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 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.

"How about I just give you food when I eat?" Then she doesn't have to make food twice, and it leaves her a happier person. "Humans eat three times a day, most of the time." Which is honestly more realistic than once, but she's also forgotten to eat a few times.

The life of a thief, honestly.

She shrugs her wings. "That should be fine then."

"Great, it's a deal then." Lapis can live with what she's offered here. "The chains aren't coming off until your stuff is over here though. Sorry, just a precaution." She still doesn't trust Peridot to not run off.

"You got a name or what?"

She shakes her head 'no'.

"Well, I can't keep calling you 'Dragon', so." Lapis turns, rummaging about on one of the crates that her guest hadn't knocked over earlier, grabbing an armful of shiny jewels before walking over to said dragon and laying them at her feet.

"Pick one. Might as well have a theme going here."

She sits up a little to watch, ears pricked forward with keen interest, and noses a little closer when Lapis sets all those nice shiny gems down.

After a moment she bats a paw out and scoops a light green one closer. Maybe because it's big, maybe because it seems to be the same color that she is. Who can say, really.

"That your choice?" Just to be sure. The rest she'll scoop back up again to put away, if that's the case.

"That's why I pulled it away from the others, yes," she says a little impatiently.