Dean.
I woke up warm and surrounded by softness. 'It's nice to be warm' I thought snuggling down deeper into the bed. It took me a few moments for it to really register that I was warm. Why was I warm? I opened my eyes to a dimly lit space that was covered in furs. More furs than I had seen in my entire life. Some of them were wrapped around me like a nest. The rock walls had lightly glowing blue rocks attached to them, providing the only light. That was the moment I remembered what had happened and started to struggle to get up. I stopped as soon as I got some of the furs off of me. The air was absolutely freezing. I didn't want to just sit here and wait, but there was no way I could go out there. It was so cold that my breath frosted the air.
"Good, you're awake," a growling voice said. I immediately looked around to try and find the source. There was a man sitting on the pile of furs. He had on a white shirt, covered by a green vest, and brown pants. This was odd in its self, as it was nowhere near enough to keep him warm, but that was the least strange thing about the man. His eyes were startlingly blue and were glowing slightly. They greatly resembled the wall rocks. I was getting more and more freaked out as I continued to look him over. There were two huge black wings outlining him, the points of which were arching up over his head. Trailing out from behind him and down the fur mountain was a long black scaled tail with a spade on the end. All of this was just like the dragon.
Forget the cold, I had to get away from that thing. I resumed my attempts to try and disentangle myself from the furs, but as soon as I started to get part way out, the dragon swiftly moved to where I was. He shoved me back down into the furs and held me there. I struggled against him as hard as I could, but it appeared that the dragon was no weaker in this form than in the other. Having not eaten for almost two days and running on adrenaline most of the last one didn't help matters and I grew tired very quickly. When I stopped moving the dragon took its hands off of me and replaced them with his tail.
"I'm sorry to have to detain you and probably frighten you farther," the dragon purred, "but it is far too cold to leave the nest until I have found you something warm to wear. However, I can find you something while you bathe and eat."
"What‽" I squeaked.
"Well," the dragon continued conversationally, "you must be hungry having not eaten all day, and you certainly need a bath. You are still covered in my tribute scent and I dislike it."
"I disliked being covered in it in the first place," I snapped back.
"Of course you didn't want to be murdered, but I neither asked for nor wanted a sacrifice. Your village came up with that idea on their own. I would, however, advise you to not take your anger out on the one who just saved your life and gave you a safe place to live."
"Safe! You think this is my idea of safe?"
"Why wouldn't it be?" the dragon asked. "As I said before, I have food, water, shelter, and clothing for you. Additionally, I saved you from the village's attempt to sacrifice you."
"I look pretty sacrificed to me."
"How? You are not dead."
"Dead?" Was this thing toying with me? "They were never going to kill me."
"Then what was their end goal?"
"For you to take me." What was wrong with this dragon?
"Why would I want to take you?" the dragon asked, canting his head to the side. "Did they think I would want to keep you as a pet of some sort?"
"No. Now would you just stop playing around and get on with it?"
"I truly have no idea what you are talking about."
"Sex!" I spat.
"You wish to have intercourse with me?" the dragon tilted its head again and narrowed its eyes.
"No."
"Then why bring it up?"
"You asked why the villagers gave me to you."
"They gave you to me because they think I want to molest you?"
"Well, don't you?"
"No!" the dragon looked genuinely offended. "I brought you here because I thought you were going to be murdered for me and I do not want sacrifices. The only thing I want to do with you is to keep you safe."
"Oh," I didn't really have a response for this unexpected development.
"Now, as I said, I have food and warm water for you if you would like them."
Well, I was hungry. And cold. And smelled like tribute spice.
"Alright," I said, still not fully sure I trusted the dragon.
"The water is just down there along with any bathing products you might want. I will bring you food and find clothes while you wash so you can stay warm."
The dragon then began to help me out of the furs. "Why is it so cold in here?" I asked.
"I am an ice dragon," he said like it was obvious.
"Well sorry, I didn't study how to identify the exact species of dragon on sight," I muttered getting into the tub.
"Not species, elements."
"What's the difference?" I grumbled.
"We are all the same species and have the same needs, but when born we develop an element. Being around our specific element pleases us and makes living easier."
As I adjusted my position in the tub, I felt a rock digging into me, so I picked it up and threw it out.
The dragon immediately jumped at the stone and threw it back in. "Do not take the heating stone out. It is the only thing keeping the water from freezing."
Now that I thought about it, the fact that the water was warm in a freezing cold room was strange, and the water had defiantly chilled even in the short time the stone was out. On the side of the tub was a shelf covered in cleaning products that probably would have cost more than I could make in my entire life.
As I picked up some soap to start washing, the dragon, who was kind of creepily staring, asked, "What is your name?"
That question startled me, as I had not been expecting the dragon to say anything, let alone that. "What?"
"Well unless you would like me to continue to call you human, you need to tell me your name." Man, this dragon had some snark hiding under all those polite and fancy words.
"Dean."
"Castiel."
"What?"
"My name," the dragon said with another tilt of his head
"You have a name?"
"Of course we have names. How else would we address who we were speaking to?
"We?"
"The other dragons."
"I thought that dragons were solitary and really territorial."
"That would be quite lonely. We take mates and hatchling live with their parents for years before finding their own territory. We are also allowed in the territory of close family members and friends, although we must remember that we are guests and that the territory and everything in it is not ours."
Well, dragons had friends. Who knew? I had learned more about dragons in my short time here than the rest of my life put together.
For a while after that, neither of us spoke. I finished cleaning myself and decided to stay there and just enjoy the feeling of soaking in hot water for a while, as he rearranged some of the furs.
"Would you like to eat now?" Castiel asked.
"Yes," food, finally.
He brought over a trey covered in vegetables. Normally I would have complained about being given rabbit food but at that moment I was too hungry to care.
When I finished eating, the dragon held up a towel and some furs. "If you are done bathing, I have some furs that should keep you warm. If you do not like them I have many other fabrics for you to look through when you are feeling more rested."
"I thought that dragons would rather die than give up their hoard." I might not know much about dragons but I did know that.
"I would," Castiel growled. "We do not give up our hoard. Not one piece of it." He started looking like he was ready to kill something. After a moment of glaring at everything in the room, he took a deep breath and said in a much calmer tone, "But you wearing it around does not count as a piece of my hoard leaving since it will still be here."
"Wait are you telling me I'm not allowed to leave the cave? That you plan on keeping me trapped here?"
"There is nowhere else for you to go. If you wanted to leave I would fly you anywhere in my territory or the unclaimed lands beyond, but I don't see where that would be."
I opened my mouth to continue arguing, but the dragon did have a point. I sure couldn't go back to the village. I had nothing to start over with somewhere else, as the dragon had made it quite clear he wasn't going to give me anything. I couldn't stay with anyone else. I had no family other than Sam to stay with. Wait a second. Sam! What if, since I wasn't there, Zachariah decided to take his hatred of me out on Sam? What if they used him for tribute? What if they just plain tortured him? All of these horrible thoughts and more spun around in my head until I shouted, "I have to go back to the village!"
Castiel did that confused head tilt again. "You want to go back to the village that sacrificed you? Do you think you would be accepted back?"
"No. I have to get Sam. I'm the only family he has. I can't just leave him there, especially not alone with them." There was pleading and panic in my voice that I would have never have let anyone hear under different circumstances and certainly not naked in a tub. But this was for Sam, so flip masculinity. I had to get this dragon to understand. I was getting the impression that there was no way out of the cave without him, and even if there was I had no idea where we were or how far away from the village the cave was.
"How is he related to you," the dragon didn't sound particularly interested.
"He's my little brother. I have to protect him."
"Ah," Castiel said a look of understanding crossing his features. "Protecting a younger nest mate. Yes, this I understand. What will you do after you find him?"
I had no idea about that. All I knew was that I had to get Sam back. But at the same time, it wouldn't do much good to get him back just to starve in the woods. When I didn't answer, the dragon suggested, "Why don't you simply bring him back here?"
"You would let me bring him back here? Why?"
"I was already planning on you living here. I won't mind having two humans instead of one. You don't take up much room or eat much." The dragon shrugged like spontaneously taking in two other living creatures was no big deal, "But that is for another day. You are far too tired right now, so dry off, put on some furs, and get some rest. We will leave when you are feeling better."
"I'm fine now."
"No, you aren't. You are clearly exhausted." As I opened my mouth to continue arguing, he cut me off saying, "The only way out of this cave is flying, so we will leave when I see that you are well."
With that, he set the furs down and left. I was never good at waiting or resting. I wanted to go now, no matter what. But it was pretty clear that I wasn't getting out of this cave, so I did as the dragon had said. I calmed my racing mind by telling it 'We'll be out of here tomorrow. I can just act like I'm better. '