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THUD!

Siden flinched and dropped the book he had been about to catalog at the sand of the library doors being slammed shut. The book didn't make it to the ground as his tail caught it before it fell. The, currently anthropomorphic, silver dragon started down the ladder as his tail simply put the book in it's proper place. He climbed down the rung as he was greeted by another loud noise, now it was the sound of someone ringing that accursed bell that for some reason he was required to have.

Dismounting the ladder at the bottom he moved to the desk at the front where a human male was shifting impatiently. Before Siden could even open his mouth to speak the man stopped ringing the bell and held up his hand in the universal sign that he needed a moment. So while the man proceeded to fish in his leather chaps. Siden took better stock of him. He appeared to be in his late 20's at first glance, vibrant orange hair and a dim set of brown eyes. He was only about 5'9" based on the markers on the frame of the door. His frame was lithe and as typical with venturing this high in the mountains he was armed. An admittedly well made wooden crossbow was on a sling on his right side, causing it to rest on his hip, and he had all manner of daggers, throwing, parrying, and the typical iron.

Finally the man dug the scrap of torn paper from his pocket and inspected it for a moment before smiling to Siden, well, sneering was a better word.

"Siden. Dragon of Cel'Nath, by your laws I am allowed to challenge you to take places as your rider the duel will be a non magical test of combat until death, knockout, or surrender."

Siden didn't respond at first, since the echo of his face-palm, or face-claw as it might be called, was echoing throughout the library. He didn't find it hard to believe, he just found it hard to admit to himself that someone had specifically set out for him, climbed up to his home, and slammed his door, just to challenge him to a duel. When Siden regained his composure, he sighed and pointed for the same door the man had entered from as the silver headed for it himself. The man happily followed, already checking weapons to get ready as he followed after the dragon who's tail already whipped behind him angrily.....though the hopeful dragon-rider-to-be shivered....it seriously felt like it just dropped a few degrees in here....weird.

Siden wasted absolutely no time as he led the man outside, already his form began to grow and contort, his head growing in size as he shifted to his actual size so that his head was bigger than a cow on its own. His legs followed suit as they increased in size, the black pants he'd been wearing seeming to just melt into the scales as his legs shifted to better support a quadrupedal stance as did his arms, or better now called his forelegs. His claws and the jagged spikes that ran from the crest of his head down his back all increased to better match his size, now that he was as large as a van body wise. Finally, as Siden got to his desire battlefield at a lower elevation and on flatter lands, he expanded his now fully sized wings. What wings they were too, the curvature and thick membranes, combined with the micro sized scales and stronger muscles made it clear Siden was built for flying.

In response, the man showed a bit more of what he was capable of, he appeared to be a blood cursed as he placed quite a few of the oddly shaped daggers into his arm so that they pierced from one side of the limbs out the other until the blood streamed down to his finger tips, claws forming as the blood solidified, but left plenty of blood on his arms. The daggers pulled themselves from his body and dropped to the ground at his feet as the wounds sealed themselves. This made things interesting, Siden knew well enough that anything with his blood on it could be controlled as if it was a second limb, so if that man's blood got into his body. Siden will have lost.

There were no words as their battle begun as soon as their eyes locked. The area grew colder and colder as dragon and man fought with a ferocity that only existed when two beasts fought. Siden's icing breath left thick patches of shining frost and ice wherever it touched, but the man had expected this somewhat and his lithe form made dodging it easier, while Siden buffeted him with wings and claw to keep him from getting that nasty claws where they could do damage. As it was, the man had the advantage. While Siden could fly and meet the man's maneuverability from the air, he was sure that crossbow wasn't just for show and he didn't want to be left without that option. The duel demanded there was no escape since it was seen as a surrender in itself. The silver dragon's opponent was winning, every encounter got him closer and closer, his breath showing in the wind as the temperature dropped lower still.

Finally there was the opening he needed, after that tail swipe, he could get under the dragon and slash at that belly. Throwing a dagger at Siden's face to distract him, he slipped past the tail as it crashed harmlessly to the ground next to him, landed and pushed his feet to jettison him forward, as he felt his feet slide across ice that wasn't there a moment before. The tail came back for another pass as the man's feet left the ground under him. He crossed his arms across his chest for what little defense he could hope for as the tail smashed into him. Thanks to the reinforced body his cursed blood gave him, the initial blow didn't take him out. However, slamming into a solid rock wall after being thrown by the force of the tail caused his world to fade in a blur of white, and a sea of black.

Waking up didn't come nearly as suddenly or with the welcome he had expected. Frankly, since he expected to either not wake up at all, wake up in extreme pain, or in some other manner of discomfort. Instead, Ayas woke up in a bed, warm, and comfortable. A quick glance around revealed he was not I the library, possibly in the same building, but not in the library itself. What also was clear, was that Siden was once more in his anthropomorphic form watching Ayas carefully, but he didn't appear hostile, in fact, he seemed smug. Sitting up in the bed, he found all his wounds healed. To the point that not even a scar remained, all that was left on him out of place was a strange mark on his. There was no pain or soreness, he felt great! The only hint there had ever been in battle was that his leather jerkin and chaps were torn from their fight, and he was devoid of any weapons.

Nervously, the man spoke up with an undertone of uneasiness in his voice. "So, I'm alive." The dragon's head nods. "I lost the fight." More nodding. This really wasn't making him feel any better. Especially as he watched Siden stand.

"So, first I need your name, then I need you to listen."

There was something wrong with the look Siden was giving him. It wasn't angry, but it wasn't calm. It felt like the dragon was splitting him into parts in his mind. Even so, Ayas felt compelled to answer. "I'm Ayas, from Talbur...what...why am I still here?"

Siden chuckled happily. "Good. A name, I'll put that on the collar. Now, business at hand. Since the terms of the battle, is the loser is subject to the winners desires. You were going to keep me as a pet, so it's only fair I do the same."

There was no argument from Ayas just a dumbfounded expression. He sat there staring at Siden for a few more moments before shaking off the feeling and chuckling nervously going to get up to leave. Only he couldn't get out of the bed. In fact, trying to move out of the bed gave him a jarring shock that made him feel like his skin was being shredded. He pulled himself back on the bed breathing rapidly as he got over the jarring shock. Meanwhile Siden was busting a gut as he left. As Siden closed the door behind him he said a few words, but Ayas only understood some of it.

"See you soon, sia moxt kaldra. Si vorq forward ekess ocuirir svanoa wux shartleg ekik."

Ayas had absolutely had no idea what was going on now. He was to be kept as a caged pet, fan-bloody-tastic. Still, he began to search his "cage" for any signs of weakness, only to find that ceiling to floor there was a barrier that at touch gave him pain extraordinaire. No, he wouldn't settle for this. Lifting his arm to his teeth he bit down until his blood flowed from the depression in his skin. Slowly his blood trickled out from his wound. Encouraged by his probing until he once more had blood claws tipping his fingers. Rearing back his arm he stabbed at the barrier.

That is exactly where everything went wrong. The feeling of having his skin split, didn't stop this time...and his hand was stuck in the barrier. He opened his mouth to scream, but nothing came out as it felt like his arm was stripped bare. He looked to his arm...as he watched patches of thick black fur were growing up from his arm, seconds after the pain passed over an area, the fur began a carpet as it climbed his arm. Well that was all fine and dandy, so of course he tugged even more an his arm as he tried to grit his teeth through the pain. He was only momentarily deterred as the fur suddenly became a vibrant orange in color as it passed his elbow.

This wasn't happening. No way this was happening. The fur was spreading faster, but the pain was gone, all that remained was an itching sensation as he watched the fur spread. Finally it hit his shoulders....and stopped. The fur just halted there at his shoulder. The odd sensations were gone, and his arm popped free of the barrier again as he fell back on the bed breathing heavily, sweat sticking his jerkin to his chest. "What the hell?" Was what he asked as he brushed his normal hand through his fur. The notion was ridiculous, he had fur now. It was real. It was attached. No, this was definitely happening, especially since he could see the fur now spreading up his other arm as well. If that wasn't bad enough, the itch returned to his arm that was already covered in fur. He could do little aside from watch as his hand swelled along the palm as blisters formed and blackened, before morphing into pads, like one would see on paws, mirroring this was his other hand still being overtaken by fur. His fingernails jumped on the bandwagon as well as they elongated and relocated as they became claws.

He was getting light headed from all of this, good thing he was already on a bed. He just closed his eyes and took deep breaths, but the light pressure in his skull got worse. Why was this happening? An image of Siden flashed into his head...with that same smug expression. A word hung there as well, just on the edge of his mind and the tip of his tongue, but he couldn't reach it. In pure frustration he tried to yell, but all that came from his mouth was air. Great, he couldn't say anything either. Abandoning that he again looked at his new paws as the word moved to the front of his mind. How didn't he see it before?

"I'm turning into a fox?"

As surprised as he was that he actually said that...he shouldn't have. As soon as he did his body felt like it had caught fire. His rear end felt like someone was tearing it apart, in fact from the waist down, it felt like he was being crushed by a bulldozer. He had to hazard a look down even though his vision was blurring, his pants were gone without a trace and as he expected, fur of black and orange was overtaking his lower body. He couldn't see exact details, but he heard the sound of snapping bone as his legs look like they twisted and bent the wrong way his feet were changing and even the sight of that sent waves of nausea through his body. He whimpered and tried to move, to only have the nausea increase as his vision was sent on a roller coaster and his senses went wild as his head and torso joined the pain ride.

Siden was enjoying the show. He had been waiting outside to hear the words that would kick Ayas' transformation into overdrive. He only waited a second before stepping into the room to watch. Ayas was actually very still as his body changed, but the paralysis spell laced in probably had something to do with that. Siden got to watch as the former human's shirt disintegrated as well as the fur spread there. Accelerating the elongating of his spine to help with the lengthening appendage growing from Ayas' buttocks. Siden smiled, even if Ayas' vision wasn't blurred, that muzzle pushing out from his face blocked his view of the tail as it began to form fur and swish of its own volition. The fox-to-be whimpered as the changes seemed to be coming to a close, there was a loud crack as his body settled to no longer allow bipedal motion, his legs having shortened to make the quadrupedal stature comfortable. A chorus of snapping and sick popping noises was accompanied by a yelp as Ayas' head and torso finished as well. The nausea fading and blurred vision fading as his organs finished their transformation at the same time.

"How are you feeling?" Spoke Siden questioningly to the human sized fox.

The fox only whimpered as he looked sadly at Siden, his tail tucked between his legs as he rolled uneasily to try to stand, only to succeed at falling off the bed with a surprised yelp, and a resulting thud. He tried to make his way to his feet, but all he could manage was a large amount of flailing as Siden approached him with a long piece of leather that looked too small to be a belt. The metal tags hanging from it reading "Ayas" and "Pet" made it clear what it was for.

The silver dragon looked sternly at Ayas and he froze as the collar was put around his neck, but it didn't fit! The sides didn't even get close to touching, but Siden didn't stop smiling as he spoke in a way that chilled Ayas to the bone.

"Awww, it looks like your new collar doesn't fit. Well, I can fix that." At a pleading look from Ayas, the male dragon shook his head. "No, you will wear the collar. I just need a fox that isn't too big before the collar. Simple"

The unfortunate fox didn't even have time to put the pieces together as he felt, and could tell he was shrinking. The last hints he might ever have been human were slipping away as he shrunk more and more, down to the size of an average fox, and all he could do was whimper pleadingly until the collar clicked shut around his neck as he stopped shrinking to the happy purr of the dragon master.

Ayas didn't have any response. He had fallen silent as his tail stuck between his legs, his ears lay flat to his head and he skulked on the ground. He didn't deserve this. He felt miserable. An alien sensation came from atop his head, right behind his ears as he opened his eyes with a start. At the same time, he could feel himself being scooped up from the ground as he was continued to be, petted? He was being petted. Here he thought he couldn't be degraded further. Did it feel good? Yes. Did he try to shake the hand petting him off? Also yes. Did the human form Siden continue to pet the fox until he gave in? Yes again. Siden wasn't cruel, he was just prone to be rash when someone invades his home, so now he has a pet fox. The best part was the intelligence and free will he let Ayas keep. That way it would be better. Ayas wouldn't be able to refuse an order but that was just one more hitch. That was probably overlooked though since he was stuck in the body of a fox, and that was pretty much the sum of what he was paying attention to at the moment. So much for riding back into town on the back of a dragon to impress the ladies.