"Leave my tributes alone!" Seto raged as he kicked dust into Joey's face, watching his childhood friend bend over to cough and rub his eyes, then recover just as fast to give him two middle fingers.
"That's what ya get for killin' my bride!" Joey replied with a hateful glare. "I really liked'er!"
"For the…last time! She killed…herself!" Seto spat, balling his fists at his sides and resisting the urge to throw another punch. "And she did it on my side of the mountain because I have the better view. How is that my problem?!"
"Ya couldda stopped her?!" Joey rose to his feet and bit back another cough, nursing the bruise forming on his ribs from where Seto had slapped him across the stomach with his tail. "Or somethin'? You got eyes and workin' wings and legs! I had'ta borrow a tribute for 50 years from freakin' Tristan! And he charged me a claw and'a horn fer it!"
"I wasn't even home to see her jump, otherwise I would've flown after her!" Seto was tired of having the same argument for the past 100 years. "And today you get a new one. Leave mine alone, okay? ….Truce?" As if he would let the past century of accusatory threats go unpunished, but he'd ask for a cease-fire on their fighting…for now.
To lull Joey into a false sense of security.
He knew this dolt well enough to manipulate him.
"No truce," Joey crossed his arms and jerked his head to the side, the tips of his ears dark red as he glared at the ground beside Seto's silvery tail which was hovering a few centimeters from the ground. "You give me yours if I like yours better. Ya owe me a trade at'da very least, Seto."
As if, Seto bared a fang with a snarl but chose the easy way out, lying, "yeah sure. Whatever. I don't care. I just need one that picks up my shit. If yours is blind or is missing an arm or a leg, no trade." And he didn't engage in sexual activities with his tributes like the other dragons.
Joey sniffed and didn't say anything. He'd given a demand to his providence about not sending maimed humans so he could trade them up when he got tired of them.
The other dragons did it.
Heck, Bakura put really harsh physical demands on his humans.
"See ya back at da caves," Joey muttered, and he kicked dust towards Seto one last time before diving off the side to spread his wings, hearing Seto shouting curses after him that echoed down the canyon. Jerkwad.
Dusting himself off with one clawed hand, Seto hissed in fury and took off after Joey, hoping his tribute wasn't seriously injured from that perilous trek across the narrow path.
He'd spent a few days building that road for the new arrival, only for Joey to ruin it with his red lightning. He thought he'd seen his new human go running into the cave, on both working legs, so he had some hope.
If Joey managed to kill his tribute before he even saw the age or gender of it, he'd steal Joey's tribute, and then demand that province to send another one.
At this rate, he was going to start a blood feud with his childhood friend, who wouldn't let that one blond female tribute go.
They were just livestock.
Why was Joey getting so fucking attached?
It wasn't like there was a shortage of humans.
The cities would always send more.
Supremely annoyed, Seto soared overhead to survey his cave, hating how the damage around it made it ugly.
Giant pits dotted the edge of his cave from the blasts.
The half-circle landing pad he'd made for himself had crumbled away into nothing.
The road? Completely nonexistent.
The human? Also nowhere to be seen.
Fuck Joey, seriously.
Might just steal his tribute to piss him off this century, Seto growled as he dove into his cave with his blood boiling, knowing everything might be covered in dust from their petty fight.
Where the hell was his human?!
Landing inside his room with an angry huff, he wondered if his human would have trouble understanding him.
The provinces always sent a human that spoke a different language, so much that he was almost going to take up Bakura's method–enforcing learning of dragon language basics in schools.
That's hostile takeover, and I'm not a fucking babysitter, Seto shook himself off by stretching his wings a little and heard a sneeze somewhere behind him.
Oh. His human tribute was alive. Nice.
Time to put it to work.
Yami cowered behind the jagged rock by the opening, having almost wet himself when he saw the silvery white dragon come soaring into the cave and land inside somewhere in the dark.
The arrival of that dragon had kicked up a tornado-wind of dust into his face, it was taking all of his effort not to sneeze, cry, or cough, and his body betrayed him at the last second.
He'd made a noise, and the dragon heard him. His only salvation was that this dragon wasn't the black one that had tried to kill him.
S-So maybe he was a little safe?
"Come out, human," Seto said irritably, choosing to speak English because that usually worked.
Yami tensed when the dragon's voice boomed through the entire cave, and he winced.
Here it was.
His doom.
And hey, how cool was it that dragons could talk!
He was delirious and oddly numb because he knew he was about to die.
Goodbye Yugi, Grandpa… I tried, Yami slowly stood from behind the spiked rock to face the dark blob at the very back of the cave. Even though the entrance was bright, he couldn't see more than two feet inside, right where the shadow started…at his toes.
A star was twinkling in the back of the cave, pinned high above into the ceiling, and Yami wondered if it was dragon magic, before he saw another star gleaming at him…and then realized with a fearful jolt that those were the dragon's eyes.
They were terrifying, evenly spaced apart in the dark.
Blinking rapidly in fear, Yami tried to reply or say something, but the dragon gave him another command before he could fully compose himself.
"Name, gender, and age." And Yami swore the rocks shook loose from the volume of this dragon's voice.
Yami lowered his head respectfully and whispered, "Yami…male, I-I'm 25…"
Perfect, Seto smirked to himself and turned around to find his contract, rummaging through his cabinet and turning his head to the side when a cloud of dust met his cheek. Damn. FUCK JOEY! Time to make this human clean.
He got an able-bodied male.
How nice.
It was scared shitless of him because he could feel the human vibrating with fear and could even hear the high hum of a heartbeat. This was great. This meant his cave was going to be sparkling clean.
Yami held his breath as the dragon's magnificent head appeared before him for a split second, and he saw glittering scales, a rounded nose, curved horns that swept handsomely upwards, and those threatening white eyes gleamed at him again before the dragon dropped a scroll out of its mouth and pushed a stick towards him with it's thick leg. A leg that sported silver-chrome claws the length and width of his entire body.
I-It could step on me and I'll just die! Yami felt himself smile and then blanked when he stared at the dust covered scroll and broken stick on the ground.
W-What was this…? Gifts, or…?
"Read it and get started," Seto sniffed, turning to walk away, shaking the ground with his steps as he went, thinking he needed a bath after all that tussling. "I want this place clean when I get back or I'll eat you."
His favorite threat that worked all the time.
It'll eat me, wonderful! Yami trembled and wondered if it wasn't too late to spare himself a painless death by jumping.
He picked up the scroll and unfurled it with a cough when dust poured out of it and got all over the tops of his shoes. UGH. Were all dragons this…filthy?!
Extremely fed up and exhausted, Yami noted the thin, neat handwriting.
Interesting….
He sat down against the pointed rock and decided to give it a read. Might as well, if the dragon was coming back to eat him. Was this a menu of the herbs he was going to be roasted with?
WHILE LIVING IN MY LAIR was heavily lined at the top.
Alright, Yami sighed.
Keep doors and cabinets closed at all times. Do not eat or touch anything in them.
Keep the floor & various surfaces swept and clean
Keep the landing pad clean. Plants that grow there STAY THERE. Do not pick the flowers.
Keep soft furnishings clean. A sponge and pail will be provided.
Do NOT keep a pet or I will eat you and then eat it.
Keep yourself fed, clean, and watered. If you smell, I will throw you off the cliff's edge
Do NOT have sex with the other humans. If I catch you doing this, you will both die
Stay in your own quarters within earshot of me at all times when finished with these duties
Yami's eyes watered.
So this was a laundry list of sorts with death threats galore.
Sex with the other humans? Who the hell would be in the mood for that?
Nice to know there would be other humans….alive.
And what the hell was a landing pad?!
I smell right now. Where can I get a bath? Yami wondered, shuddering at the thought of taking a 'sponge and pail' bath.
Then he glanced down at the broken stick, realizing there was a broom's head somewhere in the darkness beyond, and Yami swallowed thinly, closing the scroll with a shudder.
So he was being kept alive as a cleaning servant.
Well, as Grandpa said, they are intelligent, strong creatures, Yami sighed and picked up the stick, daring to walk into the dragon's cave further, his eyes adjusting slowly.
There was a thin layer of dust on everything in sight, but the shape of the items were shocking.
A cabinet made of polished white wood sat in the very back. Atop it, sat various glass ornaments, and there was a rug! A fluffy white rug set underneath a series of lounges made in interesting geometric shapes.
Gaping at the sudden finery, Yami ventured into the large room and saw a monstrous mirror with an ornate frame hanging beside an enormous, arched doorway leading to another dark hallway, and Yami almost wished the sun wasn't shining so brightly behind him so he could see further inside.
But this room out here was amazing.
The sitting lounges were all large enough to be beds.
The only thing keeping the dust out were the two pointed stalagmites growing out of the ground by the cave's mouth.
I don't see a broom's head anywhere here, Yami glanced further up and saw cabinets nailed extremely high up along the cave's walls, and gaped.
He'd have to goup there to clean it. INSANITY!
He'd die from the sheer fall!
Worst job ever, Yami concluded, and he decided to walk bravely into the dark hallway beyond.
Honestly, he was pretty fed up with this rude dragon's list of demands.
He'd clean, but what with?!
Keeping the stick as a weapon but discarding the scroll onto the lounge behind him, Yami walked into the cave and followed the path around a corner. It led him to a series of split hallways, and he froze.
A maze.
Dragon's lairs could go far and wide.
If he got lost in here, he'd surely die.
He might accidentally enter some other dragon's room and get eaten.