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When the people in Jason's town talked about the garden, there was only one garden they could possibly be referring to.

There were several parks, five botanical gardens and lots of green areas, but there was only one place people spoke of with that mix of morbid curiosity and awe. With the years, it had become another part of the community, even if it was only as a recurring joke or a threat to the children that were naughty. "Behave well or we'll put you in the garden", parents would say. As any other child in the area, Jason had heard that sentence plenty of times when he was younger. That had contributed to creating that involuntary sensation of dread he felt every time he thought about it.

However, it was the third time he had crossed the gates of the infamous garden.

It had been a long while since the last time, though. The first time he had seen the tall trees and dense vegetation that grew within those tall stone walls, he was only a child. He had been playing with his friends in the nearby park and suddenly they had stumbled upon the huge iron gates. They had started sharing the stories each of them had heard about that place; tales that their parents had told them before going to sleep but that they had never put in common before. Someone had suddenly said that the adults had to be lying and the place couldn't be that dangerous. A few children had opposed that idea, still influenced by their parents' stories, but in the end they had dared walking together to the entrance and taking a look. Trembling in fear, they walked a few steps in and then turned back and ran away.

The second time Jason was there had been just two years ago. By then, he was already in the football team and was practicing with his teammates in the field nearby. When someone had shot the ball so high it had flown across the field and got lost in the distance, Jason had offered to go look for it. If he had known the ball had landed in the garden, he would have probably remained silent and let anyone else take his place, but when he found out, it was already too late. He stood by the garden's gates, hesitating for a few seconds, his eyes fixed upon the missing ball. Fortunately, it hadn't got lost beneath the dense vegetation and it wasn't too far from the entrance. It would only be a matter of seconds: pushing the gate open, walking into the garden, picking up the ball and then walking away from that cursed place. Reason told him it was absurd to be so scared of a few trees and plants, but he still had his doubts.

By then, he already knew the tales his parents had told him as a child were more than bedtime stories. Several people had disappeared in the garden and had never been found again. The police had searched for them for days, maybe even weeks, but they never managed to find a single trace of them even being there to begin with.

It was as if anyone that walked into that place simply vanished.

In the end, he managed to gather enough courage to walk in and almost ran towards the ball, picking it up and going back to the gates as fast as he could. But before leaving the place, he still took a look over his shoulder, holding the ball tight against his body. There was nothing there. Just the quiet and wilderness of a garden that had been neglected for too long. Shrugging and trying to shake his fear off, he walked away and wished that'd be the last time he'd have to get in there, alone.

But now, the young cheetah was there again.

Looking through the wrought-iron gate, trying to spot another ball that had gone missing, in vain. He had tried to avoid being the one to go looking for the ball, but Quinn had been there last time (although Jason seriously believed she had found the ball by the outer part of the walls and then claimed she had got in) and Edward's girlfriend had called him all of a sudden, conveniently. Perhaps, too much so. The rest of his teammates had left a while ago; the sun was setting and the twilight was coloring the skies with red and yellow.

However, for some reason, the trees seemed to remain untouched by the orange light.

Jason shook his head, thinking to himself that was nonsense. He pushed the gates open once more and walked into the garden, putting his fear in the back of his mind, where it wouldn't bother him. After all, he had been there once before and nothing had happened. Perhaps the rumors surrounding that place were just that: rumors.

The ball was nowhere to be seen. He took cautious steps and left the gates open behind him, just in case he needed to get out of there as quickly as possible. Still, he didn't stop walking into the garden, not now that he had managed to do so. Taking quick glances at both sides of the dirt path that meandered around the trees and bushes, he went on and on, looking for the damn ball, which almost certainly wasn't worth the effort. After five minutes had passed, he had left the gates well behind him and nothing had happened so far, so he started to feel less nervous and more impatient. After all, it turned out that the most dangerous thing there were probably nettles.

He had never been that far into the garden or met anyone who had been there. Interestingly enough, it almost seemed as if the deeper he went into it, the more beautiful it got. The vegetation still grew wild and without boundaries; obviously, no one had taken care of that place in a long, long time. But as the path got narrower, Jason started seeing berry bushes that gave different colors to the green that seemed to reign everywhere, flowers that grew from the floor and made things a bit different. Who had been the last person that had seen those? Jason could only guess. The garden had such a terrible reputation that he wouldn't have been surprised if no one had got into it in more than ten years.

He was leaning over the berries that grew close to the path, curious, when he had the weird feeling that someone was watching him. The fur in his back stood on edge and he turned brusquely with a gasp. When his blue eyes met someone standing there, a few meters away from his position, he had to contain the urge to scream.

There was a dragon standing in front of him, just a few steps away. His black scales seemed to absorb all sunlight, as if the rays simply bounced on them. From his position, the cheetah could see the dragon's wings folded on his back, as motionless as the rest of the dragon's body, but still radiating that invisible strength that always seemed to surround all of his kind. His deep, violet eyes were looking down at him, since the dragon was way taller than Jason, and the cheetah's first impulse was to turn his back to the sudden arrival and run.

"H-hi," he said instead, gulping and trying to break a nice smile. Maybe he had done something wrong after all. Maybe that garden _actually_belonged to someone...

It was then when he noticed the dragon was holding the ball in one of his hands. A sigh of relief almost escaped his lips when he understood that, probably, the only thing the dragon had wanted was to give it back to him. But for how long had that dragon been there? Jason hadn't even heard him coming. He didn't even know there were still dragons in that part of the city. He'd check that as soon as he'd get back home, though.

"I was just looking for the ball," he explained, making a huge effort to keep that smile on his face. The dragon still hadn't spoken, and that made him feel slightly nervous. "We were... uh... playing and we missed it. I'm sorry if it caused a problem or something, sir. It won't happen again."

The dragon took a step towards Jason, who tried to remain calm. The stranger didn't look particularly dangerous; he was just a dragon, after all, and most of them were kind of intimidating to some extent. There was no reason at all to feel afraid. Besides, he had fetched the ball for him, hadn't him? His intentions definitely had to be good. In spite of all that reasoning, Jason had to make an effort to stand still as the dragon approached him.

After a few seconds full of tension, the stranger raised the ball and Jason extended his paw, taking it cautiously. For some reason, he had thought the dragon would scold him, or maybe ask for something in exchange, but it seemed that things were going to be easier than he had believed. The cheetah looked up to thank the stranger for being so kind, but his eyes met the dragon's and, for a second, he forgot what he was about to say. He hadn't noticed that before, but those violet eyes were really captivating. They almost seemed to shine gently, light pulsating from them and filling the space around with a calming luminescence that made him feel... strangely light-headed.

In fact, for an instant he almost forgot what he was doing, and only when he found himself looking absentmindedly at a bush, he realized he had been zoning out for a second. <<Weird>>, he thought to himself, as he held the ball close to his body.

He could see the dragon was still close to him and that proximity made him feel a bit uneasy, but when he raised his head again to look at the dragon and met those deep, big eyes, it was almost as if those thoughts were washed away by the beautiful, captivating violet. He even let out a soft sigh, loosening the grip around the ball, and forgot yet again whatever was going on. He could smell the dragon's breath: the scent of wild fire in the middle of the forest, and it weakened his senses even more.

"Come with me," said the dragon then, his voice so deep and low that it sent a shiver down the cheetah's spine.

For some reason, Jason didn't have a choice. The dragon turned his back to him and started walking between the trees. It would have been impossible for the cheetah to know exactly where he was going, but he wasn't able to refuse that simple command and started walking behind the stranger with slow, mechanical movements. He could still see the light of those violet eyes: pulsating, making him feel good... light-headed. He kept walking as if in the middle of a dream, unable to form more than a thought at a time, following the dragon without hesitation. His mind couldn't find a single reason why he wouldn't trust him, after all. He had given him the ball, and he had those beautiful eyes.

They walked between the trees, following the dirt path, in silence. Jason's thoughts were heavy and sluggish, just flowing enough for him to pay the slightest attention to following the steps of the dragon. If he had been more aware of what was going on, there would have been a tiny voice at the back of his mind, warning him that what he was doing wasn't right at all... but at that moment, he couldn't care about that. It was as if those bright, violet eyes had taken all the worries away with them.

And it felt good.

They eventually came to a clearing in the middle of the garden and the dragon stopped. Jason stopped too, a few steps away, and his mind cleared just a little bit. He looked around, confused, and thought he could see what looked like... statues. They were far away between the bushes, and looked strangely real...

...but that was all the cheetah managed to see before the dragon grabbed his chin with a claw and forced him to look up again. When Jason's eyes met the dragon's, he let out another sigh of pleasure, his whole body relaxing under that wave of beautiful violet, his mind melting until it was complete mush. The muscles in his whole body started loosening one by one until his arms hung limp by his sides, letting go of the ball, which fell to the ground and bounced a few times before stopping at the dragon's feet.

Not that Jason could see that, at that point. Everything that mattered were those violet eyes sending shivers of relaxation down his whole body, made him so wonderfully light-headed and dizzy that he started zoning out now and then, unable to stay aware. His muzzle slowly fell open, the muscles in his face too relaxed to keep his mouth closed. And meanwhile, those violet eyes kept guiding him deeper... vibrating... pulsating and making him feel so good that he'd never look away from them.

"You belong here," he heard the dragon's voice then, and he immediately knew that to be true. That deep, authoritative voice echoed in his mind, as if it was amplified by the violet. His hazy mind offered no resistance to those words and he just nodded slowly, with a dumb smile spreading across his face.

He felt a claw caressing his cheek slowly. He belonged there. In the garden.

"You belong to me." And again, those words echoed in Jason's mind, and as soon as they sank deep into his brain, he knew that was also true. He belonged to the dragon. Those violet eyes owned him. There was no hesitation as his mind registered those two ideas. It only felt natural.

He belonged to the dragon.

Time passed as he kept staring into those eyes, but he couldn't even tell. His mind gently swayed following the dragon's words, too tired and relaxed to oppose. Those eyes kept pulling him deeper and deeper; the whole world seemed to have faded away and there was nothing but the violet now. He didn't even notice as the dragon had him follow his steps once more and lead him to the other side of the clearing. The fact that there was something beyond those walls had escaped his mind a long time ago.

He felt the dragon's hands moving down his body. Helping him stay in a correct position, or something like that. Jason wasn't paying real attention to his words by then. It was only the cadence, the rhythm, and those violet eyes that made him follow everything that was said to him. It felt just too good to follow. It happened without him even realizing.

"You're a statue," said that voice then.

And suddenly, his whole body froze, unable to move. It was as if suddenly every single muscle, every inch of his body had turned to stone. He didn't even question it. The voice had said so, and so it was. He didn't even react as the dragon slowly moved his body, fixating it in the pose he found more appropriate. Jason couldn't care less. He was a statue, and statues weren't supposed to care, they just stood there, motionless... posing in whatever pose they had been made into.

The cheetah statue momentarily lost sight of those violet eyes, but his mind didn't wake up. He just waited patiently until those eyes came down again, staring deep into his. If his body hadn't made of stone, he would have shivered, but he was a statue after all. He could barely listen the dragon's words now. All he could see was the deep, wonderful violet.

"When I snap my fingers, your mind will also turn into stone. Completely gone. No thoughts. No will. No resistance." Jason couldn't nod at that point, but he could feel the last remnants of his mind registering those commands almost instantly. "You're a statue. You've always been a statue. You'll always be a statue. You love being a statue."

Yes, he did. Staying there, forever. Quiet, frozen, still. His body completely rigid, ready to be observed.

He was a statue. He loved being a statue. And he would always be a statue, he was certain of that.

He belonged to the dragon. He belonged in that garden.

Those were the only thoughts left in his mind as his eyes barely registered the dragon's claws rising in the air. Then, they went down, and with a snap.......-