(T1 Quinsilla) Dragons and Beasts - (20th Board)

Description: When a messenger tells King Straten of the live capture of a dragon from the clan of Maledictus Eice - the very group that has been terrorising the Northern Surahnian borders and destroyed Plurith and its surrounding area - he wastes no time in traveling to Quinsilla by the swiftest of dragons.
The activities of this unpredictable and seemingly independent arrangement of dragons could yet be found.
This dragon is of course, a prisoner of the highest value and the King knows that if a job is expected to be done correctly, sometimes, he must take it into his own hands. The fact that prisoner "Tabri" is a lightning dragon with a voracious appetite for human folk only makes it all the more intriguing to him, perhaps even a little nostalgic.

Setting:
It is ~10 pm, within a dragon chamber of the Surselea.

Day: 6th July, 3709

This is a one on one plot roleplay.

Joiners:
---Zay (Zartear)
---Rogue (Tabri)

This is a private board so no new joiners are accepted without board participants permission.

Sitting in the relative inertia of the Racksom Palace had never appealed much to him. It came with its own pleasures, but nothing of true significance, it had to be restated again and again that he was a man of ambition and action...Zartear could only be offered so many fine drinks or rich foods, only have so many servants ready to appease his whims before he became restless. He would not settle for settling, there was just far too much that he craved, too much that had to be done.

When the news had found him from the scared few of Plurith, he had been mildly angered, the land was never of much value, but the action was aggressive and uncompromising. It was a bare faced challenge against his people; they knew no fear and it was the first significant amount of action against the Rebels that had been found thus far. Thankfully valuable people were spared, the few peasants sent out there were hardly a great loss in the scheme of it all, yet he was not one to turn a blind eye to such defiance.

Yet, the War Father had always favoured him; here at his mercy was the first captive of this violent collection of dragons. There was everything to gain from this and the information would pass by no others than himself unless he deemed it fit.
If the war father did love him as much as he was lead to believe, the dragon would be wanting every last grain of his mercy, sooner than later, it would run itself raw for needing it.

Having been lead into the belly of the Surselea, down where it was at its darkest, bar the steady lighting for the lamps, he entered one of the doors along the grand corridor. It was a large, imposing sort of door, thick buckled with iron on its hinges and over it. Letting himself in he hastily dismissed the guard that had followed, assured that he knew how to deal with this dragon. Zartear would have no spectators or eavesdroppers.
Looking up with his lamp lifted to see better, he saw that the entire room was lined on its outskirts with torches in preparation for him. It was a cold, damp sort of place and earth seeped in through some of the cracks. Roomy as it was to make way for a dragon, the dragon itself- a female lightning storm as he had been told- was the centre piece. She had been muzzled and tied by crude yet effective metal pieces, each of her wrists with a hefty ring about them. The front two and back two each were linked with eachother and stretched apart; far enough to bend, close enough so she would not rest. Apart from this, the room appeared bare. However, a tastefully carved rack was at one side with all manner of instruments for dragons.

The items had been remade by the rebels, but based upon the designs found, whomever was to thank for this gloriously well planned structure, had Zartear's personal thanks.

There were lances, claw pliers, from the thinnest of blades to those of the large, serrated and terrifying. Some were very particular, judged to exactly remove pieces of certain dragons with their weird and wonderful talons, teeth and razors, some were apparently reserved for magical methods; Zartear had no interest in such.
The dragon glowed with energy, the light of her magic upon the underside of her wings cast a purple hue all about her in the gloomy place; the wings themselves had already been pierced and bound together at their top most bones, one less annoyance to deal with.

"Good evening my dear dragon!" He greeted her splendidly, the voice of a good host radiating through the room with vigor, he strode toward the rack with a look of confidence about him and an inviting smile. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, how might one call you? A beautiful name for a beautiful Lady dragon, I presume." He licked his lips with anticipation as he sized up the rack, before promptly hoisting a simple lance from it and then turning, walking back toward her, amicable as he ever could be.
He held the lance firmly to one side, as he leaned, the end of it solidly against the stone floor. "If you are so interested, my name is Zartear Straten, Lord of the people, Master of all men, King of Surahnia...oh but I would not want to bore you with all those formalities."

Anger. Pure hot, scorching anger filled Tabri from head to tail. Anything else, even pain, came second to the fuel that fired her now, like she had felt before, but had always been able to quench… now she could do no such thing.

It simmered hot within her, waiting.

She had been ice-cold and uncaring when the Surahnians found her, strayed from the old Plurith, now Halosis, alone. Tabri had never been one for company, and in any case, a feral dragon with an insatiable, mad lust for spilt blood was not the sort of company many would keep. She was just the sort of dragon Maledictus Eice loved. Apart from her wild streak… but that had cost her now, had it not?

The first Surahs though, she had had her way with. Never underestimate the claws and teeth of a ME dragon, lest of all a lightning storm. She was dangerous captured like this now, within the depths of the Surselea, with her wing pinned, her jaws clamped shut and her claws chained- what fool attempted to take a dragon like that from the wild, from her element?

These Surahnian Rebels, scum of the earth, were fools. How dare they hold her like this? How dare they even set eyes on her, oppose her? She wanted to rip them limb from limb and roast each piece of them in her fiery breath.

It was with these violent thoughts she set her glowing eyes on the man who deigned to enter, act as a lord above the others who had been “guarding” her. Her lips curled a little under the metal muzzle, but she didn’t yet move against him as he found his way around her cold prison with apparent ease. She had already seen well the array of weapons, horrific instruments of mutilation displayed proudly upon the wall.
If he thought it would cause her fear, then any she might have felt had been taken long ago by rage. A flame like that could only be nursed, all alone apart from for humans.

“Call yourself king of vermin,” she growled to his words “master of the craven.” There was no room for pleasantries on her end, and why should there have been? She was in chains, pain, and he now wielded a weapon; her own were out of action, by his rats’ hands. “No pleasure in meeting with you.” She would rather fit her teeth around his skull, than converse with him. “I am not your dear, I am not anything of yours. I am Tabri, my own!” She strained her head against the muzzle, making the chains shake as she eyed him with a loathing stare, following his every relaxed move.

"How interesting." He remarked with a gleam in the eye, her obvious glowing anger was entertaining for him. Many feared him, once in a while though, it was pleasing to have one defy him. If only so he could exert himself, show all the others, reaffirm what he already knew of his power.
"You are correct too dear Tabri. A Master of vermin you say, indeed, you are brought to kneel before me are you not?" The movement Tabri was granted by the chains was minimal, enough to shuffle uselessly less than a paws worth in one direction or other, there would be no attack to fear. Zartear was one that occasionally could be seen as complacent, here however, he had earned his ease and the nobility in his every move that came so naturally to him. The dragon would be like a child's toy to him, he would do as he liked until he became bored.

"Even though I host for vermin such as yourself Tabri, I am not without courtesy. It would be...tasteless I think...to begin the delicate process of teaching you the way of the world with my hands right in this moment." He began to circle her, looking to each magnificent detail. Everything was a part to be considered, to be harmed or used or to be awed at, and then only to be broken by none other than himself. Zartear stopped at her side and began to close in for a better, closer, look at her scales. "You see, I'd much rather simply tell you Tabri, dear." He cocked his head to one side as he looked over her hide intently, letting his free hand run over the slickness of the scales. Were he a common slayer again, he would have sold her proudly. "As you too, knowingly or not, are a subject of mine...like all that reside upon this isle you are obliged to give me all I ask, when I ask." Zartear spoke calmly, his voice like the warm caress of a summer breeze, as he paced to let his hands trace further down her. "I would like to pose a few trivial questions to you."

“I have no master. Least of those, you.” Zartear’s words made Tabri’s blood boil hotter, and she longed to break free. She would bow to no man, not one who thought to see his servants chain her, then taunt her when she could move not an inch either direction, and he had all the freedom he liked. Let him face her and her fire when she was free, not like some coward when he could do as he pleased and give her no movement.

Her eyes followed Zartear as he started to move around her, a rumble in her chest warning him of doing anything toward, and warning him of his words too; not that she could do anything to stop him, but he should be reminded that she was a lightning storm, that he was an ant she could crush beneath her paw. She snarled a louder warning as she felt his hand on her side, almost out of her eyesight where she strained to turn her head, look far enough to see what he might be doing.
“Don’t touch your filth to me.” The chains around her limbs rattled as she strained against them, trying to break free, to move and force Zartear away from her side. To feel the touch of a human was something no dragon should be exposed to. “I will give you nothing. I give nothing to skunks.” She dragged her head against the muzzle holding her down, feeling it pull against her head and jaws as she tried to force it off, but it would be going nowhere.

"Fascinating, Tabri."
He withdrew his hand to step back from her and walk back around so he was in front of her, beyond harms way, yet close and personable enough. Zartear only barely listened to her token resistance to his truth, pondering instead on what he might do to begin.
"First you will tell me of Maledictus Eice. What do you...they...desire? Who is the true leader of this pathetic little song and dance?"
He tossed the lance over to his left hand as he looked her up and down. To his side was his own weapon that he'd doubtless use if needs be, that would hold her head still at least with the additional chains. If not, yet another pair of utensils for this extraction.
"It is only fair to know all the key actors for a play, so I know who is to be mocked, and who is so be pitied. I wish that maybe, you would understand how grand the mistake of your kin has been."
They would die, of course.

Zartear sighed, simply thinking of all the plans and administrative stress that would have to be had for the routine annihilation of the dragons upon the north border. It truly drained him to have to focus upon this mundane drama. Doubtless this would be the most exciting part of it all, once he knew what he needed to know beyond these shallow first questions, he'd become weary of "Maledictus Eice".
"Feral dragons, hoping to pose a threat to the supreme men of Surahnia..." He smiled jovially and purred his words. "Oh Tabri, if only you knew how much this warms me through, I could not hope for an easier path."

Tabri gave a low chuckle under her breath at Zartear’s words, fixing her stare belligerently on the man as he came to stand before her again. “You think I tell you these things?” He would get nothing out of her, if he thought that asking nicely would give him anything of hers. She would be fully amicable to spewing some of the ME’s morals and thoughts at him, but not when he asked… no, she would give those to him later. Educate him a little on the way the world was, the way it would work in the future- not to his own ideals. The clubtail sisters she had been following had mean tempers, and styled themselves as saviours- they had pegged themselves as leaders- but they were dragons, not some puny human who deigned to stand in front of her and call himself a king, a man who looked over even dragons.

“Pity yourself. I mock you. You…” she narrowed her eyes a little, the best she could do, it wasn’t as if she could open her mouth to snarl at him, “cry, little Zartear. When you burn.”
Oh, how she wanted to fit her teeth around him, taste his blood.

He thought so much of himself, that he was above all others… no, he would fall as easily as any other, and die under the claws of those Maledictus dragons that were not caught like she was. If he thought to hurt her, and she found her way back to the others… well, they would be swift with their punishment, she was sure.
Who thought to face up against two clubtails, let alone their entourage as well? And ME at that… you could not find a more bloodthirsty group, from the largest to the smallest- especially the smallest.

It was surprising that the dragon would not give any hint of an answer on perhaps the easiest of all questions, ones that would be no secret soon enough...It did not matter to him much; such was the nature of these types. To start strong, and to soon realise their grave error. Oh, the audacity of it all. It was playful for now, though his displeasure would follow later perhaps. If the dragon could bear to speak at that point.

"No my dragon..." He began, looking down with a parental sort of disappointment, to begin a lecture for this childish, unwitting dragon. "I shall not burn, I can say that now. You however, oh, what a better thing it would be for you to burn." He let the charred stick snake down lankly to the floor and spool in coils as it moved to become the dragon chains, perfect for now. He raised them and they obeyed, moving unnaturally through the air to worm their way into a ring at the throat of the head brace. Fortunately, the magic of it did help amplify his own strength. He jerked the chain down, taking up the slack and throwing it behind him. With her head lowered and under his control, he kneeled slightly, her muzzle to the floor so he could speak easiest, down to her. "Tabri. You know so much, tell me how I am truly to die? If you can tell me such a thing...I will tell you all you need to know too...I can tell you how you will die, as much as you'd like to know." He spoke tenderly, the faint greasy smile never leaving him. With a free hand he reached forward to stroke her between her nostrils.
"Chains and tools have already stripped you of your powers...but this could only be the beginning. I do not revel in violence. I long for simplicity, we can help each other Tabri."

Tabri had already convinced herself long ago that the words of a human were poison, and to listen to them was the work of a fool. She didn’t believe one honeyed word of Zartear’s, whether it was said as the truth, or a lie. Honey did not look quite so sweet when it was accompanied by burnt bread, and here the bread really was burnt; accompanied by a weapon, Tabri was not much inclined to tell Zartear anything. She growled to see more chains appear in his hands, moving magically. Not only was this human a skunk, he held arts that were not meant to be given to him; no human deserved the power that magic gave them.

She growled a long, constant breath as he controlled her head, feeling the end of her jaw touch the cold floor and hating every part of his being for doing such. She was no dog to cower, eating dust. Her growl only served to grow louder as he touched his hand to her nose, her claws scratching against the floor as she thought what it would be to feel them close around Zartear’s body, crush him into ash.
“You will die like a dog. Cowering, screaming for mercy that we won’t give. Your itty-bitty limbs pulled off one by one. The smile gone. I will rip that smile from you. Your blood will touch my nose, not you.” She held a long stare to his eyes, refusing to blink even when her eyes started to ache; perhaps it was the sight of such a disgusting creature in front of her that offended them. She would not help him. She would not help one of the kind that had brought misery to the land, and an invader at that.

Well the answer was wrong, he knew that much. Even now she had nerve to be behaving like this, but then, she did not know pain and Zartear although no stranger to patience when required, was not inclined to let her words go unpunished.
"I see, it is such a shame then how wrong that is. Look at you, you couldn't even move your paw or sway your body, let alone much else, least of all harm a hair upon me." He shook his head with disappointment at her answer, still holding her muzzle down as he slid the lance to a more comfortable grip.
Having the chains wrap and merge around the metal ring on the ground he then allowed his hand to be drawn away from her. Her head would now be held in place there.

Standing, looking down upon her he pondered, how might he force regret from her first? Was it true what they said about the dragons of Maledictus Eice? That they were loyal beyond compare to any of their own blood- provided not affiliated with the non dragons at least.
"You think I am going to hurt you don't you?" He said plainly, knowingly. "You are correct, perhaps. And yet..." He pointed with the lance end down, prodding at her scales delicately through the grid of metal that made the bridle, tracing close to her nostrils and along the sides of her mouth. "That may not be the civil thing to do. You see, I want to learn about you. Get to know you all the better, so you can share more with me." He looked back behind him, it was a simple little test really. "Excuse me one moment." He nodded, tracing back over to the rack of tools, at the base of it was a simple wooden container.

Opening it up, -and Zartear did always make sure all was prepared in advance- he extracted the little dragon softly from it.
It was very young; and a lightning dragon too. In fact, perhaps at one stage Tabri was this endearing, the little female dragon had been anxiously resting in her box, sometimes scuffling about to be out and stretch herself. She could not speak yet- in mind or voice and she was visibly nervous yet, happy to be handled and out of that dark little confinement. Looking about her and flickering her tongue curiously she nuzzled at the man's hand as he scooped her up carefully into the crook of his left arm, the other still holding the lance.
She wriggled and felt about him with her paws, she had not smelled this thing before.
Zartear walked back over to Tabri and he greeted her again with another smile.

"I did not want to leave this for later, I hear that you Maledictus Dragons are fond of your own kind. It seems you also have a streak of...loyalty in you? To what? The order or...your kin?" His voice was sharp with inquisition and loaded with intent. Somehow, although he did not speak much, his words filled the entire room in a stony echo of his confidence.
He kneeled back down to her level to let her see the snuffly little beast- no bigger than a slim cat. "Do not worry." He said reassuringly, glancing at the lance.
"This one is for you, my hands will do for this charming little reptile...now, tell me all you can about Maledictus Eice, and perhaps I'll use neither.."

Tabri did not care for the sense in Zartear’s words, even when they were true, so disinclined to accept anything of his. And yet, still she could not do anything against him to vent her anger, only glare at him until she had to shut her eyes to rid herself of such a sickening sight. Her nostrils twitched at the feel of his lance against them, and she dearly wished to free herself of the tickling sensation, but there was no way to do so.
“Less than civil, to itch one’s nose and ears.” Her lips curled and twitched to show the edges of her teeth, not letting her taught expression relax even when he turned away for some new trick he had hidden away. Filthy two leg, he was disgusting, in how he planned, how his words wrapped around the room like spider’s silk and tried to catch everything beneath. She wished she could leap on him now, while his back was turned, and wrench all that thread for him until he could not gasp another word.

She fought against her ties as he turned back to her with an unpleasant surprise, eyes glowing with anger and an angry hiss leaving her lips. Bastard human, putting his hands all over one of her kin; not just any dragon, a lightning storm that could have been her herself in her younger days. Her straining against her ties did nothing, much as she wanted to cross the tiny distance between herself and Zartear to rip him to shreds for this new insult.
“Nothing will be told! Release your black hands from this child. I hope she rips the fingers from your limbs.” Although such did not seem very likely to happen, not the way she nestled so happily. There was no fear in younglings like this, not when they could hardly do more than chirrup to communicate, and how would a little one know that humans were poison?

"Dragon I really am beginning to think you are indeed quite /stupid/." He said, his voice was tense and more animated than before with impatience. "If you cannot speak, who can tell the fate of this little dragon? I can, and it shall know when it feels its bones crushed. Or perhaps you are so selfish that only a splintering in your own skull will do the trick." He snorted, then more firmly holding the babe dragon out in one hand before her, his hand clawed around its chest.
"I will given you yet another opportunity to speak correctly. Else perhaps we can find out how much of a Maledictan dragon you are, shan't we?"
Others might have been bloodying her by now, busy getting whatever they could...Though it was often not a case of receiving a confession so much as ensuring its accuracy. So long as he could tease truth from her mouth by giving her a strand of hope...If nothing, gauge what he could of her reactions.

He now, decisively hoisted flicked the body of the dragon in a quick move, so that he held it by the end of its tail as it began to wriggle and hiss in the air with surprise.
"If your tongue proves so useless I might also do you the favour of cutting yours out for you...then this one might suffer the same, or even better, we'd be obliged to help many more of your kin in the same way. But no, I understand, you'd wish to see how the little one fairs with a knife first, wouldn't you?"

“Splinter your own skull, it’d teach more.” Tabri did not like to be insulted so, even though she did not like the way this Zartear held a mere babe in front of her as bait for talking. Here was a two leg whose path you only wanted to cross when he was about to be splatted underfoot. Her eyes did not stray from the baby lightning storm, writhing and snarling again as he flicked it so casually from his grasp and held it below his hand like a dead chicken, ready to be turned into dinner for the evening.
“Leave her be, this underhand blackmail.” She was a baby. Tabri had heard more than once the tale of the clubtails of Maledictus Eice, how their kind had been slaughtered by humans at an early age. But until now, it had sounded more like a fae-tale than anything else, embellished over the years.
She herself had no fondness for humans and had seen their cruelty, but this was to a tiny creature, innocent and perfect. Barely freed from her egg days ago, it looked.
Cut out his tongue in place of the both of theirs.

“What knowledge do you ask for? Wretch. Threaten little insects, I would like to see how you fare against those of your own mettle.”

Zartear seemed to laugh quietly between them with an appearance of genuine amusement. Oh he was more than a match for any others that could so much as hold a candle to his caliber. To be here, technically speaking, was far beneath him. Yet, Zartear wanted the privilege of being first to glean information from such a creature.

"I wish to know all as follows dear Tabri. Where your dragons are moving to firstly, then what is the end goal in all you seek, and then...the nature of your leaders. Who are they, why would they start this?" As he said this Zartear kept moving his hands to prevent the dragon from its attempts to crawl onto his body and regain its footing on him. "Needless to say, if you inform me of these things, then your freedom could be allowed, if not...then this beautiful little hatchling will not be the only one to die by my hand personally. Did you know Tabri, in the past, I was renown for my abilities in slaying creatures like yourself? It would not be difficult to find your kin, perhaps through others, but I would do the honours for you. You would be unable to look away, I think."

Zartear was not elaborate or elusive in his threats, his words were clear and his bargain quite fair.

Tabri’s eyes moved from Zartear’s captive to the man himself, watching him blackly and wanting to spit all the filth that came to mind against him. Every one of his movements displayed the arrogance of a human and their complete disregard for anything dragon; the clubtail sisters had it right, they were despicable, revolting, beastly and crass things. This one was no better than a worm to crush under a claw and slice into ribbons.
“You think I will give you this?” She made a disgusted noise in her throat, straining her neck against the chains again now that she had given herself a small break against them. “You do not take freedom from me now. Now there is more reason for Maledictus Eice to come for you, holding me. They will move and come for you. One dragon to a limb.” She dug her claws against the ground, scoring white marks into the stone, but hardly making what one might call a dent. “Past is not now, so slaying then does not prove you now.”

This dragon, not for the first time since his speaking to her, struck him as really very dense. So much so, he was growing impatient to wonder if he'd ever get anything from her at all even if she did speak. It was all garbled homage to "Maledictus Eice", it was really in his mind quite the waste of time.
All he had found was a dragon with its mind broken by the words of its kin, so apparently, dragons were well versed in training their subjects too. It was quite impressive how far gone the dragon was that she held little to no sense of self preservation.

Zartear had let some time pass, having wandered about, waiting as he had also tried to speak more with the dragon, and then again she had come back with her same retorts, talking to her was much like speaking with his own echo, perhaps with a little more anger.
"I understand. Then how about I tell you what I am going to do, dragon. To you, in fact. However I'll give you a little look first as I do so."
He held the hatchling upright again.
"First, Tabri, I am going to relieve you of those beautiful wings." He changed his grip on the small dragon, and began to hold it between his hands and twist its wing forward. "It shouldn't be difficult, there's a blade for this, a sword for that, it'll all be quite painless really. Perhaps." With some pressure in his hands he turned the joint of the dragon's wing around with careful and slow control until the hatchling was squirming furiously and squealing with its raspy dragon calls as he then finally put the definitive turn to snap the joint bones of one of its wings.
He then proceeded to do the other.
"But I think blades are not so exciting, I should love to see how much you would like the dragon chains of mine, as you say, we must prove it all now mustn't we? Then let us prove the value of my weaponry too."

It was hard for Tabri to get any angrier than she had been at the first look at Zartear holding his little baby lightning storm captive, any words she spat at him intense and unrelentingly agitated. He was a vile creature, stretching out her little tail like this and walking around like he owned the whole of the isle. Her eyes followed him around, narrow with dislike and a low grumbling coming from the pit of her stomach when he turned to laxly look at her now and again.

It got indefinitely louder when he started to detail her forthcoming torture, wanting to get at him and shut his mouth for even saying such things, let alone enacting them too. She was making quite the noise when he took hold of the poor hatchling and started to hurt it, rattling her chains the furthest they would let her move, growling and tugging with all her restrained strength. Her claws scratched again at the stone under her claws to see the baby screech and break under Zartear’s hands, spitting filthy words at him with all the creativity she had. She looked away from the little dragonchild, all Tabri’s hatred burning out of her and right into the man.

Zartear removed the wings, perhaps less slowly than he could of, in all haste to move on from this; he had more to be showing off in his pleasure than merely snapping the bones of a baby dragon. He was then quite prompt in throwing the removed wings aside, for all their apparent beauty, he did not much seem to care.

"You're still watching Tabri?" At first his voice was like a gentle inquiry, but then quickly rose to a vigorous roar of explosive anger. "Watch this! See how pathetic you will be!" The vehemence in which he spoke was clear, as in all his spite of her, he pulled at the chains on her muzzle to face straight to him as the other hand grasped the whining dragon before her. "You have no mind of any good use Tabri, you won't tell me what I want. You know? I do not even mind; we can do this however you would like Tabri. In fact, I believe I will sincerely enjoy watching you bleed and cry, see you beg in your regret, because you could not answer a few fucking simple questions." He smirked again to himself, proud of his words again as he began to think of them, a sneer on his lips as he toyed with the idea in his thoughts.
"It does not matter. You may soon be a wingless dragon, but I prefer snakes to dragons, don't you?" Zartear hoisted on her chain again to jerk her forward before then tossing the slack again to the ground in a loud and coarse rattling of the metal on the stone.
"That way," He brandished a knife from his side, again holding the hatchling by the tail, as he then moved it so it was enclosed by his palm around its belly, feeling its heart beat fast against the small crush of his fingers as it fought to be away from him, fearing an animal had come to devour it. "They do not claw so much." He once again changed his grip to hold the dragon by its tail and the ankles of its back legs, easing the edge of his knife softly around the scales where the hind legs met the body.
Zartear pressed the knife again a little more firmly, completely absorbed in all he was doing, quite enjoying the satisfaction he had from seeing Tabri so furious in her twisted and foolish altruism.
"Speak of your clan, dragon. Lest I make you a snake as well, and I should be thrilled to put you back in your place. You are nothing already, when I cut you into all the shapes of this darling little shit, well, perhaps you'll be of more value."

Tabri felt like she might spit all the hate and anger and magic she had at Zartear if she spoke to him now. He was disgusting, his actions, his words, his black heart and every thought that poured noxious from him. The baby’s wings looked so dead and forlorn as they were thrown across the chamber, fluttering like butterfly wings to the ground, devoid of all their magic now.
She snarled as Zartear dragged her face up to his, trying to force open her mouth vainly to rip at his hand, tear his arm from his body and make him bleed and hurt in all the ways his tiny subject was hurting in. There were no human words to respond to what he was doing now, just pure animalistic anger against his utmost cruelty.

She rattled and growled and roared to the utmost strain of her jaws against their chains, uncaring for how the metal bit into her scales. There was nothing that could be said to the poor maimed creature in Zartear’s hands now, not when she was crying and wriggling like she was, suddenly so broken.
Her cursing and horrific noises were so garbled with her wish to make him hear every hatred from her lips they sounded little more than a string of swearing, but it got her point across clearly enough. She spoke of how Maledictus Eice would shred every limb of his into ribbons and then skin him in the slowest way possible, causing him all the pain he was to the little dragon in his hands. Although, knowing Maledictus Eice, they would skip this pain and go straight in for the kill. They were not so subtle as this creeping, disgusting creature in front of her that thought to torture tiny children. Her thoughts of useful information for him had mostly scattered away with her rage now.

Zartear all but completely ignored the raucous noise of this really quite stupid dragon in front of him, calmly looking down at the little dragon in his hand, as his other pressed coarsely, without even a true or clean slicing motion, down against the hind leg. With a small jerk on the tail up, and a press of the knife down, he cut off the one leg and let it fall to the ground. The dragon was beyond hissing now as it cried out to the best its tiny little body could manage, for all its size it did know how to speak loudly...Antagonised by its captor and the vicious blade, startling it into a frenzy and then feeling the fear of a booming roar that made it shudder all through.

He ignored this too, and with a similar few movements removed the other hind leg, blood now spiraling down the length of the dragon's body. It was all quite pointless now, he was growing bored of this and Tabri was quite obviously going to surrender nothing this way, so he finished his job with the young dragon. Flipping the creature up he held it by the neck, supposing he should do as he had said, he then removed the other two limbs in a similarly crude way without efficiency or finesse. With that done he looked at his work of art, a small smile coming to his lips as he then regarded Tabri.
"In fact, I believe I have better plans for you. This young dragon has soft and dull scales, its little spikes and horns are not nearly so grand as yours..."
Deciding to put it out of its misery, and for the sake of a little more peace amidst Tabri's noise, he twisted the dragon's neck and the snap of tiny bones cracked into the air. Zartear blindly threw the body back as he then walked in his usual collected manner to Tabri's side, sparing no thoughts for delay. She was perhaps a rarity, a live captured dragon of M.E, but she was hardly irreplaceable, and her mind was as broken and useless to him as any other of its kind.

It was awful to watch, the horrific motions of Zartear’s knife cutting through sinew and bone, the helpless struggling of this tiny baby. The noise too was scarring, a mixture of all that which was awful to hear. Screeching and the rip of flesh, the rattling of Tabri’s chains on the ground and then the terrible light patter of one discarded leg on the ground.
She was mad with rage when he eventually looked up from his grisly work to smile at her. No aching pain was great enough to stop her from trying to strain towards him, although the chains were greater than her strength, tied down in so many places. She grunted at the effort, then eventually had to leave off and stop her straining. Her eyes followed the poor broken body of the lightning storm as she… it was tossed away, as if some toy that no longer entertained the great king.

They stayed in place as Zartear came to her side, quiet for the moment as she took in the sight and filled herself with anger that she knew would not abate easily, then turned her furious gaze on him the best she could once more, chains rattling as she tried to reach forwards a back leg to claw him to pieces. Damn him with his chains, damn him with his words and actions, may he be shredded by her claws and his soul ripped to a thousand pieces.

He let the dragon speak as she would, rounding himself around to the Dragon's side and then stepping back to her left hind leg, watching as her claws scrabbled on the stony floor.
"You are correct." Zartear said simply, removing his charred stick to allow it to take the form of its black broad sword, letting it come down however to a smaller, finer size. This sword became more of a lengthy knife, its blackness was perfect and a beautifully smooth sheen complimented the new feathers edge on it.
Now, there were many ways to correctly flay a dragon. Of this size, all would take far more time than he was willing to invest, and the cuts would need to be made at points that would not be easily made from here.
"I decide I do not want a snake, it might take some time. I also could do without your tail moving as it does...it would make my cuts less steady than they should be." He squinted for a moment looking seriously, the tail was bound by rings that were a feature of the floor, chains nearby some of them to hold the tail within them. Further up however, it was bare.
"Ah well, other business must be done first then, dear Tabri." He morphed it again to the full sword, standing back from her in correct position, he drew the great sword with quick and skilful movement forward, allowing all of its weight and speed to strike at the base of her tail. It was quite resistant as he had expected, but nothing unusual, not for this sword, and not for him. It cut through the scales, the upper flesh and then through the bone, though he withdrew it before it fully cut through the last of her flesh as he watched her reaction with satisfying glee.

"A good first cut." He remarked, admiring his handiwork. "I must say, I usually am one for a swift killing and a swift blow, but...you deserve much more than a single slice, dear Tabri." With that, he quite casually lunged forward again, rending the last of the muscle and letting her tail fall flat behind her legs, blood pooling about her freely.

Tabri couldn’t move her head enough to see what Zartear was doing as he moved behind her back leg, out of reach of her claws no matter how hard she dug them into the ground, scouring long lines against the stone. She could hear his movements however, feel his rancid presence near her. Her tail swung from side to side angrily, to the best of her ability, the end waving in every direction as she tried to hook him with any of its length, although he had managed to put himself out of her reach. Damn him, if he moved at all, she would smash him across the floor and into the opposite wall with it.
“You are a snake, go and cut your own limbs from your sides and choke on your blood.” She hated not being able to see where he was, and for the only thing in front of her eyes to be the stone wall or the poor mutilated body of that tiny child.

She heard the movement of his feet and thrashed her tail about to try and reach him, but then agonising pain suddenly lanced through the whole of her with the sudden slice of Zartear’s blade. She screeched and screamed against it, all feeling in her tail suddenly leaving her except from the gush of blood, her back legs collapsing from their tightened crouch like they too had been severed. The noise must have been phenomenal, the dragon hardly hearing what Zartear had to say through her own wailing and the red hot pain that spread through her hindquarters, her tail, her long, elegant tail… twitching on the ground through a last spasm or two.

Predictably, the dragon was shrieking with pain, nothing he had not seen or heard before could be done today. Save the sound of the echos in such a finely built dungeon of sorts, he had never slain a dragon in such a place before, so that was something new.

Spying her legs slump with his cold and hardened eyes, Zartear was quick to make the most of her moment of paralysis in her pain; he raised the sword again to cut firmly on the upper backs of her legs. The more tender scales there, for a dragon that was, was easily cut past and the muscle of her legs was ripped through as he did the same to both, now that the dragon was hamstrung she was at his complete mercy and fit for the full job of a brutal flaying.

"I would go to greater lengths for you Tabri, but time is not on my side, this will be enough preparation for any of your ilk. Consider it a great honour that I would do so much for you. You have attention from me that others would die to have." Funny then, that she was headed to death, yet here was a circumstance where the result was the least important part. No, it was all in the process and the details here as Zartear moved about her, kicking on her mutilated legs until they staggered back and were laid flat.

"How does it feel to be as worthless as the people you have lived with on this island?" He questioned, his tender footsteps making their way back until he was squarely behind Tabri, and he crouched himself down, his boots in the mess of blood he had created. Putting a hand out to her he gave her a hearty slap on the back, like one would to a horse.
"You've done quite well, now." Zartear smiled softly, his tone becoming quiet as a small huff of approval left his mouth.
Taking the time to have the sword turn to its long knife form, he sized her up, she would be a large task. It would be ugly and full of flaw, but then, that was quite beautiful too. Taking his time, he also reworked the chains of her legs to adjust lower down so they gripped strongly. Now, the dragon could hardly be moving for what he had already done, but it would be much better to ensure as much control as possible, if only for the irritation of having to restrain her again if she became crazed in her pain.

With the chains tightened like iron teeth about the dragon's ankles, he then aimed the point of the knife and rested it by the bone of the ankle as he pushed very gently against it. Looking up ahead of him he watched for the reaction, as he then so very carefully eased it down with greater pressure until it pierced the scales and the blade disappeared, folding and filleting gradually beneath her skin, his face a picture of complete focus, though his hands working with undeniable leisureliness.

Even more pain came to Tabri as Zartear sliced through her legs, ripping away the muscle… she would never stand again. She tried to haul herself back upright, but even drawing her feet underneath her felt like she was feeling the bite of the sword again. The ground was slippery underneath her and she could feel the warm seep of blood underneath her belly, her blood. She didn’t care for his words, whatever they were, so twisted and slimy. But she could hear the tone of his voice, silky sweet, and wanted to vomit for the hatred it made writhe within her.

She cried out again with staggered calls of anguish as he kicked away her legs, at this man’s mercy for whatever he would do to her. Now she did feel fear of him, when he had killed her kin, destroyed her hindquarters and spoke so calmly to her in light of it all. She might have toyed with her own food in the past, but she had never wrenched away everything from it before giving it merciful death.
Zartear was not merciful. She felt the acrid sting of bile in her mouth, making her choke on her pain as he slapped his hand down on her back. She could hardly open her jaws to let it drip through her teeth to the floor. The blood ran down her legs as Zartear got her as he wanted, chained so firmly to the ground, and with the time it took, she slowly fell quiet, eyes staring out before her at the broken body on the floor.

It didn’t last for long however, as the next part of her torture began. Her breathing became more pronounced first at the touch of his blade, then her screeches started to echo around again as he slid it beneath her scales, like it was red hot in the unimaginable pain. She screeched out with her voice and then her mind too, fraught with pain and her mind seeming to break under it.

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