peridork | (no subject)

(no subject)

Peridot has a nose for gold. It's a trait common to all types of dragons, from big to small, no matter what their nature or their diet or their habitat. There's nothing special about her, in that regard. What every dragon doesn't have, is the small size and inherent nosiness that Peridot possesses, which has inexorably drawn her inside this strange little human structure.

Dragons love treasure. It's a well known fact, and it's the reason why she's been lingering in here for far too long. Crawling in through one of the battered windows had been easy enough, and from there she had just followed her nose deeper into the house, down into the basement where, lo and behold! Riches lay in wait.

That's how Lapis will likely find her: in the process of tearing apart her basement stash, pulling out jewels and gold and silver from very containers, in order snuffle at them and roll around in a massive pile of wealth.

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Peridot hisses and scuttles backwards when Lapis tries to get closer, adamantly refusing to cooperate. And if Lapis tries to touch her feet, she is going to bite. And it'll be hard to avoid, because she's crouching low, stubbornly curled in on herself.

She follows forward when Peridot scoots back, clearly undeterred. Eventually she'll corner herself. "You really plan on making this hard on the both of us, don't you?" And she can't really figure out why? Don't dragons normally shove themsevles into caves and sleep on gold anyway? What's the difference if it's a basement? She'll still be sleeping on gold. Honestly now.

"Do you really expect me to submit quietly to what amounts to enslavement?" she grumbles, tail twitching. Honestly Lapis, she doesn't even know you and you're talking about chaining her up in your basement.

More accurately, Peridot is a wild animal, and she doesn't yet possess even the tiniest bit of trust for humans.

"It's not really enslavement." No, it is. "It's a mutually beneficial arrangement. You get to sleep on all the gold you want, and I have a dragon to guard my goods." Even if said dragon is only really a deterrent. She shrugs.

Also her basement is pretty nice, for the record? It's only the main floor that's a mess.

"I have gold to sleep on back at my tree!" Peridot argues. Definitely not as much gold as Lapis has, but...

"I know for a fact that a tree can't hold more gold than what I've got here." It's a tree. "And I bring back more stuff with me every other week anyway."

"You don't know how big my tree is. And I don't even know who you are! Other than some human who lives in a weird, stinky hut," she counters immediately.

"Lapis Lazuli. And my cottage isn't stinky, and it's not a hut. And you live in a tree. A tree I'm about to go see anyway, so I guess I'll find out if you have more than me or not."

She firmly holds her hand out again. "Give me your leg. Seriously." Or she'll wrap the chain around her snout and lead her like that.

"...No," the dragon says, stubborn and terse.

So that's how it's gonna be, apparently.

"Last chance before I have to force you into it." She motions with her hand demandingly.

She does not budge. In fact, she dares you to try and stick your hand in here, Lapis. See how that goes.

"Alright. Hard way then." Lapis shrugs like it's no big thing, and then suddenly just lunges for Peridot with an attempt to get the chain around her snout as tight as possible. Which she hopes will be fairly easy, since the dragon seems like a biter.

She is, and she tries to struggle away from Lapis with a squeal, pulling back and flapping her wings in a rebellious frenzy. Fortunately she gets the chain around her snout quick enough to stop her from doing any real damage, but Peridot is still fighting, squirming and tossing her head viciously.

Lapis isn't exactly coming out of this unscathed, getting hit by wings hurts, and undoubtedly some of the choice claw swipes scrape and rake at her poorly armoured arms.

It's definitely going to leave a mark.

Once the chain is around her snout, Lapis pulls it tight and mutters a quick spell to bind it tight so there's no chance of furthering her own injuries. This dragon is super lucky that she doesn't want it dead.

The dragon's eyes cross to stare down her own snout in confusion. She tugs back a few more times, making the chain dig into her scales painfully, eliciting an unhappy whimper. Her nostrils flare rapidly as she starts to pant through her nose in a panic.

...Then throws herself down on the floor like a sack of bricks and whines and rolls about like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

"... I'll wait for you to finish doing that." This is the worst thing she's ever seen and it's also really hilarious.

Basically.

After a few minutes she more or less wears herself out and lays in a defeated heap on the floor, sides heaving.

Well, once she's done that, Lapis moves in to cuff Peridots' legs together, with just enough give between them that she can walk, and enough looseness in her binds that they don't chafe. Unless she decides to get rowdy again, that is.

She doesn't get rowdy, per se, but she kind of does the exact opposite, which turns out to be just as annoying. That is, she just continues to lay there. If thrashing didn't convince Lapis to let her go, maybe being obnoxious dead weight by refusing to move will do the trick.

When it looks like this dragon is just going to lay on her floor and refuse to cooperate, Lapis leaves her there. That's fine, she's nothing if not patient, and she gets up from her spot, smoothing out her clothes.

"Well, if you want to stay here, that's fine with me too. I'm going to go start dinner." And maybe something to make the dragon a little more cooperative. Or just eat in front of her, that'd probably work too.

Peridot lifts her head a little and squints at Lapis. This is not the reaction she was calculating for? She's not sure how to react to this turn of events.

In response, Lapis just waves at her, and starts heading away, because she's absolutely going to start dinner. And probably brew some kind of relaxant while she's at it. Something weaker than what she normally puts into peoples drinks though, she doesn't want Peridot to fall asleep.

"I'll be back in a bit. Try not to burn the basement down." It's a joke because she cant.

The dragon actually gets up and attempts to follow her out? Mostly because the closer she is to getting outdoors, the better. It's not exactly subtle though; there's a clattering of chains when she moves, and she hurries over to try to slip out behind Lapis like a dog trying to break into the back yard.

Nope, not happening. Lapis blocks her way with her body. "Stay." Is the command as she closes the door behind her, knowing full well it'll probably rile up the dragon again.

But because she's being a pain in the ass she gets to sit in the dark and think about what she's done until Lapis is done making dinner for herself. Which she's going to take an extra long time to do, because clearly she'll make a point that way.

When she does open up the door again, she's got a plate of meat for the dragon. She has no idea what dragons eat but she assumes it's meat? They eat people, after all, so that's gotta be it.

It's been laced with light sedatives, unfortunately. Just enough to hopefully relax her.

"Hey, I made you something."

After Lapis leaves, the dragon stares at the closed door with dismay, grumbling miserably. For the next twenty minutes or so, she doesn't leave the vicinity of it. She rears up on her hind legs and pushes at the door, scratches at it, honking dispiritedly. She alternates a few times between doing that, and variously getting back on all fours to proceed with headbutting, scratching, and trying to stick her nose under the door.

The headbutts are actually significantly noisy, enough to make the door frame rattle loud enough to hear upstairs, probably... but she only gets two off before she hurts herself on the third. After that she gives up, turning about with a dejected snort to go in to the furthest corner of the treasure room and find something large and shiny to curl up on.

When Lapis walks in, that's where she'll still be, crouching and glaring as the door opens. The meat actually turns out to be a good call though; she could smell it before Lapis even brought it downstairs, and she sits up a bit with shrewd interest when it comes in through the door