The Communal Rut

"Even me?"

"Even you," Maxwell admitted, but he didn't do anything. He didn't sniff her, or lick her neck, or do anything other than spread open his wings and test the air—how disappointingly professional of him. "Anyway, the weather should be clear for today. I'll do the north route and you can do south, unless you want it the other way?"

Kassy resisted the urge to rub her paws against her slit. "Yeah, I'll take south. See you later."

The two freighters opened their wings and leapt into the early morning skies.

---

As it turned out, Kassy had such a busy morning that she didn't have much time to think about her sexual desires. Even after she'd finished the mail express, she only got fifteen minutes to rest before she was assigned another cargo flight. Somehow, Quarter Coastal was even more busy than usual.

"These packages need to be sent to Caedry AeroHub JFK! All the way up in New York—you know where it is? Good. We're rushing to clear the routes before our ops halt this afternoon," explained Andy the rancher as he and another human hurriedly strapped cargo pouches onto Kassy's harness. "Sorry bout this, Kassy, but try to fly fast! Afternoon y'all can take it easy; have some fun and relaxation."

"Fun and relaxation? That's one way to phrase it," Kassy muttered, but she raised her wings and ran forward, picking up speed before leaping into the air.

Maxwell swooped past just as Kassy was climbing away from Quarter Coastal Ranch—he'd only just returned from his half of the mail express flight. "Flying off already?" he yelled. "Where you headed?"

"New York!" Kassy glanced around and squinted at Maxwell. The rising sun was in her eyes, but she saw him rock his wings from left to right in acknowledgement.

Busy, busy, busy. Kassy flew to so many places that she started to lose track of the previous one as soon as she got a new destination. It was a steady, fulfilling task—she would land at depot, a dragon ranch, or even at one of the Caedry AeroHubs. Human cargo handlers would be ready to scan each pouch on her harness and remove some or all of them, before quickly giving her new pouches and a new destination. Then Kassy was off again, flying quickly to a new location. Most of the time she was escorted by other freighters also making the trip in a cargo convoy, but none of them was from Quarter Coastal and most of them weren't even greybacks.

Occasionally some of the freighters seemed to notice Kassy's smell, but none of them commented on it—the only chance they got to chat was while in flight, and the rushing airflow meant that the smell of her heat wasn't noticeable until they landed. In fact, Kassy almost forgot about her heat as she laboured through the morning.

But then when noon came, Kassy landed at a ranch in Pennsylvania—the humans came and took off all her cargo pouches, but she wasn't given any more pouches. A burly man with a huge beard came up to her—given that he carried a handheld scanner, he was this ranch's operations planner. The operations planner scanned Kassy's identification tag, which was right next to the Quarter Coastal emblem and the Caedry Aerospace Logo on her flight harness's chest area. "Good morning—no, excuse me—good afternoon, ma'am. According to your tag, you are...Kassy."

"Good afternoon," Kassy replied. "Wait, did you call me ma'am?"

"Indeed I did. Always good to be polite to a lady bigger than I am," replied the ops planner.

"Hehe." Kassy found this mildly amusing. "No new cargo?"

The ops planner shook his head. "Not for you. You've been assigned a thirty minute break, and then the system says that you're to make a repositioning flight to Quarter Coastal in New Jersey. You know where that is?" He tapped a few buttons on the scanner he was holding, and the machine printed out a thin paper band with the text, "QTCS NJ".

"I know where that is. That's home." Kassy raised her paw so that the planner could attach the paper band around her wrist, removing the previous band which had indicated the destination of her previous flight. As unsophisticated as such as system was, it helped to cut down on the number of dragons who got lost because they absentmindedly forgot where they were supposed to be flying to.

"Alright then. Thirty minutes rest, then fly home. Good day, Kassy," said the man. He stroked his beard and went to the next dragon who had landed after Kassy, scanning their tag so he could give the freighter their new orders.

"Home..." Kassy murmured. What was the use of taking a break now, when she could rest back at her home ranch? Spreading her wings again, she leapt into the sky and headed for home.

---

Landing area, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; One hour before the communal rut

The whole ranch was busy and buzzing with excitement. Kassy had never seen so many dragons in Quarter Coastal—this was the first time she was seeing the ranch's full complement of freighters all together, since on a normal day there would always be someone out on a cargo flight at any given time.

Furthermore, there were other dragons she didn't recognize—grey-backed nettled gliders who had been invited from other ranches around the country, sometimes accompanied by a rancher or two from their own home ranch.

There was a lot of noise and confusion, very unlike the normal precision with which the ranch ran flight operations. Human ranchers were running around, helping to remove flight harnesses from the landed dragons. Kassy spotted Jennifer using a megaphone to shout out instructions, trying to organize some of the chaos and direct arriving dragons. It was loud, it was messy, and there were so many dragons around that the excitement was contagious.

Kassy tried to see if she could spot Maxwell, but he wasn't anywhere in sight. She looked around, and then she headed towards Barn Two where the freighters usually ate their food. The inside of the barn was packed, with the meal area filled to capacity by dragons all looking for something to eat. Kassy lacked the bulk (or the determination) to shove her way through the crowd, but one of the human ranchers (named Leon) saw her and helped bring out a bucket filled with food.

"Thanks!" Kassy said, but Leon just patted Kassy's nose and went to get food for other dragons. The meal was also significantly better than expected—Kassy had been expecting porridge, the standard fare for freighters, but instead it was spaghetti with a thick flavourful sauce. Today, the ranch was pulling out all the stops. They hadn't even skimped on the meat—there were actual chunks of beef, not just the usual minced meat. For a freighter dragon, this was gourmet.

Sitting down in the shade outside the barn, Kassy ate her lunch and watched other dragons come and go.

"Hi Kassy, need help with your harness?" someone suddenly asked her.

Kassy turned to find...not a human, but Apollo. Because of all the freighter dragons everywhere, the racing dragon looked smaller than usual just by comparison. "Hi Apollo. Some help would be great, yeah."

Apollo began pulling the release catches on Kassy's harness, loosening the gear so she could remove it. Flight harnesses weren't impossible to take off by yourself, but this was much easier if you had someone else to help you. Normally this required a human, but in this case a little racing dragon would suffice. "So all this is really exciting, isn't it?" Apollo asked.

"Yeah. I've never seen so many greybacks together at once," Kassy agreed.

"Me neither. I think the total number should be about eighty dragons involved? Forty from our ranch, and forty visiting from other ranches. Jennifer said that there are dragons invited from ranches all over the country—some even flew from the west coast just to be here. It sort of reminds me of the tristate racing championship a few months ago."

Kassy had heard about Apollo's recent adventure. He'd participated in a regional dragon race and come out on top. "The championship that you won you mean."

Apollo grinned modestly. "I was just lucky that day."

"I think we were all lucky that day. You winning the championship was what made Ian Caedry take interest in Quarter Coastal in the first place, and now look where we are. I only just started flying cargo so I can't make a good comparison, but the older freighters say things used to be stale and routine. But then Caedry acquired us, and now it feels like the whole ranch is changing. We're taking all sorts of different routes, and arranging things like communal ruts... It's all so different just because you won that one race."

"That wasn't really me. Ian was looking to acquire greyback ranches anyway, and the whole industry is changing because of his company." Apollo tugged one last strap, and Kassy's flight harness slid to the ground around her paws. "There we go! I'm going to get some spaghetti. You want some?"

Kassy nudged her own food bucket. "I already ate, but thanks." And even if she had been hungry, she wasn't sure if Apollo was big enough to carry two buckets of food at once. As a rainbow swiftwing, he was almost human-sized; tiny compared to grey-backed nettled gliders.

Apollo squeezed his way into the barn, which was still crowded with dragons trying to get food. Kassy continued sitting outside the building, waiting around and watching things. She saw most of the dragons from Quarter Coastal, but strangely she saw no sign of Maxwell. Suddenly Kassy spotted a dragon with a white back, and her heart leapt for an instant—but it was only a grey-backed nettled glider who was wearing a flight harness which covered her back to protect it from the sun. Kassy settled back down, feeling silly. Why had she been so excited at the idea of a whiteback being here? The communal rut was for greybacks, so Lincoln wouldn't have been allowed to participate anyway. And why was she so infatuated with that one drake just because he'd called her pretty? Although Lincoln was rather good looking himself...

Kassy snorted and dismissed the thought. It was just her heat talking again, telling her to seek out compatible and attractive mates. Speaking of heat, the air smelled surprisingly neutral given that they were so many dragons around and all of them were either in heat or rut. Perhaps it was the breeze keeping the air fresh.

By now most of the other dragons were free of the flight harnesses—a rancher came by and took Kassy's harness to put it in storage.

When Apollo returned about a minute later, he was carrying a bucket filled with spaghetti in his jaws. This wasn't the only thing he'd brought with him—the drake was now sporting a very noticeable erection, jutting down from his underbelly and bobbing as he walked.

Kassy couldn't help but stare. "I thought you said that you weren't affected by greyback pheromones?"

Apollo put down his food bucket so he could talk. "I said that I almost wasn't affected by how you greybacks smelled, but the scent of heat is really, really strong in there." The swiftwing looked mildly amused and tapped his own erection, then he sat back and started tucking into his food.

Kassy was still staring. Given that Apollo was smaller than a freighter dragon, it was no surprise that his malehood was proportionally smaller, although he still looked rather...virile. "Are you...are you also in rut?"

Looking up from his bucket of food, Apollo shook his head. "Swiftwing males don't go into rut. Females of my species have heat, yes, but the males stay at a constant fertility rate all year round."

"Oh. Ok." Kassy tried to stop staring at Apollo's unashamed erection, which was gradually softening and retracting back into his underbelly. "Do you...wish that you were taking part in the communal rut later?"

"Not really. It'll be interesting to watch you guys and see things, but I don't think I'd fit in," Apollo replied. He slurped down a spaghetti noodle, splattering his snout with sauce in the process.

Soon thereafter, another human appeared—Quincy the veterinarian. He was followed by two other ranchers; one was carrying a big trash bag, the other was carrying a clipboard and pen. "Excuse me, excuse me! Why, good afternoon, Apollo!" Despite the afternoon warmth, Quincy was dressed exactly as Kassy had last seen him—wearing a white lab coat, with latex gloves and a surgical mask. The vet waved at Apollo and then turned to her. "Uhhh... you are... Kassy! Good afternoon! Have we done you yet?"

"Done me what?" Kassy asked.

"Why, remove your restrictor, of course. You can't have a communal rut if all the dragons can't breed with each other." Quincy gestured for the dragoness to stand up. "If you could spread your legs again..."

Kassy stood up and turned around. She raised her tail and presented her underbelly to the vet. "Hmm, well that's not something I get to see every day," she heard Apollo say.

"Let me reach in here and..." With a wet shlop, Quincy reached in his gloved hand and neatly pulled the restrictor out in a quick motion. "There we go. Restrictor is intact, all is well." With his other hand he rubbed something wet and soft all around her slit—Kassy saw it was a giant, disposable, wet wipe. "Just need to give you a quick clean. Did you have any troubles since we last met?"

"Troubles?" Kassy considered telling Quincy about how he'd been right about the restrictor—without the device, she might have been much more tempted to mate with Lincoln last week—but that seemed too personal to tell the vet. "No, not really."

"Excellent. Just mark that down, please..." Quincy tossed the restrictor and the wet wipe into the trash bag that one of his assistants was holding, and the other assistant made a mark on his clipboard. "Have fun now, Kassy! Tah-tah. Oh, we've got a lot more dragons to go." And then the vet was gone, followed by the two ranchers assisting him.

Kassy's insides felt...emptier without the restrictor filling her up. She also noticed that Apollo's erection was back at full mast. "You enjoyed the show?"

"Your slit was right at my head level. It's only biology," Apollo replied, which was an intriguing reply. Biologically speaking, rainbow swiftwings and grey-backed nettled gliders were completely different species of dragon. "I'd bet you I'm the least aroused dragon around here, though. Just look at all that," Apollo added, using his tail to point around.

Kassy watched as Quincy went around the area, taking restrictors out of the genital slits of all the greybacks. This included all the dragons from Quarter Coastal, but even the dragons from other ranches were also using restrictors—apparently they'd all been required to take STD tests and then remain celibate for a couple of weeks.

As Quincy removed the slit restrictor from some drakes, even the touch of his gloved hand seemed enough to coax their phalluses out of their slits; it was almost as if they were revelling in the chance to push free, now that restrictor was no confining them. Some drakes seemed amused by their own enthusiasm, while some others took this one step further and reached paws, tails, or even their own maws to start stimulating their reproductive organ—clear expressions of relief on their faces as they finally got to feel sexual pleasure after two weeks of being restrained. And yet...none of the drakes took their pleasure to its completion—after all this time spent pent up, waiting just a bit longer of relief seemed tolerable if it that relief involve a communal rut.

"Well...they seem like they're looking forward to the rut," Kassy muttered. "I'm feeling more nervous than excited. All the other freighters have been talking about today as this huge event they are looking forward to, but I don't know if I'm ready."

With one final slurp, Apollo finished his spaghetti. "I know what you mean. I was just like that before my first race."

Kassy turned to stare at the smaller dragon sitting beside her. "You were?"

"Yes. There were all these other racers who were more experienced than me. It was the first time I'd seen so many people—dragons and humans both—and they were all going to be watching me as I flew. I really didn't expect to finish the race anything but last place. Jennifer said she'd be proud of me no matter what, but I was still feeling so nervous. Walking to the starting platform, my tail wouldn't stop twitching—I think some of the other racers noticed."

"But it turned out great in the end. You won the race," Kassy finished.

"That was luck. But my point was that everything usually works out in the end. Just pretend not to be nervous and you'll be fine." Apollo nodded his head and gave her an encouraging smile. "Although admittedly, flying a race circuit is very different from mating. I'm not quite sure which I enjoy more."

Kassy chuckled, and the two dragons fell back into a comfortable silence. Although Kassy was still nervous about the communal rut, Apollo had helped calm her down—he was more approachable than a freighter simply because he wasn't a freighter and wouldn't be participating in the communal rut. If she'd been talking to Maxwell, Evian, Atrix, or any of the other freighters, Kassy would have felt nervous because no matter how good of a friend they were, whatever she said would affect their thinking during the rut.

She didn't want someone to just choose her as their rut partner out of pity. But then again, Kassy still had no idea about what she would do for the rut. Yet before she had any time to consider strategy, a loud siren noise made heads turn.

"Wee—woo—wee!"

Jennifer waved her hands in the air, trying to get everyone's attention as heads turned. She clicked her megaphone, switching it from siren mode to speech. "Hello, hello! Welcome all to Quarter Coastal! The time is now 1:45, and we're going to begin the communal rut soon! This is the last call if you want to eat something before the cookhouse closes! Just head on over to that barn over there! Next, if anyone still needs their restrictor removed, raise your wing and make some noise so that Quincy, our local vet, can come to help you. Don't take it out yourself or we'll consider that cheating. Otherwise, if you're all good and ready, just head on over to Barn Nineteen over there! Thanks!"

Kassy slowly got to her feet, trying not to look nervous. "Ok, no problem. It's just a communal rut—just natural behaviour. I can do this."

"Good luck in there! Break a leg. Or I guess, make an egg." Apollo flicked his wings into a strange position—unfurled, but straight upwards. After a moment, Kassy realized it was a salute.

"Thanks, I'll...try." Kassy followed the other greybacks who were heading towards Barn Nineteen. No more delaying—the communal rut was happening, and she was a part of it.

---

Barn Nineteen, Quarter Coastal Ranch, New Jersey; Fifteen minutes before the communal rut

Barn Nineteen was one of the newest and largest buildings in Quarter Coastal, and now all of its internal space had been partitioned. In the centre of the barn there was one large area where a few dozen dragons were already standing or standing in a circle, with even more dragons streaming in through the doorway.

The moment Kassy entered the barn, the smell hit her. Every single dragoness in the room was in heat, and every single drake was in rut. The air was thick with an inescapable odour of arousal and lust, and it kicked Kassy's own libido into high gear. For a few seconds she instinctively tried to breathe through her mouth and avoid the pheromones, but she quickly realized the pointlessness of such resistance. Everyone was aroused, and she would be no different.

Some of the other dragons entering the barn just behind her seemed to revel in this odour, taking deep breaths and letting out moans of pleasure at the scent. Kassy tried taking a normal breath, and the pheromones made her scales tingle all over. Her heart was pumping hard and her genital slit felt swollen and desperate for touch, but she forced herself to walk calmly over and take up position in the circle of dragons.