"I don't know what you're talking about," I take an uncertain step back.

"I think you got everything right," says the dragon and walks to me in all her bare beauty.

My wedding ring clangs to the jeweled cave floor. I must find the ring! It must be terribly expensive... but it's like a needle in a haystack! I fall to my knees and start fumbling the floor.

"Oh, good Lada! Are you already on your knees?" The dragon put her hands on her hips and looks down upon me.

I stop dead looking at her with fear, trying not to look somewhere where I should not.

"Don't look for this cheap stuff! I'll kisss you without reciprocity." She squats and looks into my eyes.

"What do you mean that you have not been with a woman in so long?"

"Are you that stupid or naive? Ssorry, I haven't figured it out yet..." laughs the girl. She starts hissing 's' again like a grass snake.

The crystals flicker and become more twilit inside: in the dark she looks just like a boy because of her short hair and muscle arms. I suddenly understand what she meant.

"I didn't know that it is possible... Parents never told me and none of the older girls too," I say quietly to her, although, my whole body says that being with her is the rightest thing.

"I didn't know that it is possible too... I mean... This is the first time a human offers me her jewellery for a kiss. In the old days you, girls, were brought all in white sarafanss, with your hair loose, and bound hand and feet... mmmm... to the entrance of my castle or left on cold stone pagodas in the Endless Valleys."

"Did you eat them all?" I look at the dragon in horror. From the legends that our old women told I heard about how in the old days the most beautiful virgins were sacrificed to dragons.

...the crackle of a pine rushlight, dark ominous shadows in the corners of the izba, the warm light from the stove, the laughter of maidens who are fortune-telling to know about the future betrothed and beloved. I have never seen any handsome bogatir in the endless reflections of two mirrors placed opposite each other...

"Well, in a way, I ate them up... but they loved it," the dragon replies evasively.

"How can anyone enjoy being eaten?" I jump up from my knees and try to run away, but she grabs me, turns me round, and kisses me on the lips. I hit her where I can reach, but she holds me tightly by my long braid and waist. She doesn't seem to be bothered by my pathetic blows. I open my mouth in indignation, but instead she slips her warm tongue into my mouth like a snake. I open my eyes wide and freeze. She holds my hair even tighter; it hurts a little, but I like it... She moves her hand down from my waist, and my tongue feels sensitive touching hers. I moan, but the sound is hushed by her mouth.