"She's the first Dragon we've ever had in this town. I'm assuming you're interested in the purchase." The woman dressed in gold walks around the villain chair, steps down the small height from the lounge area, down into the bedroom and comes face to face with her customer. There's something about the height difference that's intimidating, about the perfect black lines from the kohl pressed against her skin, to the length of her heels and the sheer gold shirt she has underneath her dark yellow trench coat.
Diamond is a fine woman, got her start in the obsidian market hundreds of years ago and was one of the most infamous sellers. She wasn't just tall and beautiful, but extremely powerful and if she really wanted to, she could have you killed in a crowded room and no one would have seen anything. She purses her lips, crosses her arms across her chest and pushes most of her weight onto her right foot. "You know she's not going to be cheap. First of her kind in centuries to come into this market and I should really be keeping her for myself."
"Then, why don't you?" The woman replies, fixing the buttons on her red shirt before sliding her suspenders back into place.
She chuckles, "and have word get out and people try to break into my home and place of business? Besides, you've contacted me before about it and I thought I would be nice. Besides, there's a possibility you would be able to do something with a fertile creature like that."
"Can I see her?"
She hums, "Jasper, I really do hope I'm making the best choice in selling her to you." Diamond glances over her, brings out a hand to flatten out some stray pieces of hair. "Come with me."
She keeps her entire collection deep in the back rooms of the mansion. One room would be paintings and artifacts, another for rare weapons and then there's a room simply for exotic items. Exotic items fall under any rare creatures and any rare item from one of these rare creature; phoenix feathers and talons, angel wings, dragon claws, dragon wings, and anything belonging to a mermaid or other sea creatures. The world they live in wasn't as magic filled as it has been in the past. Races were dying out, migrating to different countries or states or just to get away from the possibility of extinction. Then there were races like dragons that were so rare, people thought they became extinct long ago.
There have been many movements in the past years or so, to have people copulate, to become pregnant and mix races together just for it to live on. There were people still trying to do it, anyone with a penis trying to get whoever they could pregnant just to carry out their powers, name and kind. Jasper never needed to worry about that, she was not someone who could die so easily but at the same time found pleasure in knowing she could help build up another race of dragons or mermaids or even fae if she needed to.
The dragon was something that Jasper has always been interested in, ever since she first met one hundreds of years ago. It seemed strange for one to show up again, in their small city and Jasper was told about its existence only last month. It was rumors mostly, she doesn't really know how it was caught but her main interest was and always will be in breeding. She was a succubus after all.
When she's brought into the room, the lights turn on and the door shuts behind them. There are a myriad number of paintings covering the walls or sitting on easels around the room and then there's a cage in the center of all of it. Jasper stays back as she watches the woman go closer to it, she only sees the green of the creature near the back of the cage. She seems afraid but at the same time like she's ready to fight her captors and everyone else in the room.
"What do you want for her?" Jasper asks as she steps forward and the dragon becomes rather curious on who the other woman happens to be.
"If you can get her out of here unnoticed, I can think about charging you less. I guess about eight?"
"Deal." Jasper says quickly, not even bothering to negotiate. She knows she won't win a lower price point.
"I'll let you stay here with her because she's going to be a handful. However, I put a collar on her that will shock her if she gets any further than one hundred or so feet from you. I know you're wondering how I caught her but I don't think that's important. The details are never important." She throws something over to Jasper, a small remote that is linked with the collar.
Jasper moves even closer to the cage, crouches down in front of to look at the dragon. The light green on her skin fades into a deeper green on her scales, against her lower back, deep into her tail. When the dragon bends its neck down, she can see the small horns that are centered against the dragons' head. Jasper knows that dragons tend to have more human looking forms if they choose to shift into them. She knows this creature must be gorgeous in that form from the slanted shape of her blue-green eyes down to the simple curve of the dragons' body. From her past knowledge as well, the dragon form is always longer than their human, their hind legs are always damaged from their need to be on all fours and some younger ones have more animalistic traits.
"I'm going to let her out," Jasper speaks as her hands mess with the remote in her hand, it unlocks the bars on the side of the cage and it unhinges before swinging open.
The dragon whimpers, keeps herself backed up against the corner of the cage and Jasper reaches her hand out. The dragon thinks about taking the woman's hand but the sudden fear wells up again and instead growls and claws at her arm. Jasper pulls her arm back, looks at the deep marks against her skin and they heal within seconds.
"I'll leave you two alone. Call me if you need anything," Diamond speaks and Jasper looks back at her as she leaves the room.
Jasper looks back at the cage, "she's gone. You think you can come out now?"
The dragon shakes her head. It wasn't the answer Jasper wanted but it gave her the knowledge the dragon did understand her.
"Can you tell me your name?"
The dragon hesitates, comes closer to the opened door and stares at Jasper. She reaches out a finger and points in the patches of white over her dark skin.
"I was born like this. What about you? You have a human form, is that how you've been hiding these years?"
She whines and then nods.
Jasper doesn't ask any more questions, she stands up and paces in the room. She wants the dragon to come out on her own with no coercion on her part. She doesn't want to force the creature out, to make her try to run or escape or hurt herself with that possible shock from the collar. Jasper stops pacing, starts to rummage around the room as she waits.
There are paintbrushes and scalpels and other tools just laying around in the room. When she picks up a screwdriver, the dragon puts her hand out of the cage. "You want this?" Jasper asks and the dragon just nods until the woman hands over the item. The dragon uses it for a few minutes, messing with the collar until it unlocks and clatters to the floor, she drops the screwdriver along with it and sits there.
It takes her a while to come out of her cage.
She stays on all fours, climbs out of the cage and uses the cage as a support to stand on two feet. She looks at Jasper and then at the paintings, her hand rubs her neck where the collar dug into the skin and created a deep bruise around it.
Jasper comes over to the dragon, stands close to her and notices how defensive the creature becomes. She looks like she's ready to hide back into her cage but doesn't move. She lets Jasper inspect her again—like a bear and its prey—the curve of her breasts, waist, down to the jut of her hips and the transition of rough skin to smooth against her skin. She's dirty on top of it all, there's dirt on the side of her face, her leg is scratched up and doesn't seem to be healing like it should. She wants to help the creature, to touch her, wants to do more than touch her but doesn't want to scare the small thing.
"Let's get you cleaned up, okay?"
Jasper walks to the opened door and the dragon hesitates before getting back onto all fours and following the woman. They don't walk far into the mansion, down this hall and a quick right down the next. There a guest bedroom at the very end of this hall that Jasper always stays at when she spends the night. It's rare she uses the room unless she's called up to spend the night with Diamond. Other than that, it's an ordinary room. A king-sized bed against the center right wall, dressers, side tables, an attached bathroom, and a little lounge area near the ceiling to floor window.
The dragon jumps when Jasper shuts the door and quickly scurries underneath the bed where she stays and hides. Jasper comes over, crouches down and the dragon peeks her head out. "Hey, I'll be back in a minute...Are you hungry?"
She nods.
"Do you think you can tell me your name?"
The dragon purses her lips, come out a bit farther from underneath the bed and Jasper leans down.
Her voice sounds sore and cracked, as if she lost her voice and was very slowly gaining her ability to speak back. She hears the dragon's name, Peridot, something fitting to the green shade of her skin. She lays on the floor, crosses her arms and leans her chin on them.
"I'll be right back."
With Jasper gone, Peridot climbs out from underneath the bed. She crawls around, sniffing the wood of the bed and heading over to the lounge chairs and climbing up onto one of them. She curls up in one of them and waits for Jasper to come back, waits for someone to give her clothes and take her back home. She feels like she knows it's not going to happen, that she's trapped here even if she doesn't feel so trapped. Peridot can't even remember what happened to bring her to this place. She was in the woods and the next thing she knows she wakes up in a car, trapped in the same cage that Jasper found her in. The people never said anything to her and she always felt like it could have been worse. Jasper was at least nicer than the woman who brought her here. That woman poked and prodded at her and kept asking her questions that she couldn't begin to answer.
She jumps when the door opens and she watches Jasper put a bunch of clothes onto the bed and heads off into the bathroom with towels. She hears water running from the bathroom and decides to climb down from the chair and up onto the bed where she sits, picking up articles of clothing and holding them up. "If you want to get out of here, you need to revert back into your human state and put on clothes."
Peridot's face turns into a look of distaste. Clothing was itchy and uncomfortable. Even if she stayed in her more human looking form she wouldn't want to wear clothes either.
"You want to say here?"
Peridot grumbles and shakes her head.
"Good. You'll do it. Can I see your leg?"
The dragon shifts her legs from out from underneath of her, flatten them against the bed and stares at Jasper. She's distracted by the woman and she cannot think of a reason why. There's something about her appearance, the marks over her skin, the way that off-white shade of her hair frames around her body like a thick coat. She's different than other creatures she's had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with in the past. Her hand reaches out to touch Peridot's leg and she looks at the hand, claw like nails that are so different compared to the thickness of her own. She hides her fingers by crossing her arms over her chest.
Peridot's left leg jolts back when Jasper touches her and she cautiously lowers it back down. She lets Jasper touch the wound, it's not deep but it's multiple scratches and around her ankle looks as if she stepped into a bear trap. "Does it hurt?" Jasper asks, trailing her finger against a healing scratch mark.
She shakes her head and pulls her legs back to her chest.
"Let me get you washed up. Can you shift for me? I know you don't want to and it's uncomfortable..."
She shakes her head again.
"When we leave, I'm going to need you to."
Jasper heads into the bathroom and Peridot looks to her left and right before climbing down from the bed and following the woman. The bathroom title compared to the carpet is hard on her hands and she uses the bath tub to help her stand up. There's a heat coming from the water and Jasper turns the knob to stop it from filling the bath tub any more.
Bathing is easy, Peridot likes to think. She sits in the water and Jasper asks permission to touch her because it's not just touching her leg; it's her hair, her chest, and her lower body. It's just different than anyone who has ever touched her before. Dragons always have a bad rep because of how rare they are, manhandled and used for spare parts. Jasper's touch is oddly comforting.
She uses the spray nozzle to wash the dragons' hair, to clean the soap from the rest of her body when she's ready to come out. She's wrapped in a towel before she steps onto the tile and practically falls into Jasper. She doesn't like standing in her dragon form, her legs are built differently and it's harder for her to keep her legs straight without them bowing and making it completely uncomfortable if not almost impossible for her to walk normally. She knows with practice she can, it's just not something she wants to do. A few years from now, her muscles would grow to accustom her inability to walk and she might be able to but that would be years from now. Right now, she doesn't mind the view from her hands and feet.
Jasper helps her walk into the bedroom, sits her down on the bed and uses a second towel to help dry the mess of blonde hair. "I have someone coming to bring food so you can eat before we go."
She opens her mouth to speak but stops herself and frowns.
"What's wrong?" She bends down, wanting Peridot to speak to her and she does. She asks a question and moves back to cough. "Are you stuck with me?" She repeats what Peridot has asked her, "do you want to go back home?"
Peridot shakes her head and whispers something to Jasper, "I don't have a home." She pulls back and climbs off from the bed and moves back over to the chair she once sat at, moves her tail to wrap it around her lower body.
There's a knock at the door and Jasper moves to answer it. The maid at the door hands her a tray and Jasper comes back over to set it on the small table that's in the middle of the two chairs. She goes back to the door to grab a ceramic cup and shuts the door before moving back to Peridot. She hands the dragon the cup.
Peridot inspects the cup before taking it, it's warm and she assumes it to be some sort of tea. It smells like peppermint. She carefully holds the cup and looks back up Jasper.
"I was going to take you back to my home, if that's alright with you."
"My cave..."
Jasper looks up at her, most dragons had something they called home; caves, basements, anything dark and large to contain their things. "I can take you there. You can't stay there though..."
Peridot nods, takes a sip of the cup and lets the warmth soothe her sore throat. She knows Jasper isn't as bad as the woman who kidnapped her and brought her here but Peridot has very few experiences dealing with humans or other creatures. She spends most of her time sheltered and doesn't understand how most things work or how to understand people. She at least hopes Jasper's intentions are true.
Jasper's intentions seem true enough so far. The food she brings them to eat isn't terrible and the clothes she has to put on aren't the most uncomfortable but she appreciates being able to get out of this place. The only thing she doesn't appreciate is Jasper's stares because it embarrasses her. Especially in her human form with her light beige tint of her skin and how her body proportions seem to fix themselves. She can stand up straight unlike in her dragon form and her curves seem even more defined in clothing she's wearing.
Leaving the house wasn't an issue, however a maid stops Jasper and gives her a bag before the two leave. Going outside was a problem however, because the mansion was in the dead center of the obsidian market and there were hundreds of different people roaming the streets. There were so many different booths set up, trolls and goblins and fairies running all sorts of sales and discounted items. Jasper tend to ignore them on her normal walk through the market, only ever stopping for Diamond, her assistant or one of her friends who was a shape shifter, always looking to sell her things. As popular as Jasper was in this area, no one stopped her about the woman she was with and no one even came up to her, even the ones who said hello to her stayed away.
The market wasn't as interesting as most people would hope to fine when searching for the place. The idea of magic and different creatures was always so fascinating but most humans couldn't comprehend what they were experiencing and it was the reason why magic and humans never did well together. Jasper knew that for a fact, the people in her past life who were human never stayed long and she just hopes the dragon will.
Jasper lets Peridot lead the way to her cave, stays close to her even in the market just in case anyone does try to talk to them. Someone does and Peridot learns of the fake persona that Jasper has been putting on, how viscous she can really become. The dragon doesn't question it any more than she should, continues her way out of the market and down a street. She realizes that they're out far in the city and her cave isn't in a set place so all she needs to do is find a rock.
Finding a rock takes two hours of walking and a lot of Peridot becoming lost, confused or frustrated. Jasper just stays far back, allows the dragon to do what she needs to do and eventually when they're in the right spot of the woods Peridot stops walking. Jasper just waits, she's not sure why Peridot has stopped moving and in all honesty, she's not sure why she's letting the dragon lead. In any other situation, she would have taken her purchase back to her house and fucked it by now. This wasn't what she expected, she's rather fond of the dragon and she can't explain why.
"What are you doing?" Jasper asks, crossing her arms over her chest and simply watching.
Peridot shushes her, walks over to rocky wall and placing her hand over it. It takes a minute or two before the rock begins to shift under her hand and open a passage. She perks up when the passage opens and heads inside, Jasper following her and giggling when the woman jumps a bit as the rocks reform. Jasper doesn't just become surprised by the wall closing behind her but by the thousands of gold coins littered around the cave, mixtures of jewels and rich furs, the entire cave illuminated by this dim shine.
She tries to move around in the cave but runs into this small hill of coins that scatter at her shoes. "This is really where you live?" She asks, stepping onto the coins and nearly tripping onto the furs Peridot has already been sitting on top of. She had shifted back into her dragon form, tugged off the uncomfortable clothing and was laying down in the warmth of the furs.
Jasper lets Peridot relax but can't help but stare at her. It was so rare to see a dragon up close, the curve of her face that was so different than any other creature and she knew every single part of her was worth a fortune. The claws, the wings, even a lock of hair or a chance to take the virginity of such a creature, all of them were such a rarity and Jasper had it all at her hands.
"Why...Do you keep staring?" Peridot asks as she's laid flat on her stomach, using her arms as leverage for her chin. "It's annoying, stop it." It's the most she can say before her voice cracks and she starts to cough.
"You're the first dragon I've seen in centuries. I'm curious, do you have wings?"
Peridot huffs and sits up, motioning Jasper to come closer to her.
Jasper maneuvers around a few piles of gold, boxes dipped into it and she nearly trips again before coming over to the mixture of furs and silk to sit down. Once she's comfortable, Peridot turns around, showing the succubus the strange pattern of scales on her back. She hadn't noticed it before and if she had, wouldn't think much of it. They follow the lines and curves of her bone underneath the flesh. She reaches out a hand to touch them and Peridot accepts the hand on her back, the fingers training against the pattern.
When she pulls her hand back, she can feel a strange residue on her finger tips, it sparkles in the light of the cave. She indicates it as glamour, something fairies are known to use to hide their true appearance from the human world. "You're fae?"
She nods and turns back around.
"How much glamour are you using to hide your real appearance?"
She shakes her head before trying to speak, "just the wings."
"You're only half?"
She shakes her head again. She wants to explain it but it hurts for her to talk.
Jasper tries to think of how to word her questions so Peridot can answer, "Are dragons aligned with the fae? Is that why they've been unheard of for so long?"
She nods.
Jasper shifts her body, moves her legs and crosses them in front of her. "Even in hiding there are still so few dragons, right?"
Peridot nods, watching the woman move again and copying her actions by moving her own legs.
"How many are out there?"
Peridot lifts her hands; her fingers are webbed but can spread them enough to hold up the number seven.
"In the city or in America?"
She shrugs her shoulders and opens her mouth but pauses again, "why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?"
"You took me home. Why?"
"I'm not intending for you to stay here and I'm not intending to lock you up like some sort of animal." In truth, Jasper still doesn't know why she cares for this dragon. Why she didn't just put that electric collar back on and drag her ass home like she would any other purchase. Maybe she was growing soft, maybe the others were right about her. "Is there anything here you want to take to my home? You can always start a new collection in my basement."
Peridot perks up at Jasper's words.
"You're just extremely different than any other creature I've ever come across. You're not fighting me, trying to escape and if you did try...This is all you have to return to. I guess it can't be so bad for you to belong to someone." Jasper stops, "that came out wrong."
"I've never had a home..." She sighs, "not like it matters much."
Jasper look down, trying to find something comforting to say but not able to think of it. "Can I ask you something? How did you lose your voice?"
Peridot blows her cheeks up to make a face and lets the air out, she's rather childish in a way that Jasper can't begin to understand. She lifts a hand to her neck, "magic."
"Like, someone cursed you or?"
She shook her head but didn't explain any more. Jasper assumes she will when her voice comes back.
Jasper's not sure how long they're going to stay here but she knows she has a job to do. She needs to take Peridot back to her home and if she must use magic to do it, so be it. Peridot decides to rest her head against Jasper's thigh and takes a nap. She wonders if she can carry the dragon out of here but doesn't know how to get out of the cave she's in now. She decides to just wait for the dragon to wake up, she's sure the capture and living in that cage could not have been comfortable so maybe she is just tired.
Waiting is taking forever, Jasper falls asleep in the process and when she wakes up it's due to the sudden sound of thunder crashing close by. It wakes up Peridot because she whines, pushes her face against Jasper's stomach and rests there. Jasper lays back, allows the dragon to draw her arms around and cling to her. The dragon seems like she attaches to people so easily and Jasper wonders if that's because she's young or because she's a dragon. Dragons are known for seeing the best in people, for not running or fighting or causing war unless necessary. At the same time, Peridot could barely speak and she questions that if she could if she'd even remind Jasper anything of a true dragon.
Jasper just waits until the storm is over and Peridot has shifted and put clothes back on so they can leave. She grabs a few items and makes Jasper carry them for her as they walk back into the city. Peridot whines a lot on the way to Jasper's house, complains she's hungry and wants someone to carry her. Jasper wishes she'd stop talking and missed her when she her voice was worse and she was unable to. It's better than it was yesterday at least, still sore and hurt for her to swallow. Her voice was coming back at least so Jasper didn't have to guess and figure things out as a series of nods and head shakes.
Something huge on Jasper's mind is the fact that the woman who sold the dragon to her, might have known what sort of trouble she seemed to be. It could have also been Jasper paranoid on the weird shift in personality from being unable talk and able or the dragon becoming more comfortable around Jasper in such a short amount of time. Whatever if it was, Jasper needed to calm herself down from jumping to the worst conclusions.
