Dragon Bargain

By Millicent Pearl

This was ALL his fault, the puffed up, winged menace at my back!
I wasn't quite sure exactly how all of this fell upon his shoulders, but it absolutely did. Call it a gut feeling... but I was certain of it.

My mudworm is going to run me down, sword in hand, if she ever discovers I've been withholding things from her, even if I feel the subterfuge is with her best interests at heart. My wily dragon bound is a sheila of a beast in her own right when crossed. It's not without warrant, my secrets kept, but I don't believe she'll be seeing it quite in that light...

Looking for Pim's father is feeling more like a lost cause than an actual pursuit, but the pair are determined. They'd struck a bargain, after all, had they not? It was but one part of their quest to free Mort from his curse.

It's a dragon's bargain in the process, a moonkissed human and her dragon bound stumbling their way through this whole mess and, even more importantly, their burgeoning feelings for one another.

This is the second book in a three book trilogy. They are best read in order.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jeanette Lynn
• Release date: May 16, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215211090

Millicent Pearl

Millicent Pearl is the not entirely secret pen name of a romance author of quirky, off-beat characters in out of this world stories.Millicent Pearl pens sci fi, fantasy, paranormal, and contemporary romance reads, hold the spice!Sign up for Millicent Pearl's newsletter to keep up to date on book news!https://mailchi.mp/4d100a5c0ee4/millicent-pearls-newsletter

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COPYRIGHT © 2023 MILLICENT Pearl

All Rights Reserved.

Thank you for purchasing this book.

It is the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be reproduced, copied and or distributed for commercial or noncommercial purposes.

Your support and respect for the property of this author is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction, created by a human being and her imagination, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events, or locales, is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author's imagination and used fictitiously.

The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademarked ownership of all trademarks and word marks mentioned in this book.

Table of Contents

Copyright

Wee Lil Note

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Millicent Pearl

Jeanette Lynn

About the author

Keep Up To Date with Millicent Pearl

Keep Up To Date with Jeanette Lynn

A Wee Lil Note

This book is Fantasy Romance between a human woman and a dragon shifter. It takes place in a totally made up place, time, plane, a land of magick and fancy, that’s completely separate from the lil ol’ world we live in. It’s Fantasy Fiction.

This is a sweet romance series— meaning no culmination, ahem, if you know what I mean— that follows the two main characters on their journey through three books. Please go into this expecting at the most some smoochin’.

The third book is their HEA.

For those that wish, uhm, more? A final novella with the culmination—we’ll just use that word for it, lol— of their love will be released shortly after book 3, available to Millicent Pearl’s newsletter subscribers!

A nifty dictionary has been included in the back of this book, if you were wondering what some of the words used

Dedication

To the PNTHWB

Dragon Bargain

Catch A Dragon By The Talon

By

Millicent Pearl

Chapter 1

Pim/Pimlyn

THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, I muttered, glaring at the forest at my front as I grumbled at the dragon tied to the stake along with me at my back.

The Trolls gathered around the fire not but a few feet away muttered to themselves as they continued to steal glances at us.

They worked fast, those crooks. I wouldn’t be surprised if our cozy little wagon of a home was nothing but wheels and firewood by the next day’s light. Our temperamental tibbies, Harpy and Medusa, were naught but a pile of gnawed on bones! Those fiends had wrung their necks, plucked and prepped them, cooking up what they didn’t eat raw, right before our eyes. I wished them crisped a thousand times over. No. Rended limb from limb and then fried up alive. Impotent rage filled me just thinking about it. Barbaric monsters, the lot of them!

The magicked portions of our traveling abode weren’t a true deterrent to Trolls, the antithesis to just about everything. Those blasted blighters found a way around anything. It was an impressive feat, much as I found the entire ordeal disheartening. What good was a magicked door to keep marauders out if everything around it was ripped up until a way in was found? Impenetrable to human and lower classed magicks bandits but not Trolls, who carried some of the oldest of magicks known.

My fault? The chuffing huff my dragon other half let out made me want to roll my eyes. "My dearest treasure, how on this hallowed ground is all of this my fault?" the dramatic creature at my back gasped out.

I don’t know, I grunted out as my eyes narrowed on our captors, wishing them riddled with a thousand infected fleas, but it is.

Tis, one of the Trolls, William, I believed another had called him— though I highly doubted that was his birth name— answered as if we were discussing the matter with him.

No one asked you, Bill Yam! Mort shot back with a gruff rumble.

If I could see my dragon’s face, I imagined I’d find him giving the troop of Trolls a dark look.

William, I mutteringly corrected. I honestly had no idea if Mort had butchered the Troll’s supposed name on purpose or he was just trying to get a rise out of the being.

A true name was a powerful thing with a magical being like a Troll. William felt more like a placeholder.

Does it really matter? Truly? We both know that’s not his actual name. It’s probably something really stupid. A huff left my puffy dragon. Like Bloatbottom or Squishsplat.

‘Ear thah, Spblat? ‘E knowed yer name, the small, rather round Troll closest to us with beady black eyes and a little shock of green hair right there just on the tippy top of his head, sticking straight up like a carrot’s top, called out to one of the group.

This Spblat, I assumed, a rather large, distended-bellied, greenish-grey skinned fellow with a permanent sneer on his face snarled and bared his crooked, brown teeth at his blurting comrade. Oi! Wasted space! Dinna be sayin’ tha’, eh! Tall, Thick, and Ugly angrily snapped at his smaller compatriot.

I was going to take a wild guess and assume the male with a rather wet, flatulent sounding way of speaking, barking at the smallest and potentially least bright of the group, was none other than this Spblat.

Dinna mean ta blurt it, Cooph, ‘onest, the potato-ling of a Troll, Sir William, as it were, grumbled and mumbled, rubbing at his head where this Cooph who was not in fact Spblat had just reached out and cuffed him on the back of his oddly shaped skull. The phrase egg head came to mind, quite literally.

Idjit, the crooked nosed, greyish-green skinned giant towering over the rest of them rumbled out darkly in his gravel-grinding-over-rocks deep, roiling grumble.

Cooph the brown toothed and Potential-Spblat the crooked nosed, I silently corrected, mentally cataloging each creature. If we made it out of this in one piece, one never knew, it might come in handy at some later date. Perhaps we might return to a certain Ogre with a penchant for tangling with Trolls and regale him with the tale of our almost-plight.

Cooph went to give Short N Squatty William another skull clap, a snarl in his throat at just having his name uttered so easily, but my dragon just couldn’t help himself, could he? Gods above, he would be the death of me, I decided, when this Cooph forgot himself and what he was about, his focus shifting from his idiot companion to the orange butted fool at my back.

It was my dragon’s laughter that stole the show, a full bodied belly laugh. If I didn’t know better and we weren’t in a crappy situation, I’d think Princess Freckle Buns was having a grand old time.

He could try and get us out of here in two shakes of a dragon’s tail with a quick shift and some crispifying fire-works, but I wasn’t keen to ask the male and possibly tip his hand. If they hadn’t caught on he was a dragon yet and he didn’t appear all that eager to tell them, I trusted my firebreathing companion knew what he was about.

Okay, I hoped he knew what he was about. Prayed. Pinched my lips and clenched my innards he wasn’t just going by the seat of his trousers sort of wishing with all my might.

Mentally reciting a little prayer in my head, for both of our sakes, he sure as grundebahre scat better!

Another soft chuckle left Mort. He somehow managed to make that short sound come across even more patronizing than his initial burst of laughter.

It’s always the ones that look the most like a grubby tuber, he said to me as if nothing was amiss and I wasn’t concerned about our fate. If he meant to speak quietly, he was doing an excrement filled job of it.

Big talk like tha’ from a puny human, Cooph growled out, vomit green eyes glowing as they fell and stuck on the beast at my back.

Well, if this was it, maybe they’d eat him first, I amended as the crowd gathered and drew closer. My gaze darted about, head swiveling this way and that, desperate to keep an eye on all at once. Were our tibbies not filling enough?! I’m sure dragon meat is much tastier than boring, plain ol’ human flesh. I’d be sure to offer the laughing jackaloon at my back up for good eats if it came down to it.

Bested Gungadar, ‘e did, Short N Squatty blurted before he’d obviously thought better of it.

Gungadar? Who the heck was Gungadar?! Was this some kind of old feud? Had they brawled with my dragon while I’d run into town? What was I missing here?!

Gah! Mort! Who’ve you pissed off now, husband? I turned my head to softly hiss out under my breath.

They thought Mort human, so surely this wasn’t some old feud from the days of before? Perhaps they meant in the sense they confused him for some relation of a previous foe? Who the heck knew!

You’ve all heard it first! She called me husband! Bear witness! the male I’d pledged my troth to crowed, interrupting my thoughts entirely. The fool was acting like my grumbled rumblings were something to hoot about because I’d openly claimed him. Saints take me...

Back to this Gunga- Gunda- Whatever business. Most confusing. I was reminded Trolls were rather long-lived. I was most definitely missing something, a very great something, I felt. Trolls and their lasting hatreds were the thing of legend. That wouldn't explain them being so lackadaisical with a dragon, though... If they were aware he was one.

Absolutely left out on this in a large way, I fretted.

Mort, what in this world have you done?! Or have they assumed you’ve done?! Or any of the thousands of possible scenarios taxing my brain?!

What in the world are they talking about? I whispered to my dragon fiercely.

Why is it you’re inquiring as to their madness to me? Mort turned his head so we were side whispering facing away from the lips-licking, angry mob of bridge dwellers.

Turning to face the Trolls at once, through the corner of my eye I spied the male I’d married not so very long ago smirking as he watched the pair of Trolls who’d been growling at him now fighting. It was a pretty uneven match. Short N Squatty Tuber Troll ducked and ran while Cooph, now armed with the biggest battle ax I’d ever seen, chased the smaller Troll around while the rest of their troop paused in whatever they were doing to watch.

My coin is on the tall one, Mort chortled out with glee. What say you, little wife? he prattled on conversationally.

What?! I started to splutter, fussing with the bindings at my back, to find orange fingers gingerly pressing to my lips.

My eyes widened as I spied my dragon-bound crouching next to me, claws unsheathing to slice through my ropes like they were nothing.

The look I gave him was fierier than anything his dragon form could have spewed. He could have freed us at any moment, that easily, this whole time?! Just like that? Oh! Words, we were going to be having some! Many of them in quick succession if I had my way!

Standing, he took my hand and aided me to my feet.

Calm as you please, he left me near the stake we’d been tied to and walked to the heart of the Troll camp, his horns unfurling, tail and wings sprouting as his shift started. The bundle of items they’d confiscated from my person were collected first, then a second larger bag, full of whatever else they’d collected on their thieving rummaging.

Walking back to me, slinging the larger bag over my back to cinch it to me, while I stood there looking the numpty, too flustered to react, he handed me the second bag, removing something from it, a small, royal purple, velvet, drawstring pouch, to stuff it into his trouser pocket.

There now. Shall we be off, then, Meir Cre’? my dragon fairly purred with a half feral grin.

What the hell?! I barked, right before the crazy dragon magically linked to me dipped his tall frame, pecked a kiss to my lips, grabbed me up to him, then crouched, shooting off and bursting into his dragon form before I could finish that thought.

A squeal left me, alerting the Trolls to our escape if the roar that issued over my head as fat claws held me hadn’t.

We’ll be needin’ tha’, Mort called out over the wind whipping me about in his thick claws, his voice, while disgustingly deep in this form, a perfect mockery of those vile Trolls who’d held us prisoner, stole our things, tore up our wagon, and I’m pretty sure intended to have us for dinner. Poor Medusa and Harpy looked to have been nothing more than appetizers.

My heart sank as our wagon came fully into view.

Our home on wheels had been utterly ransacked. While it wasn’t just firewood and wheels, it may as well be. It gutted me to see it in such a sorry state. One of the wheels looked to be totally crushed. We couldn’t even roll it anywhere like that!

Ashes and Satan, our cogwork horses, had been one of the first things to be taken and claimed, though the wart faced lumps who’d confiscated them had yet to figure out how the steam powered beasts worked.

I’d watched them stuff their cubes into my bags with my own eyes. A sense of relief filled me knowing they were with us once more. There was no telling what those nasty beings would have tried to do to them. Fiends, all of them.

I was just about to question what the dragon talking overhead was going on about when he hooked his free talon on the bag in my hands, then the one on my back, a claw slicing through the bindings, jiggling me until I tumbled out of the weighted burden to release me, bellowing after me as I screamed and free fell, Grab that satchel for me, would you, dearest?!

By the grace of some undefined entity, I nabbed the small pouch as the ground grew closer and closer. I was too terrified to scream by this point, arms flailing, legs kicking, looking like one of those flying squirrels I’d spied leaping from tree to tree in the forests of Benawal so many years ago. One that was trying and failing miserably to pancake out and glide. My cheeks burned, lips flapping as my mouth remained open and air rushed inside. My mind stalled but for one thought, this is it!

Wind whipped past me so rapidly my eyeballs burned. Everything was an odd, wet blob of color and stinging pain. My heart pounded, skin prickling, the scenery blurrily tumbling closer. Surely at some point I’ll lose consciousness before impact?! Was the dragon mad?! We’re tied! Did he truly have such a death wish?!

The air changed, a shadow passing overhead to dive beneath me.

One moment I was tumbling to my death, the next I was whipping to my left, then smacking into warm flesh, before finally clinging to the soft, ribbed underbelly of the beast who’d moments before dropped me.

A clawed hand had scooped me up as he dove, flipped his large body, and turned with me in tow so fast my head spun.

Another roar issued, followed by a deep rumble from the beast clutching me and dive-bombing. The smell, the sound of fire blasting surrounded me as we dipped, dove, and spun in a mind numbing whirl.

I couldn’t make out much, left in the dark in the warm folds of the skin of his palm. Honestly, I had to admit I rather preferred it this way. Less to fuel my future night frights.

The bellows of the Trolls below us were rather distinct, standing out above the chaos on the ground. That’s for Harpy and Medusa, you monsters!

The big pot they’d filled and had started chopping vegetables up to toss into it, the things they’d been saying, taunting us with, as they’d licked their lips and snickered, had left me with little doubt as to what they were aiming to accomplish with their captives. They probably would have started carving us up alive! Just how would they like it to find themselves prepared like a dish? Fried tibbie, perhaps? Extra crispy?

More roars and fire, ash so thick in the air I was nearly choking on it, and my dragon dove down deeper. Flattened to his palm, strange noises left me as I was forced along for the ride. There were no words to explain the free falling sensation, the swoops, dips, dives. I wanted off of this ride!

If I had a stomach anymore, I was certain I’d left it behind two swoops ago.

The loud, wooden creaks that issued as we thumped atop something, to take off once more, assured me my dragon hadn’t forgotten our little home on wheels. It could be fixed. It would take time but like heck was I giving up on it.

We flew for a bit, the great, wing flapping behemoth cradling me in his enormous paw easily taking us farther and farther away from the nightmare that had all so quickly evolved into.

It had been a wise decision to hide Mort’s dragon half, continuing on with his charade as a plain old human with a potential wee bit extra somewhere down the line, I had to agree, even while lamenting the loss of our tibbies. If it was us or our egg layers and emergency food source, sad as it was to even contemplate, I understood the choice my dragon had made.

The Trolls who’d obviously been following us for some time, I suspected, hadn’t thought a thing about the humans they’d abducted being otherwise, until it was too late. The element of surprise had been our saving grace.

While Mort could have dragon-ed out and saved himself at any moment, it would have left me in a precarious situation. Up until the Troll brawl had broken out, we’d been watched like hawks, ever a wary eye on us.

His ridiculous comments and goading of them earlier were all starting to make sense now.

Ingenious thinking of the male aside, my ire was growing with every passing moment as the buildup of the moment lost its momentum.

There we are, right as rain storms. Like it was nothing, Mort began to circle, clueing me in he meant to land.

I’d flown with him a handful of times by this point at his insistence, very close to the ground in open fields full of bales of hay, practice flights, he called them, but nothing so wild as now, never like THIS! The male was mad!

My dearest, darling other half was going to need a freckled butt ton of grace when I got through with him!! He’d be prayin’ for it. As soon as the nausea hitting me passed and his palm stopped spinning...

Oi.

Mort

AS I’D HOPED, EVERYTHING had gone according to plan. I just needed to make sure my little human wife never found out I might’ve, sort of, realized we’d been being followed and, knowing how Trolls are and needing to take care of all of that before they tried to ambush my lady love whilst she was out alone or any other vile scenario I could barely stomach, I’d allowed myself to be captured.

The plan hadn’t involved her trip to town being so short-lived she found herself tied up alongside with me. I’d told the female, buy no less than four dresses, pairs of trousers, tops, and everything