Do I at least get breakfast and a breather? Because I’m going to need a few minutes.”

She ignored his request and quickly straddled him, only to screech when she was dragged off of him by the elder dryad. Once she managed to get to her feet, she slinked off to sulk with her sisters. The elder dryad offered her hand to him to help him up to his feet.

“Once is good enough. They’ll literally kill you, given the chance. Follow me and I’ll get you some food and tell you what I know.” She gestured in a direction and began leading him deeper into the grove. Around them, faces peered out of trees, only to vanish as quickly as they appeared.

“You’re different than those three.” Joseph commented, quietly.

“Most dryads aren’t like them. My sisters are a unique case.” She pointed towards a tree that had a singular base but split into three trees a few inches above the ground. “They were once one, but when they were young, a woodsman tried to cut down their tree. I killed him, but the damage was done. The tree grew back, but split into three and so did she. I love them dearly, but…”

“So, you act at the protector of this grove?” He didn’t hesitate to dunk himself into the stream when they paused by it in order to clean the grime off of himself.

“Yes. I’m the eldest and so I became both the matriarch and protector when our mother was killed.”

“I’m sorry. Was her tree cut down?” He wrung out his hair and began following her again.

“No. The massive oak tree you slept under was her’s. She loved to explore and left the grove to see the world. As my sister mentioned, only certain magics can harm dryads. Mother was captured and bound into a certain position before she was killed. You see, when dryads are killed but the tree still lives, we harden into wood in whatever position we died in.” Her voice turned bitter. “Mother was killed so she could be some center piece decoration for a rich noble.”

Joseph looked away for a moment. “Humans can be awful sometimes.”

“He wasn’t human, he was a dwarf.” She paused. “I’m sorry, I don’t know what to call you.”

“Joseph.”

“My name is impossible for non-dryads to say, but a suitable name is Shuma.” After a bit, she stopped by a group of blackberry bushes. “It likely won’t fully satisfy your hunger, but it’ll put something in your stomach for the moment. As I was saying earlier, Joseph, cruelty isn’t limited by species. Which is the case for your race.”

“What do you know?”

“My knowledge is likely many, many years out of date, but I have no reason to think it’s changed.” She sat down on a rock and quietly sighed. “Magic eating dragons have always been uncommon, as far as dragons go. They simply don’t have large broods like many of the other dragon species. They’re similar to humans in that fashion. Even if a hen stays as a dragon and carries eggs, her brood won’t be like her: they’ll be wild and with none of the abilities of their parents.”

“So, they have to be in their human form?” Joseph slowly ate the ripe blackberries he found.

“Yes, but only one parent needs to be a magic eater. The other parent can be human, which can be a nasty surprise for a human woman when her baby comes out with unusual eyes.” Shuma gestured at Joseph’s eyes. “So, the babies are often abandoned by their human mothers…But that’s not the reason that magic eaters are so rare. Because magic eaters…Well, eat magic, they have a remarkably high resistance to magic, higher than the usual resistance that dragons will have. Rather than it harming them, they simply absorb it. Very unfortunate for any magic users who happen to encounter them.”

“They were hunted, weren’t they?”

She nodded. “Magic eaters are honestly remarkable creatures. The magic they consume fuels an innate healing ability allowing them to shrug off otherwise fatal injuries, leading to the nickname of ‘cat dragons’…The whole ‘nine lives’ idea. This made them ideal for being warriors or mercenaries and in centuries past, they’d be conscripted into armies…Willingly or not.”

“What do you mean?” Joseph had a sinking feeling that he knew what she meant.

“Joseph, they would break them. Break their iron wills till they obeyed without question. Even the hardest rock in the world will crack with enough pressure. The elves were the masters of it. Being a magical race, they saw the dragons as a danger. They broke those they could and killed the others.”

He looked down, recalling what the ghosts had mentioned about Kebrin. It made him wonder if the man had similar plans for him. Joseph looked back to Shuma. “Where did the magic eaters come from? All races have their origin stories.”

“They say dragons came from the matings of the first dragon and his mate, but there’s a few different legends concerning magic eaters. Some claim he could shapeshift and so he adopted a human form and laid with a woman. Some variations state he changed into a woman and carried the first magic eater himself. Others state that the magic eaters were created from his blood and tears after his mate was killed, which is why they’re prone to fits of berserker rage because they share the anger he felt.” She shrugged. “There’s a lot of myth and legend around them, but I think that’s from how rare they are.”

“What do you mean by ‘fits of berserker rage’?”

“Something can prod them into a blood rage, be it an outside source or them doing it to themselves, but it’s a nightmare for anyone who stands in their way. The handful I’ve met who could trip themselves into a rage always needed someone to help pull them out of it. Even then, they stayed wound up like a bowstring for hours.” She snorted loudly. “One woman I met had her lover with her to help pull her out. The poor man didn’t get much rest when she snapped out of it, but I’m not entirely sure he minded.”

He frowned. “I’ve never experienced anything like that.”

“Well, you’re also young.” Shuma gave a bit of a shrug. “From my understanding, it takes time for the abilities to pop up. Either way, that’s all I really know. Did I answer some of your questions?”

“I still have a lot of questions, but you gave me a lot more information that I had. Thank you, Shuma.” He looked over at the blackberry bushes which had done almost nothing for his hunger.

“You should probably leave and go hunting. I’d also recommend avoiding the grove unless you wish to be accosted by my sisters again.”

Joseph couldn’t help but grin slightly. “It wasn’t all that bad. I learned a few things, I think.”

Shuma didn’t seem to be very impressed with his statement. “Perhaps so, but as benign as you visit is, I’d still prefer it if you left. Dryads are magical creatures, and…”

His expression turned somber and he looked over at her. “I’m going to get this sort of reaction from everyone I meet who knows what I am, aren’t I?”

“Only the ones who are magically inclined.”

While it really wasn’t the sort of news he’d hoped for, it was news that he’d come to expect and he finally gave a slight nod. “I figured as much. Still, thank you for your information. It answered a lot of questions I’ve had throughout my life.”

After a moment of siting there by the bushes, Joseph got up to his feet and started making his way out of the grove. As soon as he’d left, he shifted and began searching for a better breakfast than just blackberries.