I gasped for air, clutching the handle of my crutch so hard my knuckles popped to keep my weak legs from collapsing under .
Images that felt foreign but familiar all at once—mories that my brain had entirely rejected as a trauma response—ca rushing back in broken, jagged fragnts.
It was the day of the college camping trip. I rembered walking away from the group since I wasn’t needed and then seeing a pretty flower at the edge of a cliff. There was slippery mud at the edge of the cliff but I still decided to climb it anyway.
And then I fell.
I rembered the terrifying, weightless sensation of falling, the branches ripping at my skin, and then the final, bone-crushing impact at the very bottom of the ravine.
I suddenly rembered lying there in the dirt, paralyzed, staring up at the gray sky as my blood pooled in the dirt underneath .
And then, the wind had stopped blowing.
A presence had drifted out from the shadows of the ancient mountain rocks. It hadn’t been a park ranger. It had been sothing massive, ancient, and invisible to human eyes.
"Are you still alive?" A voice asked and I barely blinked. "Hm, can you hear , little bird that lost its wings?"
Once again, I barely blinked. It felt like my mind was playing tricks on at the verge of death.
"Do you want to save you?" the voice had asked again.
That question particularly stood out. And what had I said? Lying there, broken and invisible to a world that never cared about , I had closed my eyes and barely whispered into the dirt: "No. Don’t save . I don’t like this life anyway."
My breath hitched as the mory fully locked into place. I stared at the man on the sofa, my chest heaving as the pieces finally ca together.
"You..." I whispered, my voice shaking violently. "You were there. At the bottom of the cliff. You’re... the one who spoke to ."
"I was," he agreed, leaning back against the leather cushions, a predatory, amusent-filled glint in his golden eyes. "I found you highly peculiar. Most humans beg for their pathetic lives when faced with the end. But you? You simply wished to fade. When I asked what it was you truly wanted, you told you would rather live in a world of your own choice. A beastworld."
He pointed a finger at the book clutched against my chest. "Your backpack had burst open from the impact. Your handwritten notes, your unfinished manuscript... They were scattered all over the wet dirt. I picked them up and I read your little story."
He gave a small, dismissive shrug. "I found the plot mildly entertaining, though certainly not sothing I would recomnd for a grand epic. So, I decided to indulge you. I created that world for you, Stephanie. I gave you the main character role, and I ensured that your fated mates would sniff out a scent so special they would dismantle their own lives just to be by your side."
The lounge seed to spin. The silver stone walls, the selective tiger pregnancy, the births of my six beautiful children—it wasn’t a random cosmic accident. It wasn’t just a silly draft co to life.
This man—this dragon spirit living within the forgotten mountains of the human world—had built an entire dinsion out of pure whim, just to answer the desperate, dying wish of a lonely wallflower. A bird with no wings.
He was the Beast God. He was the creator of my paradise.
"Why?" I choked out, a tear finally spilling over my lashes. "If you gave all of that... if you gave a family... Why did you write this ending? Why did you bring back here?"
"I didn’t do it out of charity, Stephanie," the Dragon murmured, leaning forward and resting his chin on his crossed hands, his golden slit-eyes locking onto mine with an overwhelming weight. "I helped a miserable soul because I was bored. But a god does not bestow such a massive gift without a price. I brought you back to ensure you didn’t forget exactly who granted your paradise. And to see..."
He smiled, a sharp, dangerous expression. "...just how you intend to repay . Now tell , Queen. What are you willing to do to return to your beastworld?"
I caught my breath, my hands shaking against my crutches as I looked at the god who held the keys to my ho. "Anything," my voice ca out cracked and steady at the sa ti. "I will do whatever you want to tell , what do you want from ?" I asked, tears slowly flowing down my cheeks. "Tell how to repay you so I can go back."
"It’s easy." He said. "I want your virginity."
My body went completely still at that mont and I felt like my heart stopped.
"My... what?"
I stared at him, my brain stalling out as it tried to process the sheer absurdity of what had just co out of his mouth.
I was standing here, shivering in an oversized hoodie, balancing my atrophied body on a pair of clanking tal crutches with a literal cast on my left leg, and a literal ancient deity was casually asking for my virginity like he was ordering a coffee.
"You heard ," the Dragon God said, completely unbothered by my sheer, unadulterated bewildernt. He leaned back against the leather sofa, crossing one long leg over the other. "Before your kind decided to pave over the mountains and lock yourselves inside concrete boxes, the tribes used to offer virgin brides to the peaks to ensure a mild winter. I am a creature of old habits, Stephanie. And frankly, in this modern era where I am entirely forgotten, finding a pure, untouched offering is an absolute chore."
He let out a soft, amused hum, his golden slit-pupils tracing the contours of my pale, trembling face. "You never did indulge in the flesh during your twenty-one years in this realm, did you? You were too busy being invisible and one with the shadows, writing your little stories and getting ignored. Arinya might have four husbands and six children, but Stephanie? Stephanie is entirely untouched and pure. I want the original vessel."
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