Seleis was sprawled on Twilight’s couch eating rubies, bored to tears. It had been a long week for the dragoness; the purple librarian was still trying to bombard her with questions that she didn’t want to answer, and Spike wasn’t much better nowadays; wanting to learn everything that he could about his heritage, but that wasn’t the worst part, because of his new body he needed to relearn basically everything.

Sure it was funny the first few times he ripped a door off its hinges by accident, but it got old after a while….

Fortunately for her the two had been awfully quiet for the past couple of days, apparently Forge and the others had cleaned out a cave full of goblins and Purple and her friends had gotten the bright idea of following them.

Seleis couldn’t help but snort, Twilight and Spike must of seen some killing judging by the haunted looks on their faces. Ponies and their innocence she thought as she chewed on a particularly sour ruby. Grimacing she got up and threw the rest of the gem in the garbage, grumbling the whole way..

As she walked back to the living room she passed a full body mirror. Stopping in front of it she frowned at her figure, doing a little slow spin as she stood there, eyeing herself. Her inactiveness must have been getting to her; her usually perfect figure was starting to develop a little belly.

Grabbing said belly fat she snarled at it, images of her younger chubby self being made fun of flashed in her mind. Sighing she thought up the new workout regimen that she was going to do to become her old fit self again, frowning at all of the ab work that she was going to have to do now.

It would be so much better to get at least workout with someone else Seleis dejectedly thought. After a few moments of following that thought she gasped, she could workout with the one that had gotten her to her fit self in the first place! And because she was just going to ask for a working out buddy he wouldn’t say no to her! What was better was that she would be able to spend more time with him!

Striding outside with a small smile on her face she headed to The Fort….

Grabbing a lower grade file Forge leaned over a worktable, carefully putting the finishing touches on the metal casting that Bonbon had ordered. He had to be careful, the slightest misstroke and fifteen hours of hard work would be ruined. He was so focused on the project that he had forgotten to eat for…. he couldn’t remember, he also didn’t see the red dragoness that was for some reason wearing short shorts and a wife beater, her hair tied into a ponytail.

Almost done Forge thought as a frustrated Seleis stood behind him one or two more quick finishing touches and I’ll be able to get a nice, hot-

“FORGE!”

Forge, surprised at a random voice yelling at him, (for a fleeting moment he thought it was a wrathful voice of god, coming down to smite him for his sins…) scraped the file violently across the metal, ruining much of his hard work. Groaning Forge looked at the dragoness with a frown.

“What?” he asked, raising an eyebrow that she was wearing cloths. “Why are you wearing clothes?”

Seleis huffed, ignoring his question. “I was trying to get your attention for fifteen minutes!”

“I was working.” He said, holding up the now ruined casting.

Seleis’s annoyed expression turned to a worried one. “Forge” she said, “am I fat?”

With a sigh Forge put down the cast and file and turned around to look Seleis over. “You know it’s kinda hard to see when you’re wearing those baggy clothes.” He flinched at how that sounded but she must have been more worried than the blacksmith had thought, all she did was quickly shrug out of her shirt and pants, leaving out the expected sex comments that she would of happily thrown at the human usually.

Looking her over Forge couldn’t help but snort and mutter something about women and their weight. To him she looked fine, an hourglass figure that most human women would be envious of.

“You look fine to me.” Forge said neutrally, hoping that that would be the end of it. To his dismay this didn’t reassure the dragon, it just made her groan and grab a little belly fat.

“But look at this!” she wailed.

“What? You just have a little bit of chub.”

Seleis growled, a bit of fire coming out of her mouth, clearly not happy with his answer. “I don’t want to have ‘a little chub’! You have to be my workout partner again.”

Forge rolled his eyes, ready to retort when he saw that she had tears in her eyes. Sighing again he said, “Fine” Seleis let out a cheer that he ignored “after I get back from Everfree we can start.”

Seleis cocked her head at that. “Why are you going into Everfree?”

Turning back to his workbench he looked over the mold to see if it could be salvaged. As he tried to work on it he answered her, “I want to see if my old apprentice is still there, he has my Lexicon and I’ve been meaning to make some more Quicksilver. anyways”

Seleis grinned at the image of a jet black baby dragon scrambling to get his master more coal that suddenly appeared in her head. “I want to come.”

Forge, who had been trying to file the mold, trying to see if it could be salvaged, dropped the mold in shock, right onto his foot. Grabbing his foot, hopping around and cursing as Seleis laughed, he said between his foul language, “No, I’ll go faster by myself.”

All he got for that salvo was a cat-like smile. “How are you going to stop me from coming?”

She pressed on as Forge was trying to find an answer for that. “We can run the whole way so I’ll get in good cardio! You still remember where the little guy was right?”

“Yes I do” He allowed, still trying to figure out how to get her to not go. She would laugh at him if he told her was too dangerous, he couldn’t leave without her, she’d watch the house, and he couldn’t say that she’d slow him down.

Seeing that there was no way out of taking her he said, “Fine.”

Seleis squeed and barely refrained from tackling him into a hug, Forge was already uncomfortable enough with her being around him I’ll have to fix that she thought as she grinned.

Putting her clothing back on seductively as possible for Forge, who was staring intently at the mold with a mixture of resignation and hopelessness, Seleis couldn’t help but grope Forge with her tail as she said, “Alright, pick me up at twelve~”

Forge flinched at the contact and moved away from her. As Seleis left he looked at the ruined mold with a sigh. “It’s going to be a long couple of days.” He muttered as he threw the mold back into a forge, readying for another long day…

A few days later…

“Alright Trixie, don’t burn the forge down when I’m away. Remember that that wagon project needs to be finished in two days.”

“Do you doubt the great and powerful Trixie’s abilities?! She’ll have it done by tomorrow, monkey!”

Ignoring her he turned toward Chrissy. “Make sure that Vinyl doesn’t break anything.”

“Hey!”

Ignoring the DJ he continued, turning toward SteelWing he said with a small frown on his face, “Why are you still here?” He said looking at the Steelwing.

SteelWing rolled her eyes and ruffled her feathers. “The princess and my empress wanted us to stay.”

Even though he grumbled to himself he didn’t say anything. Truth be told the fat griffin mildly terrified him, so he would just grit his teeth and let the birds stay until he could figure out a way to kick them out.

“Since you’re the highest rank I leave the troops to you; get Reaper and Longstrider to come around here every once in a while alright?”

Nodding, the griffin saluted and flew off, leaving Forge alone by himself. Still grumbling he checked his supplies that he was going to be bringing to the forest. He had a knife, 5 days’ worth of food, 10 days of water, clothes, and the best sleeping bag that he could buy.

Seeing that everything was in order he looked around, still not seeing the dragoness. She wanted to fucking come he thought and of course she’s fucking late! What’s she do-

“Ready Forgey?!”

For the second time that week Forge almost jumped out of his skin, probably clearing six feet. Spinning around he saw a smiling Seleis, who for some god awful reason was still wearing clothes.

Squinting at her it even looked like she was wearing a bra. Even more important than that she only had the cloths on her back, no bag full of supplies, no knife, sure she was probably more dangerous than most things in the forest but this was getting pretty ridiculous.

“You don’t want to come now Seleis?” Forge asked, hoping against hope that that was the reason that she didn’t have anything with her.

To his despair she just cocked her head looking confused. “What do ya mean Forgey?”

“You don’t have any gear; I just thought you were here to wish me good luck.”

Sel’s giggled and stood right next to the blacksmith, much to his discomfort. “Na, I didn’t think I’d need anything. I’m a dragon for goodness sakes!”

“You won’t be the most dangerous thing in that forest” Forge said, hoping to keep her here, “You know you could help Trixie with the forging, I’m sure that she’d appreciate the help.”

Looking up at Forge with a quivering lip and tears in her eyes the dragon said, “You don’t want to come with you Forgey?”

‘No’ Forge was about to say when he got a look at her ‘sad face’. With a groan Forge covered his eyes with his hands and said, “No no no, I want you to come, just stop making that fucking face!”

With a squee the dragoness tackled Forge into a hug, the disgruntled Thane having to keep both of them from toppling over.

“Alright” Forge grumbled to himself, “So let’s get this straight, I’m going have to share my food and water with you…Hummm… Rationing everything I should still have-”

“Come on Forgey!” Seleis said, breaking Forge’s train of thought “daylight’s burning and I want to get some cardio in!” To put her point across she started to run in place.

Looking her up and down Forge snorted and adjusted his pack and gear. You want a fucking run? He savagely thought I’ll give you a run…..

Many hours later…

“Come on Seleis, you need to keep up!” Forge yelled at the dragon, who was panting and looking ready to pass out. Now she remembered why most people hated when Forge was their trainer.

The man had kept the same grueling pace for the last five hours, it was somewhere between a hard jog, and a light sprint and it was killing her. Seleis couldn’t feel her feet, her lungs were on fire, and she was fading in and out of consciousness every few steps.

But hey, she must of lost like ten pounds already right?

Forge on the other hand looked fine, he even almost looked bored, pointing out things that she needed to watch running over or telling her that she needed to pick it up. If she wasn’t so exhausted Sel’s would be envious of his stamina and fitness.

Looking back over his shoulder Forge saw that Seleis was a mess, her red face saw starting to go blue from oxygen deprivation. Forge also almost chuckled at how her clothes were now askew and soaked. I better stop soon he thought she might drop if I don’t… Luckily for Seleis they were about to pass a really good camping spot by a river.

Slowing down to a stop Forge turned around and told the red dragon, “Alright Seleis, we’ll stop here for the night.”

All she could do was nod before falling over with a happy groan. Taking his bag off and rolling his eyes Forge walked over to Seleis and picked her up. “You could have told me to slow down.” He told her as he carried her to the river.

“I *pant* didn’t *pant* want to be *pant a bother. Besides *pant* need to lose a few *pant* pounds.” She told him as he helped her take off her clothing and gently put her in the water. The dragoness gave a happy groan as Forge walked over to his bag and pulled out a couple of bananas, walking back over to her he peeled one and gave it to her.

“Eat these” he said “You won’t be as sore in the morning. I’ll get the camp ready.”

All she could was nod weakly with a small smile on her face. Even though he was scared of her he was still trying to make her as comfortable as possible, basically same old Forge as when she was first working out with him.

As she floated lazily in the water Seleis thought over when she first started to work out with the blacksmith. Pain and soreness was pretty much a daily thing for her back then, but it was also filled with Forge’s words of encouragement and his remedies for soreness; she hated the bananas but Forge could give one hell of a massage.

What to Forge back then was simple kindness got Seleis through her training routine, giving her the body that she had always wanted. What she also got that she didn’t expect was a huge, almost blinding crush on him.

She didn’t know how long she was musing because the next thing she knew Forge had set up camp with a fire crackling merrily. Seeing that Forge was about to start to cook Seleis steeled herself, wading the water and climbing onto land where gravity was in full effect. Gritting her teeth she took a stiff step, then another, then another until she was right next to Forge by the campfire.

“Whatcha cooking?” she asked as she plopped down next to him. “I’m starving.”

Without looking up from the fire the blacksmith said, “Sausages… I can cook something else if you want. I think I got some beans in the bag-”

“No, sausage it fine.” The dragon hurriedly said, scrunching her face at the mere thought of beans.

As they ate in silence the sun dipped over the horizon, turning the already dark forest pitch black. Tossing her a sleeping bag Forge said to Seleis, “Alright, you’d better get some sleep, we got a long day tomorrow” Looking over to the dragoness he smiled thinly “I’ll go easier on you tomorrow.”

Too tired to do anything other than nod, Seleis wiggled under the sleeping bag; before sleep took her she murmured, “Goodnight Forgey.”

“Goodnight Seleis.”

Why wouldn’t you call me Sel’s? Seleis thought sadly you were the one that gave me the nickname….”

The Next Day…

Forge looked down at Seleis, a bemused look on his face as the dragoness rolled around on the ground holding her ankle. The story she told him was that she tripped and hurt herself. Needless to say Forge wasn’t happy.

“You’re fine, get up and quite being a baby.”

“But I’m hurt!”

Forge rolled his eyes. “Your bones are harder than diamonds.”

Seleis huffed. “It’s not the bone! I think I sprained my ankle.”

With a groan Forge crouched down and gently poked at the accused ankle, Seleis flinching in pain even with his gentle touch. Forge grimaced yep, its fucking sprained just his luck too, they were still about three or four days to their location.

Leaving her here wasn’t an option and he wasn’t going to let her walk for a day or two. Taking off his backpack he leaned down and picked the dragon up gently.

“What are you doing?” She asked as the blacksmith put her in his back. She wasn’t complaining or anything, her ankle did hurt like hell so it wasn’t a good idea to walk on and it was nice that she was close to him.

“Carrying you.” He said, “Grab that bag” Seleis’s tail wrapped around the bag and Forge started to carefully traverse the terrain, trying not to jerk her ankle. “We’re going to have to go all night for a couple of days, if you’re hungry just get some jerky from the bag.”

Now that she was feeling guilty, she tried to assure him that she was fine. “I’m okay Forgey, you can put me down.”

Forge just snorted at that, he could hear the pain in her voice. “You’re fine where you are.”

Seleis was about to retort when it hit her Are you going to ruin your chance to be this close his Forge dummy? She thought to herself just shut up and enjoy it! And enjoy it she did. Putting her head on his shoulder and wrapping her arms around Forge tightly, Seleis sighed as Forge flinched. As the two made their way through the forest one hoped that this would never end and the other hoping that this ordeal would be over as soon as possible….

“Seleis wake up. WAKE UP!”

“Huh?” Seleis slurred, her voice riddled with sleep. I must have fallen asleep she dimly thought as she noticed that the gentle rocking that was Forge’s pace was replaced by sprinting.

BOOM!

The dragon flinched, finally noticing that it was raining quite hard. In her opinion they might as well have been in a hurricane.

BOOM!

There was a flash of blinding light as Forge dove to the side, Seleis had to tighten her grip so as not to go flying. That’s some lightning Seleis thought, not particularly worried, dragons were tough SOBs, lightning would hurt her as much as fire does, as in not at all. She was about to explain this to Forge so he wouldn’t need to dance around so she wouldn’t get hurt when the thought occurred to her that maybe the dodging was for his benefit not hers.

“SELEIS” Forge roared, dodging a tree that was flying in their direction. “ARE YOU AWAKE? I NEED YOU’RE HELP FINDING SOMEWHERE TO GET OUT OF THIS STORM!”

Instead of wasting time and energy answering him she just tapped his shoulder to signal that she was awake. Using her sharper dragon sight she spotted a cave about a mile’s distance to their right.

“OVER THERE FORGE!” She yelled, pointing at the caves general direction. Trusting her Forge made a beeline toward what he hoped was safety. The forest and the weather did their best to stop them though, hurricane speed winds coupled with Forge having to run around trees and foliage was making that mile seem like ten.

To make their lucky day even better, Forge spotted a massive tree that was near the mouth of the cave. This wasn’t bad in itself but the wind was starting to pull the ancient pine free from the ground.

Crack!

With a final tug the tree was torn from its roots, the massive thing like a toy to the wind as it flew right at them. Forge couldn’t help but snort at his fortune I’m not going to be able to get out of that things way He thought as the tree got ever closer. How am I going to- Wait a second! I got a great idea!

Grabbing the dragoness from his back Forge lifted her in front of him, hoping that she’d get the idea. If not then at least he wouldn’t see the tree crushing him so it was a win-win situation. Just as the tree was in smash-the-human-to-bitty-pieces range Forge felt Seleis’s chest inhale a massive amount of oxygen to the point that it seemed like her chest would burst. Here it comes! Forge thought as Seleis opened her maw, Forge hiding behind the dragon as best as he could.

Dragon’s fire when its normal is as hot as a fire in a fireplace, about twelve to fifteen hundred degrees. What most people don’t know that if trained to do it properly, a dragon can get that temperature up to ten times that number, the flame blinding white instead of your usual reds and blues that a fire usually contains. This super-heated flame is called, in whispers, the death flame.

Luckily for Forge he had one of the dragons that could do that in his arms. An ocean of white fire erupted from the dragon’s maw, hitting the tree. In less than three seconds the tree was no more but a pile of wet ash; Forge jumped through the mouth of the cave as lightning struck where they had just been standing.

Hugging the dragoness to his chest tightly, Forge turned their bodies so he was on the bottom as they hit the hard, rocky ground.

“oof” Forge grunted as Seleis’s warm body landed on him.

She was giggling hysterically. “That was awesome!” She yelled as Forge took a short breather..

“Grrrrrr….” The human and dragon looked around at the noise, thinking that they had stumbled on some animals cave, but the odd thing was that they were the only things in said cave.

“Grrrrr…”

Looking down at his stomach Forge found the creature, his empty ass stomach.

“Seleis pass me the bag I’m starving.” He said to the dragon, who blinked, looked around at her person, and smiled sheepishly.

“I… don’t seem to have it….” She said to him.

Instead of yelling at her or being mad Forge just sighed, realizing how cold it was inside the cave. “It’s…fine, we just need to wait the storm out here.” Forge started to shiver uncontrollably, his clothes were soaked and it seemed like it was only getting colder, so cold that Forge was getting worried about freezing to death.

Seleis on the other hand was steaming, her inner fire preventing her from feeling cold. Looking over to Forge she saw him shivering, his lips starting to turn blue. Ignoring her hurt ankle she scrambled toward him.

Before Forge could say anything she put a claw to his cheek, gasping. “You’re freezing!” She cried, “I need to get a fire started for you!”

Forge couldn’t help but rolled his eyes as his teeth chattered. “G-good l-lu-uck fi-inding d-dry w-wood.” He told her.

A whine of panic escaped the dragoness’s throat as she frantically searched the empty room for something to warm him up. Then a thought occurred to her. Picking the half-frozen Thane Seleis sat down and put him in her lap, wrapping her wings around Forge for extra warmth.

“What are you doing?” Forge asked as he tried to struggle out of her grasp. Seleis just snorted, basically holding him down.

“Shush you, we need to share body heat or you’ll freeze to death.”

Sighing, Forge just nodded. There was no arguing with her logic. “Alright” he grumbled, “Just no funny business, I’m not below freezing to death with digni-” Forge stopped when he felt something wet fall into his hair. Looking up he saw that Seleis was crying.

Shocked the blacksmith said, “Seleis, why are you crying?!”

“Y-you m-must hate m-me.” She said as she softly cried. “I-I messed u-up everything between us and y-you hate me.”

Forge sighed at that, spinning around and hugging her. “Seleis” he said, already feeling warmer “You have done some things that were wrong” the dragoness flinched at that “but I’ve known you for thirty years, well, if you don’t count the two thousand being frozen, you’re probably my only friend.”

Sniffling and wiping her eyes, happy that Forge was holding her she said, “What about Longstrider and Reaper?”

“They’re family, it doesn’t count.”

A small smile now on her face Seleis nuzzled Forge, not seeing the sad look that Forge was giving the wall. As the two fell asleep one was happy at her restored friendship and the other feeling the familiar sadness that he felt whenever he was near a certain red dragon…

The next day…

“You’re ankles’ better right? I can carry you a bit more.” Forge offered as the human and dragon exited the cave.

Seleis smiled, she could still that Forge was kinda-sorta-somewhat scared of her, but that was way better than they had been in years. “Na, I’m better now.” She said, wiggling her ankle to get the point across.

Forge nodded, accepting her answer as the two looked around to see the damage that the storm had caused.

Snorting with amusement the blacksmith said, “Well, at least we don’t have to walk around that many trees now.”

All around them it looked like most of the forest had been uprooted, broken and fallen trees all around. The sky had cleared but you could still feel the dampness in the air, almost everything was dripping in a way that would almost look pretty if it wasn’t for the smoldering scorch marks from the lightning dotting the landscape.

Cracking his neck Forge looked up at the a bright, blue, and sunny sky. “Alright” he said, “We’re still going to go slow today, there’s no reason to mess that ankle again. Even with the slow pace we’ll get to the cave by sundown.”

Nodding silently Seleis followed him, both of them making a leisurely pace through what was left of the forest. After an hour or so of silent walking Seleis decided to start a conversation,

“Forge”

“Hmmm?”

“Do you have any idea why that apprentice of yours decided to live all the way out here?”

Since she was behind Forge she couldn’t see his face but she could tell that he was smiling. “Scales always wanted to be alone. Besides, the Thanes needed somewhere to place all of our swag at. Scales got a quiet place to work and we got a dragon to guard our dangerous shit.”

Seleis raised an eyebrow, Forge could almost feel it. Turning around be added defensively, “It’s not all dangerous stuff, we got some stuff we…. may have borrowed from our world.”

“Like?...”

“Some books, some toys… the Coca Cola secret recipe, stuff like that… You know Seleis” Forge said, trying to steer the conversation away from all of the illegal stuff they stole. “You haven’t told me how you’ve been since we’ve been frozen.”

Smiling Seleis spent hours recounting what had happened over the last two thousand years, the marriage proposals that her father had tried to get her to consent to, the rivals that she had to fight and beat, even a rather embarrassing time she thought that she had scale rot. Before either of them knew it they were there, at the mouth of a giant cave.

Seeing that the mouth of the cave had skulls of Manticore’s, Hydras, and worse things Seleis snorted, “Scales, certainly hasn’t lost his taste for theatrics.”

Looking up they saw that to really show that visitors were not welcome, there was a rather large sign that read,

You are now entering the lair of Scales Hammersmith. Kindly piss off, I don’t want anything you’re selling!

Snorting back a laugh Forge started into the cave. “Alright, time to see the ol’ apprentice…”

Author's Note

Sorry for the subpar Chapter guys.... I've been a bit busy with other stuff so be kind. O am I'm putting this on a little hiatus until I get these one shots out of my system, so ya...