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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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

"Hey, don't give me that look. I could have let you go hungry, you know." Which would have been cheaper to boot. Honestly she's just as bad as any dragon when it comes to parting with her amassed fortune.

She sets the plateful of raw meat on the ground close to her, and then moves away to lean up against one of the supports. "It's cow, for the record."

She gives the human a long, quizzical look, and then glances back down at the plate of meat. It does smell... tempting.

The dragon extricates herself from her makeshift nest and steps gingerly towards the food, sniffing it more carefully. She's never had 'cow' before. Not fresh, anyway. And she is hungry, so surely it couldn't hurt to try--

She moves forward to grab a piece, but attempting to open her jaws reminds her that she has a chain wrapped tight around her snout at the moment. Frustrated, she sits back heavily on her haunches and glares at Lapis, lifting a paw to brush at her muzzle in a meaningful way.

Oh, right. She'd actually forgotten that she'd tied up her snout. Lapis moves closer to remove it, though she does pause before completely undoing it.

"I swear if you bite my hand I'm going to take the plate away." And then she undoes it, letting the chain drop to the ground.

She doesn't bite, for whatever that's worth. The only thing she aims her teeth at here are the contents of the plate, which she snaps up greedily. Some of the larger pieces she picks up in her jaws and shakes first, and then holds down with both paws so she can tug back and tear off chunks.

All said and done it takes her less than 2 minutes to finish the whole thing off. Then she sits back down, looking a bit less agitated now.

"Alright, that wasn't so bad, I guess," she admits between passes of her tongue over her lips, staring at Lapis thoughtfully.

That is kind of disgusting, but whatever, if it gets her at least a little further into Peridots good graces, it's probably worth it.

"I have more than just that, you know. You don't have to act like I plan on murdering you." She heard you whining and headbutting the door, for the record. "So tell me, what's so bad about staying here instead and doing this for me?" She can't see any reason why the dragon would refuse?

"Aside from the fact that you're not actually giving me any choice in the matter?" she snorts, lip curling slightly. "I do have a life you know. I have a territory to watch and a hoard to keep up and hunting to do."

"And so do I." Her territory being this cottage and the town half a days travel out, and her hoard being all of this and her hunting, well, for more riches. "I really can't just let you go, you know." She can't know for certain if this dragon won't come back to take all of her stuff. It's a dragon, no matter how small it is.

The dragon heaves an exasperated, weary sigh and flops onto the floor with her head on her front paws, looking dejected. "You could, you just don't want to," she mutters, closing her eyes.

"It's too risky." She shrugs. "Would you let me go if I knew where your stash was and could theoretically steal from it when you're out?"

She has a hard time imagining that scenario, if only because most of her stuff is up in the hollow of a tree that's too high for most humans to get at (unless they happen to be good climbers).

Her only answer to that question is a grunt. She's finding she's having a hard time getting too worked up about this all of a sudden, for some reason...

Yes, for some reason...

"I'll split what I have with you if you agree," She proposes, very aware that it's not like a dragon is going to go out spending her stuff, and that it'll stay right here where she can keep an eye on it anyway.

The idea of a part ownership gets her attention more than anything else has so far. "Hmmmmm," the dragon hums, cocking her head thoughtfully. "That is a much more acceptable offer. Fine. I agree."

"I'd still like for you to move your stuff here, though. I'll let you pick out the stuff you want, though there's still a few things in here that aren't negotiable." And that way Peridot doesn't run off with her more treasured treasures.

The dragon has a few things that she doesn't want the human to get her hands on either, but... they can deal with that as it comes. "Fine. More importantly... what of this "cow" flesh that you provided me with just now? Will there be more of that?"

She wants the beef.

"It's not the flesh, it's the muscle. Cow skins are used for tanning to make leather." She lifts her foot and taps her boot. "But yes, I can get more of it. How much do you eat anyway?"

She's heard that dragons can eat entire cows, but that doesn't seem like it's going to be a problem with this one. A cow is bigger than her.

"At least as much as you gave me just now. Once a day. That should be an acceptable amount," she says, like she's negotiating wages or something. Look, she's a dragon, it's not like she keeps track of how much she eats on the regular.

"Once a day?" That doesn't seem like a lot? Whatever, keeps her wallet filled. "Sure, I can do that no problem. Would you rather it in the morning or afternoon or night?" Dragons 101 was never her best class, honestly.

She crosses her paws, flicking her tail. "Hmm... I'm not sure. I'll probably just let you know on a daily basis as it becomes necessary."

Bossy.