An Elaborate Trap

Story by foxyscribe on SoFurry

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Gideon didn't want to be a thief but life had been hard and it seemed the only opportunity to eke out a better life. Finished with small jobs he targeted the mansion of the famous Amara; a well-known trader of fantastical beasts and so far it was all going suspicious well.


Although I didn't get any feedback on my previous story I did get what felt like a pretty good number of views. I hope this is an improvement on my previous work and if you have any comments or constructive criticism I would love to hear it.


Wealth, Gold, Jewels, Trinkets and more, lay haphazardly piled in untidy heaps across the vault. The careless nature in which the treasure was stored almost made Gideon angry; to have so much and to leave it in a careless pile like some dragons hoard seemed like a silent insult to those who had nothing. Anger however, could not win against excitement and triumph. Lady Amara's treasure room was legendary and scanning his gaze across it, he could not say its reputation was ill-deserved. She had made her fortune as a broker and trader of rare and fantastical creatures, though tales of under the table deals and smuggling of banned stock surfaced too often to not contain some truth.

Gideon spent a moment reflecting, he had never really intended to pursue a life of thievery but years of struggling to survive through a string of short term farmhand jobs had left him feeling trapped. Problem was Gideon did not enjoy stealing even when it turned out he was good at it, he had often found himself forced to target those who could not really afford to lose what he took because people with real wealth had serious security. He continued examining the treasure, deciding carefully which would be the easiest pieces to take and sell. There was every chance his intrusion would go completely unnoticed with the wealth scattered so haphazardly. He was shaking a little and he had to rub a tear from his eye. This should change everything, he could make enough money to live modestly for the rest of his life, retire from his short career of burglary and Amara would probably not even notice.

Opening a modestly sized bag strung over his shoulder, he made his decision. The gold coins seemed the obvious choice, they were by far the least likely to be missed and could be exchanged for smaller currencies with most brokers. Gideon reached down, still shaking and scooped up a handful of coins, they made a pleasant clinking noise as he dropped them into his satchel. He reached down again and paused. His first scoop had revealed the top of some kind of bracelet ringed with rubies. He carefully pulled it from the pile before holding it up to his face. The craftsmanship was incredible, it was a wide gold band with the head of a dragon sculpted on one side. Tiny jewels circled the bracers rims while a pair of larger rubies served as the dragon's eyes.

Suddenly it shocked him. It was quite painful and he gave a small yell of surprise dropping the bracelet before managing to cover his mouth. He quickly looked back with concern. The vault was deep within the house and it was very unlikely anyone would have heard, but still, his heart was beating fast. He looked back to the treasure intending to grab a few more handfuls and make a swift escape but when he looked back...It was gone.

Gone is the wrong word, it was there, it just wasn't treasure. He lifted up his satchel and shook out the handful of coins he had taken earlier. They clunked duly off the ground -Wood, it was all wood. Gideon picked up the bracelet again, it too was wood and a crude carving as well; the craftsmanship he admired earlier was gone. He looked around the room starting to panic, this was looking a lot like a trap. Making things worse, all the hazards he had defeated during his infiltration had to be navigated on the way out as well. Gideon scratched his hand idly, barely able to believe it could have gone so wrong. All He had hoped for, His chance to change his life forever. He had been so excited and all just for wooden treasure enchanted with a potent glamour.

With a heavy heart he turned and exited the vault door, hesitating before shutting it over. He reached for his bag of tools so he could reset the lock and hide the evidence of his passage. Normally, he would be able to pull lock picks from the small leather pouch that hung by his side in a second without looking but his hand was trembling too much and he just could not get purchase. He had never been so far out of his depth before and was not taking it well. With a sound of annoyance he looked down at his pouch.

His heart skipped a beat and time almost seemed to slow. The back of his hand was covered in red, polished scales, they seemed iridescent; shades of purple and blue twinkling as the light caught them from differing angles. He quickly brought his hand in front of his face to examine it further, several of the lock picks tumbled to the ground, clattering quietly in the silence. His nails had turned black and were growing, slowly becoming much more claw like. His fingers too were shrinking, his pinkie much faster than the rest. They seemed to becoming thicker as well, plumper, almost paw like. The patch of scales seemed to be spreading too, rows of scales slowly replacing flesh.

There must have been an enchantment on the 'gold', He looked back at the vault door with panic, there was no time to cover his tracks, he had to get out of here as fast as possible. Those traps had been difficult enough to deal with before any weird magic got involved. He slapped his cheeks with both hands, trying to calm himself down a little. With his left hand in such an odd state, the sensation of claws against his face did not entirely help but he managed to get enough focus to start moving.

Gideon moved quickly up through the doorway into a corridor of dark stone. Crude, wooden torches held in iron bands stood silent guard in formation. To the keen eye, a number of small flag stones sat slightly higher than their neighbors, bypassing them on the way in had been fairly easy, just a matter of taking his time and staying calm.Gideon was no longer in the right mindset to take his time however. He was scared and flustered, definitely not in a good mental state to traverse a dungeon full of deathtraps. Still there is something to be said for adrenaline focusing your mind, making sure your entire attention is on a single task and he moved with surprising grace from stone to stone expertly avoiding the barely visible pressure plates.

He had almost crossed the room when it started to go wrong, it was not that he was unaware of the pressure plate, in fact those nearest the entrance, he remembered most clearly. It was not that he mistimed his jump either, in fact, he started his hop at roughly the same distance with the same amount of force as he had on the previous plates.

The problem was that he had lost at least six inches in height.

The fact that he was shrinking had gone completely unnoticed, after all, his concentration had been entirely on dodging the pressure plates. With each step however, the length of his stride had been shortening ever so slightly and these slivers had finally added up to just enough that just the very back edge of his foot caught the flagstone. He heard a click and his instincts immediately took over, he threw himself into a forward roll, his momentum carrying him through the door and over another trap. He heard a series of twangs as he hit his head quite hard off the ground from his inelegant roll.

He quickly climbed to his feet, ignoring the thumping pain in his head. He glanced back to see a series of darts embedded in the opposite wall, dripping some kind of pale blue fluid. He ran his hands over his body to check if any had found their mark but it looked like he had been lucky. Gideon felt physically sick, he had been a fool, a few successes on easy targets and he thought he was a master thief. His heart was almost bursting out his chest and he was so filled with adrenalin his vision was blurring. He wanted to wait, try to calm down but he was terrified that guards might be on the way. He glanced around the room trying to take slow, deep breaths, making a mental note of the traps still to come. A few moments passed and he thought he calm enough to continue, unfortunately it was at that point his pants fell down.

He stared down, of all the possibilities running through his head this was not on the list. He blushed slightly as he crouched and pulled them back up. He had to do it with one hand as the scaled one wasn't responding properly anymore; it was stiff and his fingers would not bend enough to hold anything. He stood back up awkwardly holding them with one hand only to realize -they didn't fit. He looked down with a critical eye for a second and finally noticed that he was significantly smaller, nothing fit. All his clothing looked far, far too large for him. He gripped his pants in place with his good hand and just started running. He had to get out of here, maybe if he could escape whatever was happening to him might stop. He didn't want to imagine what might happen should he fail.

The corridor continued up to a junction, the left path led deeper into the mansion and so he turned right. He had barely turned the corner when he gave up on his pants letting them fall to the floor and stepping out of them. One of his shoes got caught by the material and was left behind too. He looked down with frustration, he couldn't be much more than 4 feet tall and his clothes no longer fit. He decided to give up on his shoes entirely and left the other one behind as well. His bare feet hit the cold, stone slabs with a clack and he realized that the nails on both feet had grown out into thick black claws similar to the ones on his left hand. Standing felt slightly odd, the balls of his feet had swollen making him feel like he was constantly in danger of tipping forward.

He made a noise of annoyance trying to quickly examine himself for other changes. He was starting to become aware that he was being assaulted by little tingling sensations all over but the constant adrenaline had been hiding them. He quickly found little patches of smooth scales all over his back and shoulders. They too seemed to be spreading slowly and it looked like they would soon overwhelm his flesh completely. He could see that the nails on his right hand had started to blacken a little as well though nowhere near as much as his left. He began to start walking again as he continued his self-examination. A sudden, unexpected sensation of pressure on his face caused him to whine, it wasn't exactly painful but it was intense and uncomfortable. He could feel his jaw distorting, pushing out a little and it felt like his nose was being stretched sideways. When he ran his hand across his face he could not feel his nose at all, instead it seemed to have merged into his face, his nostrils flaring and sliding sideways. His whole body was pinching and twisting. It wasn't a fast process but he could feel his body slowly stretching. It didn't hurt and yet it felt so weird, he was having to try and force down sensations of nausea as even his insides seemed to be slowly moving. Additionally he found he was having to start to walk on the balls of his feet because his ankle seemed to have locked with his shin. The whole section was starting to stretch, looking more than a little animalistic. He felt ridiculous as it forced him to hobble along awkwardly adding significant bounce to his steps.

He rounded another corner and stopped. For the next 50 yards or so the walls were covered in tall mirrors. He had spent over an hour trying to detect magical traps or portals on his way in before eventually deciding the magic was either beyond the ability of his equipment to measure or was entirely mundane. He slowly moved into the mirrored walkway, He could see himself clearly reflected back, duplicated into infinity, the purpose of the mirrored walls quickly became very clear.

They were there to taunt him.

This trap was much more elaborate than Gideon thought, obviously Amara expected people to reach the treasure and trigger the enchantment. The entire purpose of these mirrors was to let the would-be thieves see themselves as they returned. It was a cruel trick to play and his eyes almost immediately started to dampen as he focused on his ruined face. He reached up to gingerly brush his hand across his skin. He looked rather reptilian with his nose flattened and red scales spread haphazardly across it, much like the ones on his hands they were really quite beautiful but this didn't bring him much comfort. He tilted his head trying to get a better look and noticed that his ears looked quite odd having developed boned ridges down each side. They seemed to be stretching, the flesh growing thinner. They seemed to be getting longer too, growing wider at the end like some kind of lizards frill. He blinked as he suddenly noticed a series of mild bumps across the crown of his head. He reached up with his good hand and gently massaged them. He could feel a boney lump under the skin and it felt like it was shifting, slowly growing.

When he withdrew his hand a section of his hair fell from his head, drifting slowly to the ground. He gasped, giving a small involuntary whimper, to make things worse the gasp came from a mouth which was rather larger than it should be, filled with teeth rather sharper than they had been just a short while before. He stumbled back from his reflection and most of his hair just slid off his skull, brilliant red scales blossomed across the top of his head and as he watched the bony lumps he felt earlier started to visibly grow. The tips of what were obviously horns slid silently through ridges that had been forming in the rows of scales. It looked like it should be painful but honestly, it just felt strange.

He started to move now unable to take his eyes from the mirrored walls. His ears were now very much long triangular flaps of scarlet flesh flanked by boney ridges. He tried to run but his shifting legs made that very difficult. He was having to time his steps very carefully just to keep in motion but was slowly starting to get the hang of it. He was still getting smaller too and as he departed the mirrored hall he couldn't have been much above 3 feet in height. He had discarded his underwear along the way and even his shirt was threating to slide over his shoulders. This was deeply humiliating and he thanked the small mercy that no guards had appeared.

He was perhaps half way through the traps now but was forced to skid to a halt. The seemingly clear corridor ahead contained a rather long pit trap. On the way in he had managed to climb along the stone walls by using climbing spikes. The walls were not in great condition and although he had been concerned at leaving traces of his passage, he had not had another way to bypass the trap.

He looked down at himself with deep worry. Was he really capable of using the spikes like this, he was so small, would he even have the strength to force them in? His shirt suddenly slipped over his shoulders and fell to the ground around him leaving him stark naked. He suppressed an anguished howl, he hated this and as he looked down he couldn't help but note that much of his skin had been overtaken by the iridescent red scales. His stomach though, he hadn't really noticed before but it seemed to be undergoing a different change. From his neck down to his groin, his flesh had pretty much turned a pleasant cream colour. It was not turning into scales either, the flesh across his front had been thickening into much larger plates. There were little ridges running across the armoured skin at regular intervals.

So, like the bracelets design, it looked like he was turning into some kind of dragon but shouldn't a dragon be large? And what kind of security system turns someone into a dragon? Wouldn't you want to turn them into something much more helpless? He shook his head slightly. He did not have time to be thinking about this, he had to get his spikes and do his best to cross the pit, what else could he do? He went to move his shirt looking for his tool pouch using his good hand but as he tried, he realised, that it wasn't so good any more. The fingers on both hands were too stubby and not flexible enough to really grip anything. He inhaled heavily before speaking in a low and frightened voice "N..Noo, Pleassssss No", to his horror the sound lengthened involuntarily, his voice seemed to have gained a serious hiss. It sounded higher pitched too and a little distorted. He glanced at the distant door, he had to get a hold of himself. Whatever he was turning into did not have hands, it was a quadrupedal. That is why his hands were so messed up, they had effectively become his forepaws.

He walked up to the wall miserably trying to work out what to do when a sudden realisation hit him. He looked at his feet and then his...other feet. Those claws looked extremely sharp. He took a deep breath and aimed a kick at the mortar between two dark stone bricks. His claws displaced the mortar rather easily and he felt a surge of pleasure. 'Not yet' he thought 'I am not defeated yet' Using his hands this way was a little more difficult but he managed to get a good bite on the wall, if anything, climbing like this was rather faster than when he had used the spikes. At this rate he should make it across the pit in good time.

One problem he did not count on was that he was still shrinking. On several occasions he managed to grasp a suitable hand hold at the edge of his reach only to feel like it was slowly being pulled away from him, out of his grasp. Another thing that he had not accounted for that was actually helping, was that his body was actually getting quite a bit stronger. The muscles in his arms and legs, particularly his thighs and biceps were growing significantly larger. As he was forced to give up one hand hold due to his shrinking size he was able to embed his claws into the middle of a crumbling brick, saving himself from a long fall.

Eventually he made it across. It took perhaps five or six minutes but it felt much longer. He was only allowed a moment of pleasure at his success however, because as he ambled forward on the balls of his feet there was a sudden crack from his back and his knees reversed. He was thrown forward on to all fours though quick reflexes saved his face from being smashed into the ground. "D..aaamn it . S..ssstup..cursssss" he screeched while trying to stand back up on two legs but his back was having none of it.

He panted for a few seconds standing on his arms and legs before he grudgingly accepted that his body had fully switched to a quadrupedal shape. His arms had grown a fair bit longer and his biceps had bulked up significantly to the point they really were another set of thighs. His head had stretched out further as well into an elegant triangular shape. His muzzle was really rather elongated and he had a series of long draconic spikes around the crown of his head. His tongue had lengthened significantly and he could feel a split developing at the end. It was becoming harder and harder to make sounds that were not just screeches and hisses and he suspected it would be quite impossible soon. There was just one more room though, just one more sequence of traps and he could escape. If he could save even just the smallest element of speech maybe he could get help. Hell even if he couldn't, maybe he could scratch something in the dirt with his claws. Hope was not lost. Even now maybe he could still out maneuver Amara and escape.

He started to walk forward awkwardly, moving his limbs almost like he was crawling. He really wasn't sure what order he should be lifting these things in but he tried to do what felt natural. Sure it was probably just false bravado but his little pep talk and the fact he was so close to the exit did give him a surge of resolve. He was going to get out of here, he was going to get help and well, he wasn't sure what came after that but he could figure that out later. He made his way to the last room and examined it carefully. This room was also filled with pressure plates but he had been able to sneak in and examine them several times before his actual assault. He knew this room very well as a result, unfortunately all his planned routes had not taken into account that it might be performed by a small quadrupedal creature.

He considered some of his earlier discarded routes and whether he might be able to mix and match to find something that might work. He could not rush this even if he wanted to. He examined the room one last time and made a decision. There was no room for doubt now and he started to carefully work through the path he judged to have the best chance of success. It went smoothly, surprisingly so in fact. It took time though and as a result he had to try and ignore any further changes to his body that might distract him. He had to ignore as his head pushed out a little further and the tip of his tongue fully split in two. He had to ignore when a series of blunt, boney spikes started pushing themselves one by one from the top of his head all the way down to the top of his rear. He had to ignore the thick fleshy lumps that began to form above his shoulder blades, even when they temporarily caused those joints to stiffen making it harder to move. One thing he didn't ignore, in fact was rather thankful for, was the continuing bulking of his muscle. It also seemed his new skeletal structure hadn't quite finished because a series of small, progressive changes were making it much easier to move in his new four-legged stance.

He finally made it to the far side of the room, just one more pressure plate to deal with. Unfortunately this one could only really be bypassed by jumping. In truth, he had no plan for this apart from perhaps trigger it and run, there was no way around it. As a man the solution had been to take a careful running jump but there was no way he could do that in his current form. He started to examine the plate looking for a way to maybe jam it, he couldn't see another way past it and in truth he had gambled on thinking of something on arrival even before he started his journey.

There was a rather unpleasant wet sound behind him and a sudden weight was forming rapidly on his back, it almost caused him to fall forward onto the plate. He tensed his muscles and dug his claws in against the flag stones and managed to keep his balance. He looked back and gasped, it wasn't entirely unexpected but it was still strange to see. Leathery red wings had exploded out from the fleshy nubs that had formed above his shoulders earlier. As they expanded, bones, muscles and scaled flesh grew along with them. Mesmerized by the sight, he watched as they slid out, long thin structures of cartilage flowing down the sails, giving his new wings structure.

Eventually the growth slowed and stopped. He tried to move them experimentally and found they responded to his command rather easily. Giving them an experimental flap he frowned. He wasn't really sure how to use these and if he was honest he did not think they were actually large enough to bear his weight. He felt strangely disappointed by that, despite the fact such a development was likely to occur, he had not actually considered what it might be like to have wings. It was actually rather a pleasant development, a silver lining to the massive grey raincloud that was currently his life and, and! a way across the plate.

He looked at the plate with sudden genuine excitement. He didn't need /that/ much of a boost to get across, even if he couldn't fly if they could just keep him in the air for just a couple extra seconds it would be enough. He gave a sly, draconian smile and let out a quiet screech, speech had been lost some unknown time earlier. He jumped and flapped his wings hard and fast, in a very inefficient fashion but it was indeed just enough. He landed hard and clumsily on the flagstone just across from the trap. He looked back and laughed, well it was supposed to be a laugh. He had just made it, he was sitting just on the edge of the trap, any less and it would not have been enough.

His eyes began to water and he tried to rub them with his forepaw, he was free. This was the last hurdle. Ok he was a tiny dragon-like creature but at this point he cared so much more about his freedom than that. He was overcome with emotion, the inhuman noises he was making should have been distressing but he was just so happy, nothing could dent his elation. Well, nothing except the noisy whump behind him and the loud screech of metal in front. A heavy metal portcullis fell running down grooves in the wall cutting off escape to the outside, he spun round to see something similar happen at the other entrance too. He couldn't believe it, how could this happen, he hadn't stood on any of the plates, he had perfectly leapt the final trap. His confusion lasted only a second, dispelled as soon as he noticed his tail. The fat scaled lump which had rapidly expanded out from his tail bone and slapped down on the trap. How the hell had he not noticed that. He gave out a screech of absolute fury and a massive gout of fire exploded out towards the ceiling.

He jumped back in shock, no longer caring about the pressure plates and squashed his still developing tail. It hurt surprisingly bad and he gave a whimper as he rolled onto his back to free it. It wasn't until he was lying on his back that his quadrupedal nature really hit home; from this angle his body looked so bizarre. He must have still been shrinking because from the tip of his head to his rear he was probably only 2 feet long. His developing tail seemed to be determined to add at least another foot to that though. He managed to roll back onto his front; a surprisingly difficult task, though when he started making use of his wings it got a lot easier. He glanced back to watch his tail finish growing at a little over a foot before flesh seemed to fold out forming into a spaded tip. He shook his head slightly and started laughing 'I am over a third tail' he thought. It was such a ridiculous notion, one that shouldn't in any way be applicable to him but here he was, some kind of miniature dragon with an oversized tail.

Suddenly the noise of metal against stone rang through the room and Gideon looked up leaning back onto his hind legs as if to pounce. Those fools made him strong, they gave him the ability to breathe fire, gave him claws and teeth; He wasn't going to go down easily, there was one last act of defiance he could perform. It wasn't a guard though. It was a woman. She was pretty with soft lips, large expressive eyes and long wavy black hair. She wasn't wearing armour exactly, more like heavy leather work overalls; the kind of thing you might wear while working with large animals. Gideon barely had time to take this all in because she came straight towards him so fast that he just froze, it did not help that he had not prepared himself for just how large she would be and he barely had time to register her weapon as it came down.

Okay 'Weapon' is perhaps a stretch. What she actually had was a metal stick with a sort of claw thing on the end, sort of what you might pick up litter with. She thrust it right down over Gideon's head and pinned him to the ground forcing his muzzle shut. It took only a second for him to react but it was too late and his violent struggles could not dislodge her "Now, now my pretty" she said with a surprisingly soft voice "We can't have you hurting yourself". She fished something long and black from a pouch like pocket in her overalls and managed to get it wound around Gideon's neck. She suddenly released him and he jumped back, tumbling over his tail, noting the light tinkling sound of metal against his scales.

The woman smiled at him "Now that is better, Listen" He wasn't, He was still trying to get his bearings as he lay in a heap of limbs, including several limbs that were rather new to him and thus more difficult to get untangled. That word though, despite not paying attention 'Listen' rang through his head, and suddenly he was.

"You shall not attack me, either with your fire or claws. In fact, you will not breathe fire at all unless directed by myself or someone designated as your owner" she said this in a calm way, sort of practiced as if she had done it before. Those words seemed to ring through Gideon's mind, they seemed to settle down into his flesh, becoming as much part of him as his tail. He panicked, somehow she had a way to command him, to give him instructions that he must follow. It was powerful, dangerous magic and she had not performed any kind of obvious ritual or spell. 'The Collar' he realised and immediately tried to bring his front claws up to shred it, however as soon as they got close he started to feel resistance like he was pushing through water. The more he pushed, the harder that resistance got.

"You will find that quite impossible" she said with a small smile "Once the Collar of command has been placed around your neck, it is all over I am afraid" the smile turned mocking as he finally let his legs fall and just stood looking shocked. He sat silently for a few seconds before looking up and giving a hateful screech. She just laughed. "Oh my, such poor manners. I am a bad host" she said, traces of the mocking laughter still in her voice "I am Amara and you are...well I don't know who you were but now, Listen, your name is 'Crimson'" she laughed "After all, that's what it says on your collar." Gideon just stared at her like he couldn't quite understand what he was looking at. She couldn't do that could she? She couldn't just take his name from him, after all, he still knew that his name was 'Crimson' prior to her command and...no wait that wasn't right. 'Crimson' was the name she just gave him, his name before was something else, it was...

He gave a loud screech before laying his head flat against the ground and sitting his front paws a top his head as if he could hide from the world. He couldn't remember his name. Every time he tried to think, the word Crimson floated up. Whatever it used to be was gone, no matter how much he hated it he was going to instinctively react to Crimson from now on, there was nothing he could do. He peered up at her from where he lay. She seemed so enormous, from his perspective she was practically a giant. She could probably step on him and kill him effortlessly. He tilted his head slighting thinking, well actually, probably not, his body was covered in draconic armour and seemed really rather durable. Right now however, it was not the physical threat that she posed that worried him, it was the mental one. She could slowly strip away every part of him, remold him till there was nothing left. How many more of these commands until Crimson was gone and only Crimson remained, how many more till he was effectively dead. He gave a sudden scowl as he realised that his thought made no sense, even when thinking only to himself she had taken part of him away.

Amara shook her head slightly with a wry chuckle "Oh, I can suspect what you're thinking" she said "But you need not worry, I do not intend to apply too many more commands to you. My client wants his miniature jewel dragon, that's what you are by the way, with plenty of fight left in him. He intends you to serve as pet and guardian for his daughter" she leaned her head sideways resting it against her hand "He intends to train you himself"

Crimson just looked at her flatly. He felt very unsure of himself but being scared and upset was exhausting, It was becoming very clear that he had lost this battle and if what she said was true, she was not going to destroy his mind, though it did sound like that might come later. "Don't feel bad" she said "Dozens of would be thieves fall for this scam each year and most don't make it this close to the exit, this is where I get most of my stock from now. Much easier than actually capturing such dangerous creatures and I can produce goods to order. You are not the first to become part of my stock and you will not be the last. If it helps the Doman's girl is kind, she will treat you well" she pauses and then smiles a little cruelly "Though her father does intend to mold you into the perfect pet so you may enjoy that somewhat less"

Suddenly a familiar screech of stone against metal rang out. The portcullis had been closed again at some point and was being reopened. Crimson looked up with suspicion and surprise, it must have been dropped while Amara was roughly handling him. He guessed she thought there must have been a chance he would run for it and locked them in this room together to prevent it. A rather unremarkable man wearing ring-mail armour walked into the room; this was much more like what he had expected to see the first time around. He gave Amara a salute and placed a steel cage onto the ground "Will that be all great mistress" he asked in a neutral tone and turned and left when she gave him a sharp nod.

Crimson watched nervously as she looked back at him "All right, its time. Get in the cage". Crimson looked at the cage and back to her, he didn't move. She smiled, it was neither kind or cruel "I can give you a command that whenever anyone opens a cage in front of you, you will climb in and lie down quietly" she tilted her head slightly and her widened smile was now definitely cruel "Or you can get in the cage"

Crimson, got in the cage.