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The sound of thunder stirred Sithen from his fitful dreaming until he was lured back into the world of wakefulness. No, it wasn't thunder, it was the sound of the waves that crashed against the coves and caves that littered the desolate shore of Craig Island. He lifted his head to see a shaft of golden light spilling out from the opening of his cave and let out a muted rumble. The angle of the light hinted that he had been asleep far longer than he had planned to be, but he had spent most of last night on the wing harrying and driving back the Empire's warships from leaving their ports. His wing muscles ached with the strain of fighting the torrential downpour and winds that they had attempted to use as cover.

The great beast lifted his head up and reared it back before yawning and started to stretch. He could dimly hear the sound of drum beats rising up from beneath his chosen home. A sense of mild annoyance built as he padded forward towards the opening of the cavern. They were so noisy these two legged creatures. At all hours they reveled in making noises that annoyed and grated on him. From the beating of their drums to the wailing of infants the made him want to take off into the skies and leave the puny creatures to their own devices. It went against all his instincts to remain so close to them, but he was as bound to them as a female to her eggs. He could no more leave them then a clutching female could.

His eyes swirled a deep fiery red as he instinctively turned his head towards the east. The ocean was deceptively peaceful and calm, the skies a clear sapphire, but still he could not see what he longed to see. He had traced the scent of his mate deep into the lush rich farm lands of the Empire before he had been forced to retreat. They had taken her, of that he was sure. Were it a village or a small town he could have regained her through force and leveled the place in a single night to teach them his wrath. But the trail lead deeper into the more inhabited cities where he often saw men with swords and spears rather than farmers. What use in killing himself to save her when he would fail? He had despaired and been forced to withdraw.

It had been one of the courageous people of his own village in the north that had approached him. The creature didn't come to the spot they often brought him live meat to enjoy, he came into the heart of the mountains in answer to his frustrated screams. For one moment he had nearly snapped the man up and decimated him for what had been done to his mate, but a single brush of thoughts had stopped him. The crude form of communication that flowed from the small scaleless animal had made him hesitate long enough to listen. And oh how he had listened. They had more in common than the dragon had anticipated, and it was with joy that he embraced the man's ideas for his own.

He had chosen Craig Island to lead the villagers to for a reason. It had once been their laying grounds when his kind had still been known to fly the skies. He could remember fondly many a female that had left the main continent to find her way here to these lonely shores and build her nest among the rocks. That wasn't the reason for choosing it though. It was the only place he knew of that the humans had never found a way into, at least not in force. There was a way to slip through the jagged rocks that guarded the outer rim and it was there he led the people. His broad form had churnedup waves as he dived and herded them as he would have a herd of deer so that they found the opening in the dangerous cove.

Sithen knew that they hated it here. He was well aware that the harsh living conditions made them unhappy, but who would dare question him? He found himself able to quell even the most vicious of fights and mutinies by virtue of his presence alone. He only allowed Baen to speak to him or to request him to fly out. Only Baen was allowed to come up his cliff face towards the enclosed cave that he called his home. It was the old warrior that had started to gather other tribes and countries together until each day more came by boat and were guided through the treacherous waters. Soon he would barely have enough space on the island to contain them. But that suited him just fine.

:Storm Caller....Jewel eyes...Lord of Sharp Teeth...: Sithen swiveled his head around at the half formed thoughts. They were muzzy and barely able to be understood like a hatchling, but Baen was far from a hatchling.

:What?: He followed the thought with a snarl and felt an unexpected surge of pleasure when the old man didn't flinch away.

Baen was more like Sithen then he had accounted for. The old man was scarred and bitter, he too remembered a time when his people had prospered. He had haltingly conveyed the war he carried out to bring his people to greatness again and more importantly the role the dragon could play. The beast had made it clear many times he was no animal or play thing. He would not be seen as something they could order about. He'd accomplished the feat so well in fact no one attempted to come near him but Baen. The elder man seemed to treat him with a reverence that pleased the dragon and even the stilted compliments pleased him enough to often sooth his moods. Would that all humans could learn to be trained so well!

:The sea, the boats...they come.: The thoughts barely made sense until he caught the mental image of the war ships that had repaired the docks enough to begin setting sail.

Sithen blasted the man's thoughts for a moment with outrage and his anger at being called upon to drive them back. He watched Baen stagger under the thoughts a creature larger and more powerful then himself, but the old warrior finally regained control of himself with a shake all over and tried to repeat his message. The great beast felt a stirring of pride and amusement at the small creature. They were more alike than he cared to admit, but he could almost grow fond of the grizzled figure and those primitive thoughts. He stretched his wings up and high enough to almost touch the ceiling of the cave to watch the human gaze up with undisguised longing. A shame the pitiful thing hadn't been born a dragon.

:I'll want food when I return, I am not your dog.: He snarled the words and carefully removed even the smallest touch of affection from them. It would do no good to have them believing that he would do any of this for anything other than regaining his mate. He threw himself into the air with a snap of his wings leaving the old warrior gazing enviously behind him. The air embraced and wrapped around him even as he wondered when and if he would ever see the graceful form his daughter again. As he looked down upon Craig Island and the growing army he felt a stirring of hope, he would pit the two legs against each other and then...then they would see.

+++++

Emperor Hylar stood looking out of the wide opened doors that exited towards the walled in canal and watched as the barge started to come in closer to the shore. Decades of ruling his people had schooled his face into an impassive mask as the sailors aboard strived to show themselves at their very best. Did they hope to garner his favor or catch his eye? Perhaps they felt if they could they might find themselves with positions of honor within his household. He paid little attention to them, instead his eyes were locked on the beast that was bound to the barge. The sunlight enhanced it's form so that even from this distance he could see the glittering scales and the rise of a furred mane that trailed all the way down its neck.

In every way it looked exactly as his reports had said the beast should look like. Had he not heard his spy's report this morning he would have assumed that Timat had indeed been successful in his endeavor. But he knew better. He trusted his spies above and beyond any other person that dwelled within his kingdom. They alone were picked from the most likely of the young men and women in his realm as children. He had his guards constantly on the look out for them. They were not nobles children or even the children of his soldiers, they were the children of the poorest and lowliest sections of his town. He never accepted one into training that was highly bred.

It was simply good practice to make sure that the ones that were caught stealing or scaling walls were punished and taken away before they became professional thieves. The people on the streets believed they were taken to a juvenile jail, but instead they were brought before him. They were bathed and clothed in rich garbs before they were fed until they ate themselves into a stupor. He had found the urchins had little in the way of ambition besides filling their own stomachs and being comfortable. All of those comforts came from his hand in exchange for their silence and their skills at observing unseen. He had twenty now, all as loyal to him as his own children would be, all reporting to only him. It was an old pact he had made with them. If anyone ever tried to buy them away they need only tell him and he would match that price for the name of the would be traitor.

"Highness?" His attendant shifted and the Emperor shifted himself free from his musings to stare at the fussy man who looked anxious. "They're docked."

"Then let Timat bring forth his captive." His voice was measured and soft. He had no reason to raise it, not when he had an aide standing by to repeat him in a far louder voice.

Hylar had almost canceled the honor of this presentation the moment he heard that Timat had captured the wrong beast. There was no call for all of the pomp that would undoubtedly inflate the man's ego, but too many had heard of his coming. If he had cancelled it with no reason others would surely question what was going on. No breath of this unrest must reach the general population, so he would allow the Mage his hour of glory before he was pulled aside and questioned over the reason for his failure. The emperor had no doubt that the man knew that there had been more then one dragon there. One of his qualities was that of being quick and observant. The gods help him if he failed to give him a proper reason.

+++++

Lashane closed her eyes and felt herself sag against the restraints that were wrapped around her. The sound of the crowds ebbed and flowed around her. There was excitement on the air and once she would have savored the sound of it. It was everything she had fallen in love with in the city. There were screams of delight and fear mixed together. It was everything she had dreamed of the first time she had set out after the dragoness along the edge of the ocean and traveled to the north. She opened one eye when she felt a bump as the barge landed firmly against the dock and the now familiar sound of Timat's footsteps came to her.

"Unchain her!" He called out, his voice holding a melodramatic air to it.

For just a single moment she felt a surge of hope rush through her. If only she could free her wings she'd be able to take to the air and escape. She'd take her revenge out on Timat with a swipe of her claws before... The thought trailed off as she remembered the heavy lead weight of the cannon balls lodged inside of her stomach, the feel of them rolling back and forth inside her womb so that her broad scales were strained to look swollen. The sailors started to approach her with obvious fear on their faces at being asked to remove the chains and ropes that had been used to ensure she couldn't harm anyone on the deck. She opened her eyes and let out a muffled growl around the muzzle, her lips tried to twitch backwards to show her teeth.

"Come now lads, our lovely Charmer won't be giving us any trouble." Timat's voice was a croon as he came in and leaned forward to unsnap the first chain that ran over her foreshoulders.

The former mage felt the pull of the chain tugging away from her body and the metal moving made her feel slight sores that had been formed from the constant chafing. At Timat's apparent fearlessness of their bound dragon the rest of the crew ventured forward to take their own chances. She could feel rope and chain being tugged from her as the crowd backed away. There was a rippling of unease from the crowd as she tried to shift her forepaws under her. She tried to heave upwards before she found her legs going out from under her with a stab of pain. Her muscles cramped up while she swayed her head back and forth before bellowing out around the muzzle. After days of being stuck in the same position and pinned down against the deck of ship her muscles protested her movements.

The chains were pulled free away from her haunches so that she was trying again to heave herself upwards. Her legs shuddered as she gave a pull of the heavy muzzle along her head and she strained to open her lips up wider. It was the one restraint they weren't taking off, that and the heavy chains that pinned her wings to her side. Her stomach felt as if it were dipped down under the weight of the cannon balls that filled her womb. Her body felt sore and weak as she lurched forward a step and her hind leg almost crumpled under her while she snarled out furiously. A new wave of humiliation flooded her as she heard laughter from the crowd as they mocked her attempts to walk.

"Easy, Charmer." She felt a hand pat against her shoulder before a new chain was flung over her neck and pinned her fur like Mohawk.

The dragoness twisted her head to one side as she let out a hiss at the feel of the chain collar being fastened around her throat. As the moments passed she felt herself growing more sure on her legs and she tried to turn her head to one side to growl at Timat. She shook her head roughly back and forth a few times as she tried to move a paw up to catch the muzzle to yank it off. The moment her paw went up almost to touch her muzzle when the collar tugged tight around her neck. The links closed down under her throat and pinched against her scales until they pulled tight over her air pipe. She gagged and fell slightly to one side as her eyes bulged.

She reared back on her haunches to try and escape it, but the collar dug in tighter. She could feel prongs pinching and forcing the scales upwards as it cut off any hope of drawing in a breath. She wheezed and dropped down to all fours again with her lips struggling to open up to suck in breath. Her eyes spun faster and faster in panic before Timat shifted and the chain loosened around her neck so she could draw in a breath. She shook her head back and forth and glared at him malevolently as the Mage gave a lazy smile to the crowd as they made a few impressed sounds at seeing him put the beast into place. Another pull of the chain and she was forced to take her first step towards the ramp that lead down towards the pier.

++++

Timat kept his hands on the chain that he had used to attach to a modified collar that wrapped around her throat. It was perfect to keep her under control by cutting off her air supply when made any move to pull what remained of her bonds off. He needed to keep control over her to make sure they saw him as the one in control. He had to admit she looked glorious in the summer sunlight, her every scale had been polished and if her belly looked gravid it didn't detract from what she was. The only thing that he regretted was the fact she had to wear the last of the restraints on her form. The slender muzzle was locked shut and those glorious wings were pulled in close to either side of her chest and stomach.

The next time he pulled on the chain she stepped forward with what he imagined was a look of anger towards him. The more time he spent around the beast, the easier he found it to rationalize how she reacted and apply almost human emotions to her. If only they could tame her down she'd make a perfect mount. He stepped onto the gang plank and gave a pull that brought the massive beast down behind him The wood creaked under her broad heavy paws and her eyes started to speed up with their colors as she looked at the gathered crowd. His eyes weren't on the interested and eager people of the court that had come to see his find. His eyes were on the lone figure that stood at the doorway to the palace itself.

The Emperor stood just inside the shade that was offered by the arch above him. His only companion was one of his aides while the body guards were ranged lower down on the stares. From this distance he couldn't make out approval or disappointment on the old man's face, but he felt his welcome was assured. The animal walked beside him and pulled at the chain with increasingly frantic efforts to free herself. He could feel her growls through the vibrations that ran along the leash while her head swayed side to side. She towered over everyone, even the tallest person barely came to her shoulder! When coupled with the sheer bulk of her the animal created an impressive looking being despite her lack of brilliant jeweled scales.

"His Majesty wishes to convey his approval for your daring and successful venture, Master Timat." The voice jolted him out of his thoughts as he walked the dragon towards the very base of the steps.

"My wish is only to serve him." He murmured softly.

One of the lesser aides had hastened down to his side as if he could not be trusted to make his way to the Emperor without embarrassing himself in some way. More to the point the aide had only called him 'master'. A title he had earned true, but coming to the Emperor's palace, leading a beast that would effectively end the altercation between the Braan's tribes and the Empire he should have been given more respect. The aide was the very image of a scholar in so much that he was slender and had the pale look of a man who never sought further then his own study. He didn't even bear the ranking of one who was privileged to directly server the Emperor's house hold! The mage felt a stab of anger at being sent this mouse of a man with his lord's greetings.

"The Emperor bid's that you leave the beast with his Stablemaster to be displayed in the courtyard for all to enjoy. He wishes you to attend him in a private audience upon the matter of your mission and rewards your labor deserves." The man went on with one eye restlessly on the beast that was keeping as much distance between herself and mage as possible. Now THAT was more like it. A private audience was much more the thing that he expected!

+++++

Lashane had never realized how much she yearned for her homeland until her paws had touched the ground away from the ship. It wasn't simply that she grew up here, it was compounded with a thousand scents and sights that made her eyes sting with the need to cry. She had changed enough she held her tears, but not so much that she didn't draw in deep breaths of the spices on the air, the freshly baking bread, the incense of the temples. They all spoke of home to her. A home she had forgotten in her time so far away from this place that it had seemed another world entirely. Yet her homecoming was nothing what she wanted. She was chained and she could see people dressed in familiar styles pointing and gawking at her.

The dragoness missed the conversation between Timat and the squirrely looking man, save she saw the man's obvious fear of her. She even could smell it. She turned her eyes away with disdain and looked up higher towards the main building of the palace. In her eyes it was the very epitome of what civil life should be. It was built with beauty in mind, but also held the hint of something else. It was towering and domineering. A sight that made one stop and wonder at the strength of arms the person who had built this might have. Even the gargoyles that lined the corner were fearsome beasts poised to attack. Where the beautiful lines might lead one to think of luxury, she knew that beneath it all was a snarling dog that was silent warning of any who tried to conquer the Empire.

Her eyes found the Emperor's and felt a stab of shock as she almost met his eyes. He had barely changed since she had last seen him, but the aura of command he carried around him was different somehow. Her sharp eyes picked out lines that had not been there the last time she had seen him and to her amusement he had a look of disgust as his eyes rested on the flaunting Timat. The man was more peacock then human with the way he walked and flirted with those that looked his way. It was only when she realized that a larger man was coming forward with his hand held out that she was being transferred to another handler entirely.

"Now, take care of my Charmer, please. She's been fed and watered, but do not remove the muzzle. She's still not sure about her place in the scheme of things" The mage's hand lifted up to rub against her shoulder so that her head turned around with lightening speed to try and snap at it. The move was all in vain as the collar clamped down around her throat and cut off her air supply just long enough to make her shake her head and drop it forward to regain control of it.

"Aye, she'll be well looked after. Not as mean as that damned wyvern is she?" The man's voice was coarse to her ears.

"No, not at all. She's got quite the lovely manners once you show her who is more dominate." Timat laughed softly under his breath as he passed the lead over to the man. "The Emperor wants her well displayed."

"She will be. Did ya manage to find a pregnant one? He'll be even happier if he has the chance at the hatchlings rather then the adults." The man seemed to be examining her swollen belly and she sucked in a breath. The look was clinical, not even interested in much more then the answer to the question. Was she really considered that much of a beast.

"I hope so, wouldn't that be a lovely surprise for us all!" Timat slapped the man's shoulder before turning to start up the large steps that lead to the Emperor.

She let out a low hiss at the new man as he gave the lead a pull. She dug her paws into the ground and tried to prevent herself from being tugged somewhere she did not want to go. The man smelled thickly of musky horses and hay, mixed in with sweat. Given his high quality clothes she could only assume that she was being given into the stable master's charge. Did they expect her to be shoved into a stall and forgotten about? She bristled at the thought but as the collar tightened and started to choke her she let out a hiss and had to follow. The damned collar was worse than being completely bound simply for the fact it made it seem as if she were willingly following the man's directions!

Despite the humiliation of the procession of people that seemed intent on following after her while she was led away, she felt almost relaxed as she walked. Her muscles were stretching and contracting under her for the first time in days. She could actually stretch them out to her fullest extent and mourned the fact her wings couldn't be given the same consideration.. Her head turned just enough to see the Emperor's eyes weren't on her at all, instead they were watching the approaching young mage with a fierce gleam in his eyes. Whatever Timat thought he was going to be getting into, she was almost positive it wasn't going to be the experience that he was hoping for. That thought gave her the strength to move through the massive arch and towards the courtyard. The knowledge he would be getting his kept her going.

"Tell me, are you blind, stupid or ignorant?" The first words that fell from Emperor Hylar's lips shocked Timat out of his self satisfied gloating. The voice was cold and sharp.

They had arrived at the Emperor's sitting room with Timat in a fine mood about the situation. He had brought back the dragon that his ruler so desired, the beast appeared tame with the aid of the choke collar and he had had the chance to have several of the higher up nobles see him. Even if the Emperor's reward did not give him what he wanted, chances were a few of those men would remember him and perhaps offer up their daughters for his hand in marriage. A mage was a desirable marriage for a common man, but an uncommon Mage deserved better than a farmer's girl with a face like unbaked dough. Those thoughts left him at the terse words from Hylar.

"My gracious lord, I am none of those." Timat had always had a fine sense of when it was time to appease someone. The piercing eyes pinned him in place until he fought past them to drop on one knee. "What have I done, Highness?"

"I must assume you are one of those three or a traitor. I doubt you want to be seen as a traitor, Timat." The man moved and took a seat on a high backed chair that was set next to a desk. "You have the wrong dragon."

"Sire?" Timat covered his shock and a sudden wave of coldness that flowed through him at those words. No one would have dared speak to the Emperor that he had seen the other dragon. They hadn't even been within sight of the city long enough to have met anyone!

"Do not play the fool with me, Mage." The voice held a bit of warmth for the first time. "I don't care for your reasoning or rationalizations, but there is more than one dragon as you well know. Why, Timat, did I send you to the North?"

"To capture the dragon that lurked within the mountains, my lord." Timat lowered his head and studied the patterns in the carpet. His mind worked furiously. Should he tell him it was a matter of which one came first? Should he lie and say he had not seen the other? Or should he halve the truth somehow.

"I had thought you a wise man, Timat. Clever even, but you seem to have forgotten a key point. I never sent you to capture A dragon." There was the sound of paper being unfurled. "I sent you to capture the Braan's dragon, the one they call their god to dishearten and prevent the attacks that have ravaged our sea ports. You have brought me a dragon and not the right one."

"My lo-" Timat started the sentence but was cut off with another flow of words.

"Do you know the damage you have done? Come here, come and see what you have created with this 'mistake'." The last word dripped with scorn, but Timat forced himself to stand up to find Hylar holding a map open over the table. "These are our coastal cities as they were last year, the blue marks the profitable taxes and trade that were sent here, the red the less fortunate villages that required aid."

"Aye, your highness." He obediently lowered his eyes to see the shadings that had been made over various sections. The red held about a third of it, though they seemed collected in one area.

"This is where we stand now." Another map was unrolled and this time it well over half was done in red and it spread outwards in various spots that seemed to mark the largest cities on the coast. "I assume you chose the easiest target of the dragons, but now they rally with that damned beast!"

"I captured the first that came into the trap, highness, I could not release it." Timat tried to keep his guilt from leaking through his words. The half truth was enough, he hoped, to keep his real thoughts to himself. His greed in wanting the animal he had seen that had outshone the beast he had caught.

"I do not care what your reasons are!" The voice snapped out as a thin finger jabbed right down against the scroll. "They are taking chunks from the cities. The red is no longer where our profits are faltering, but where entire cities are being ransacked. They have a hold on this island." The finger moved out to see and a small dot in the midst of the blue-green see.

"Nothing can live there, it's barren, Sire." Timat hesitantly offered, "We can't even place a light house there, the rocks are so sharp they tear up any ship that tries."

"They don't if they've a dragon of their own to guide them. The dragon has been sighted at the cities, it has been sighted destroying piers and sinking our ships. That dragon that you were sent to bring back here is now a rallying point to every conquered people we have included in our Empire in the last fifty years!" With each word Hylar had stood taller and his eyes burned with an almost fanatic anger. "Lycal, Genioa, Francen, and many others are starting to rebel! "

"Majesty, a dragon cannot cause all of that-" Timat ventured quietly.

"The dragon is merely a rallying point. A creature that one group says comes from the gods. What is causing it is the people of Braan are challenging us and there are others who are fueled with the same poison in their thoughts that are joining them. For all I know you've got the beasts mate in there and he'll lead them right up the river to the city itself!"

"We can defend ourselves, Lordship, we have the army and the navy." Timat tried to sooth the Emperor even as his eyes fell to the red on the map that looked like a stain of blood.

"We can defend ourselves, but our trade is at risk. The very Empire and all we have built is at risk. If we cede land to what we have conquered we will lose ground quickly. We must nip this in the bud before it grows any further and a would be Emperor from Braan tries to take what we've created." Hylar leaned forward over the table with his hands resting on either side of the map. "You have at least caught one of the animals they see as sacred, that is all you have done. The question I have now is, is it trainable?"

"I believe so, Sire, she seems to respond to the choke collar as you saw. I suspect she's quite young and if we can put her in a position of needing us she might change her ways." The mage reluctantly spoke, he wasn't positive himself that he'd be able to deliver a tame dragon despite how much he had thought about it.

"And how shall we do that, Mage? Starve her? Hood her like a falcon? My huntsmen train hounds and hawks, not dragons. And we all know how much success we've had with that worthless beast you captured before this."

"No, my lord, I suspect if we exhaust her she might be in a mindset that we can train her. Exhaustion would take some of the fight from her where if she were starved she would surely find one of us a meal." Timat spoke slowly as the last sentence Hylar had spoken played within his mind. Something about it set his mind to swirling with ideas.

"Do what you need to do with it. You have a fortnight to give me results. We may achieve some form of coup if they see one of their sacred beasts fighting for us rather than against us." Timat started to make his promises before the sharp voice overrode him. "After a fortnight I will decide if you have earned punishment or reward for what you have done. Do not disappointment me, Timat."

++++

Lashane tried several times to jerk back against the leash only to feel it clenching shut around her throat so that she was sent to wheezing out in pain when her air flow was cut off. She was forced into a broad court yard that she vaguely remembered was the aft yard used for the horses and cavalry training. Some of the nobles had retreated away from the sight of her. Perhaps they had gotten their fill of seeing the trained 'beast' being drug around like so much meat. She stopped when the stable master pulled the chain through a heavy iron ring placed into the wall. The edges of it were twisted about to form something of a clipped knot that kept her in place. Her body took up a great deal of the space where several horses at once normally went through maneuvers.

The worst part about those that remained to watch her was that she recognized more than a few faces. True she recognized them as if they were out of a dream, but they were there with all the haunting familiarity of a nightmare. She tried to ignore them at first, but every movement seemed to echo the fact she knew them. Yet they didn't know her. They looked over her as if she were a curiosity come to the city. One of the side shows that many people would leer and gasp at. She couldn't tell if she was relieved or merely humiliated that she had been brought to this level. Perhaps it was for the best. How could she ever explain to them how this had happened to her? Or worse, would some text tell them how she had been changed? Would they find out that she had been brutally raped by a beast to become this? She shuddered from nose to tail at the thought.

She turned her muzzled head to one side to see those that remained were starting to come closer to her. Her bound wings and muzzled mouth kept her from doing more than giving aborted lashes of her tail to try and strike against them. The man who had led her hear sat impassively by her head and held one hand right at the base of her collar in preparation to punishing her if she tried to do more than growl as several gowned women came close. They fluttered and one giggled as she edged forward to touch one of her scales. The squeal of delighted fear and scurrying back made her mute a low rumble deep in her chest. If she were only free they would squeal for another reason! Squeal as she swallowed them down for her breakfast.

"Ladies...ladies...ladies...I see you've met my own Lady." Timat's voice came from somewhere above her in a flirting tone that she had gotten to know all too well.

"Your Lady, Lord Timat?" One of the girls spoke in a cloying sweet voice that made her want to knock her into a wall.

"Of course! My sweet silver Lady Charmer!" He started down the stairs with a flash of a dazzling smile. Only the knowledge gained by years of having known him let her see the slightly wrinkling of his brow that betrayed his nervousness. What did he have to be nervous of?

She turned her head as much as she could from the scene and nearly knocked the stableman over as he kept holding her collar. She wanted a distraction, any distraction would do. The egomania of her capture coupled with the knowledge people she had once called friends or at the very least comrades were staring at her left her edgy. Did they see her as a feral drooling beast? Would they tell stories of what they had seen here? She moved her haunches down a little and winced as the heavy balls in her womb rolled against each other and pushed against her cervix so that she was forced to raise her hips up. She'd have to get rid of them sometime. She only hoped she was alone when that happened.

Her thoughts had started to reach a bleak state when she found a distraction of sorts. A young girl was holding the halter of a glittering gold and red animal at the far edge of the court. At first Lashane had assumed the animal was a horse that was strangely unafraid of her, but at second glance she recognized the great branching antlers that rose up along the rise of the thick crimson mane. The reptilian head was slightly horse shaped as it came down to a soft almost equine like muzzle. She knew if it opened it mouth she'd see a set of curved fangs. It had been one of the Emperor's first attempts at catching a dragon and the only one that had tamed down easily enough. A Kirin.

The girl holding its halter looked shocked at seeing the dragon taking up the plaza she had obviously been taking the animal too. The golden beast shifted nervously and lowered its head to pull against her tunic before taking a nervous step forward. The kirin was beautiful, she would give it that. It was made up of so many colors of gold it was breathtaking to look upon. The soft liquid silver eyes peered at her for a moment before it pulled back on the harness again and the stable girl gave it a stiff little tug before a smile moved over her face. It was a tender soft smile of sorts as she rubbed under the beasts chin and for just a moment Lashane wished with all her heart she had so simple a life as that girl and her charge. Something so simple as affection freely given and received.

"Jinna! Get that outta here! You're going to get the beast upset!" The stablemaster's sharp words broke the peaceful moment and shattered it as the girl startled and the Kirin reared up with a strange trumpeting sound.

Lashane snarled through the muzzle at the man who had ruined the moment of peace, but she was forced to look to the other side as a hand gripped the muzzle. Timat's grip was strong as he held it right under the curve of her chin and she tried to hiss out at him. Hatred burned inside of her as he flirted with a trio of ladies and purposefully kept her head positioned so that they could admire his catch. All that was missing was his foot propped up on her as if he had killed her in some great hunt. All she wanted was just one moment where the muzzle was off and he was in range and she would be content with all else the world dealt her.

"Stef, please take Charmer down to the quarry and introduce her to someone more her kind then the kirin." Timat's voice was smug as the stable hand gave a tug on the collar.

"Errr Mage.. I don't know if that's the best idea." The hesitant voice hid an undercurrent of fear.

"It is, trust me. It's time that this beast learn a bit more about her place in the scheme of things. Take her there and have the keepers help you let her into the quarry where she can meet her new cage mate." Timat moved his hand up against her cheek and wet his lips, "The Wyvern has been alone so long, we shouldn't allow him to pine away after all. Not when we have such a lovely female we can offer him."

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