Stripes and Chains 6 - Snow and Lights

Story by Silversmith on SoFurry

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#8 of Stripes and Chains

The dragon empire is is a long spine of mountains and valleys, dotted with mines that fuel the nations industry: gold, silver, precious gems, and rare metals. Three such mines are owned by Remus, a dragon of little fame but much clout, who makes his lair near the peak of a snow capped mountain. Atop the snowy mountain, in the dead of winter, under a night sky lit with ethereal flowing lights, a fur will come to know him self.

This is chapter six in the Stripes and Chains story. An unofficial fiction based on the works of DragonTalon

Chapter six marks a sort of end of lines. A turning point. The next chapters after this one will be focusing on character development and plot. Stripes and Chains is already far less sexual than DragonTalons Fates of the Unicorns series, that's not going to change. It will become more action oriented though, as Benjamin takes his first steps into a world he could only imagine in his most private thoughts


"AVENGE ME!" Benjamin cried out as he fell into the snow, his hand reached out desperately. From on top of him a pile of giggling lionesses poked, prodded, twisted, and tickled him "Ow! Ow! Ow that's my tail you harpy!" Claudius and Juno both looked on, laughing. Claudius wagged his tail, whining as he looked to Juno. She wiped a tear from her eye and nodded.

"Go on you big buffoon. I'll keep watch." Claudius yipped as he tossed her his club and whip, bounding off through the snow to join the cat pile, all amidst cheerful cries of excitement. They were in the mountains to the north. Kelsura had taken her eight chauffeur horse slaves, her Sirens, her slave guard captain and his unofficial lieutenant, and her newest. The gold tiger Benjamin. It was cold, but not unbearable. Her horses were down below in the mountain lairs warmed halls, resting from the long trip. Her other slaves though had all been given thick shaggy skin cloaks and told to shove off out into the snow while Kelsura spoke with an old friend. In truth, she wanted them to unwind. This was a week off of work for her. They were all still required to preform their services, but for today she saw nothing wrong with letting them have a bit of fun. She watched with a smile from the glass room atop a tower over looking the large flat near the peak of the mountain. The room was a large towering extension out of the lair of Master Remus, a dragon in the gold, silver, and orichalcum mining trade. The gold and silver brought him wealth and the orichalcum brought him status, the metal needed in the production of dragon steel for armor and weapons. Highly valued by the military and slavers both.

"Some king of the pride." Remus dismissed with a chuckle, a deep baritone voice. He watched as the five lionesses pounced after the retreating Benjamin, pelting him with snow balls. Claudius tackled the tiger from a mound he had built to hide himself, the girls pouncing on top and once more playfully torturing the poor tiger.

"The girls haven't had the company of a male feline in so long." She laughed softly as Claudius picked the tiger up out of the Benjamin shaped dent in the snow, licking the white from his face and making the cat flinch. It was settling to see that even Claudius had so quickly gotten along with her newest slave. Several months had passed. Work unfortunately kept her away from him, preventing more extensive training and keeping her from assessing just what position he would best fill in her lair.

Remus, a large navy blue dragon, not quite as tall as Kelsura but far more imposing, placed a hand on her shoulder. He tilted her chin towards him and locked his lips with hers. He murred, tail swaying behind her as his tongue swirled around her own. "You know not to let them mate?" he asked, pushing the ties on the shoulder of her dress open, pulling the leather up over her head.

She shivered as she was lead to the sofa that wrapped around half the inside of the class room. It had been so, so long since she felt the claws of a dragon above her, controlling her. Borreus could certainly dominate her, but that was pure lust. There were very few males she felt a connection with, Remus among the strongest. Rich, influential, and harsh. She was pushed down to her knees as he sat in front of her, kilt pulled up and the slit protecting his cock and balls underneath met her nose as her head was pushed between his knees. "Of course." She said, running her tongue between the large orbs, along the corded line that ran the middle of his sack. "If and when I let it happen, it'll be with a pile of sheep skins. I don't need a baby lyger crying and...doing every thing baby furrys do." she scowled before running her tongue over his slit, sucking softly and cupping his balls, tickling behind them and teasing his shaft out

Remus grunted. His red cock jutting long and turgid. Kelsura turned her head to lay her cheek on his crotch, lapping along the bottom and side at the base, stroking the tip. Her tip flicked over the length of his shaft slow and wet, teasing each barb along the way. He groaned, fingers pushing through her copper hair and shoving her down. She glucked, eyes widening and struggling when he crammed his cock into her mouth, pressing the head into her throat. "Tigon." he said. She hmmed inquisitively as she sucked, bobbing her head and swirling her tongue all around his cock. "Male tiger, female lion. That would make it a tigon. Lygers are only born when the male is a lion and the female is a tiger." She groaned indignantly, pinching the inside of his thigh and making him jump, pushing more of his cock down her throat. She swallowed around his head, slurping over him. His hips rose and his hand pushed down, her lips meeting his crotch as his whole length was pushed into her mouth. He held her threre, sputtering and gagging on his shaft. She struggled and willingly held her self there, throat working his head rapidly as she fought the urge to pull away. "Graah! Fuck!" he pushed her off, standing and bending her over.

"Fuck yes." she choked, pushing her shoulders into the cushions, tale hicking high to expose her ass and cunt to him. She spread her knees apart and gasped as he took hold of her hips. He grunted and drove him self forward, working his hips with out pause and making her whole body shake with the impact of his body against her ass. She reached back, spreading her cheeks and given him a good look at her puckered star. Remus was such an ass dragon, there was a reason they called him Remus the Reamer. She bit hard into the sofa, nearly tearing a chunk f it out as he made true on his nickname. He pulled his cock from her cunt, slick, wet, and ready and pushed it into her ass to the hilt in a single stroke. "Demons take you!" she roared in pleasure and pain, throwing her self back on his hips, fucking her own ass harder than he thrusted.

Remus leaned down over her back, pushing his nose into her hair and pushed a hand under her jaw and around her throat. He growled, making her whole body shiver. His hips bucked, skin slapping skin. Yanking back he forced her to arch up against him, driving his prick harder and harder into her ass with each swing of his hips. "Scream for me." he said in a low, menacing growl. She sank her claws into his sofa as she groaned and choked out a long keening cry, squeezing her ass tight around his cock and cumming. His balls emptying into her bowels as her cunny splashed her juices onto the floor.

The both panted, reveling in each others heat and and the glow of their own orgasms. Remus moaned softly as he pulled out of her, cock shrinking and slipping back into his slit. He held her cheeks open, her hole winking and white dragon cum seeping and running slowly down over her taint, running along her cunt lips to drip to the floor in the puddle of her femcum. "Huh." he said nonplussed, looking out the window.

"Wha-?" she asked, tremulous. Her arms and legs were shaking. "What's 'huh?'"

"You DID say you didn't want little tigons, right?" He asked. She nodded.

"Worst thing I can think of. Wanna torture a dragon, put em in a room of baby furs." she said, turning around, hissing as she tried to sit, preferring to stand. Joining him and looking out the glass wall. Her eyes widened and she half roared and half screamed as she turned, flying down the stairs with out so much as picking up her dress.


Benjamin sat in the snow on his cloak. He was panting, breath misting in front of him, out of breath from running and defending him self from the constant playful attention of the five lionesses. They just didn't let up. Chasing him all through the snowy field, pouncing him. He was glade Claudius had decided to break away to start building snow forts. It had been fun at first, having five females chasing after him, sitting on him, tickling him. But then Flute had found out what happens when you tickle the base of his tail. That had been truly embarassing, the girls seemed to find it endearing. They chased him down once more after letting him up, giving him a five second head start. Pounced him, sat on him, and then took turns each stroking the base of his tail, eliciting a moan and an even more troublesome response.

Now he sat, a moment of respite, inside one of Claudius's unfinished snow forts, a simple circular wall, he floor dug down to make the inside of the walls taller than the out side. He looked down at himself, his cock free from his sheath. He blushed, giving a quick look over the wall and fucking swiftly. His length ached, and just wasn't going down no matter how much he willed it to. "Go check over there!" he heard Harps voice call to her sisters, giggling bunch of girls headed away from where he sat. He gave a soft sigh of relief. He had hopped they had already checked this one, having been scrambling from fort to fort. "Wow, he sure did make a lot of these in short work." His gaze shot from his throbbing prick to straight up. Harp looked over the top of the snow wall, smiling down at him. She hopped over it an he scrambled, or tried to. He felt his tail go taught and his feet go from under him, face slamming into the snow. He turned onto his back and let out a low growl, claws unfurling. She let go and put her hands up in supplication. "Whoa whoa. Easy kitten. Truce?"

He glowered, pulling his cloak closed over him. He didn't like how she was staring. "Truce." he agreed with some chagrin. "What do you want?"

"Whoa, grumpy puss. Don't tell me you weren't enjoying it." she indicated to his crotch, smirking. She crawled over and sat down next to him. She pulled her own cloak closed around her. Not before though she gave a great, obviously exaggerated sigh that made her chest heave. Her nipples hard and sticking up. "This is only the second time I've seen snow." she said, looking up at the clear blue sky and smiled. She leaned to her side, against Benjamin. He shifted uncomfortably.

"My first." he murmured. She hmmed softly, leaning yet further, moving her self tight against him.

"Getting cold. Do a girl a favor?" she looked at him, batting her eyes girlishly.

"W-what?" She pulled his arm up, his cloak open and sat down inside it, pulling her own cloak around front to cover them both as she cuddled up under his arm and purred.

"That's better. Warm." she said, giving him a nuzzle.

"Harp you're-"

"Shh. Listen, you hear that?" she asked. All he could here was soft distant wind and the soft crack of shifting snow. He shook his head. "Exactly. Juno and Claudius are...well...being Juno and Claudius." she giggled, giving him a wink. "And Flute, Lute, Drums, and Violin are on a wild goose chase looking for you. Its just you," he gasped, her hand wrapping around his cock. "And I."

He tried to pull away. Her grip tightened. "Mistress won't like this...she forbid it..." she just smiled and nodded, her hand slowly moving up and down. Her thumb worked in slow circles over his tip, pre beading under it. His blush deepend as her hand from under the side of the cloak and she sucked her thumb.

She sucked her thumb with a pop, licking her lips and kissing his cheek. She unclasped the chain holding the furred cloak to her neck. "Mistress said no fucking. She didn't say no sucking. Besides...you want that to go away, right? I know just how to take care of it." She winked at him, pulling the skin up and ducking under it.

"I dont think that what she meant when she said No-oooooo...hell..." He groaned as he felt hot, soft, and sticky cover his pink flesh. He could hear her purring, vibrating on his prick as her head sucked softly on the head of his dick. She huffed, ears twitching with the wet sucking. He tried to lift the cloak and had it snatched out of his hands, pulled back down over her. He sucked in breath through clenched teeth as her mouth worked around him. He could feel her hand on his balls and the other wrapped around his base, squeezing intermediately. Slowly she began removing his inhibition. Each circle of her tongue around his head breaking a wall. He slumped back, hands gently alighting on the back of her head as his knees opened. "J-just make it fast..." he mumbled. She nodded with his prick on her mouth and then pushed the whole way down, swallowing him audibly and working her throat, tongue undulating on the bottom of his shaft. He groaned, his hips lifting. He felt her pull off a moment before his cock burst. She threw the cloak off of her, her face and chest a mess of tiger come. She was panting, her eyes glased as she ran her hans over the top of her breasts and through the sticky white covering her tan fur.

"Ah...ah...fuck...it smells..." she put her fingers to her nose, breathing in deeply. The scent made her head swim, the world around her spinning. "It smells so good. The scent of a male, the scent of a powerful male." She licked her fingers clean, rubbing her palms over her face and collecting as much as she could, licking her hands until it was all gone. She crawled up, moving over him. Her tail hicked high and the tip flicked side to side in agitation. "Benjamin." she gasped.

"Harp we shouldn't be-" she put a finger to his lips. She smirked and then pushed her hand between her legs. Her cunt was leaking wet. She pushed the palm to his mouth, holding it there as she held to his collar. She forced him to breath her scent. His cock, softening, filled with blood that bumped from a now rushing heart and stood hard once more. "Harp, get a hold of your self..." he mumbled through her hand. She shook her head, licked his cheek, and leaned into his shoulder nip along his collar. He pushed her away, roughly, sending her to the opposite side of the dugout and right into a pair of orange legs. Benjamin looked up in horror as his mistress stared down with baleful, rage filled eyes. Harp looked up, her eyes very clear as the dragoness lifted her up by the scruff of her neck.

"Benjamin." she snapped.

"Y-yes, Mistress?" he was on his knees in an instant, shaking with fear.

"Go find Juno. Stay by her side until I come to deal with you." She spoke in a cold growl with out even taking her eyes of the lioness held up nose to nose with her. He said nothing as he scrambled over the wall of snow, sprinting away as fast as fear could carry him.

"What were you planning to do?" Kelsura asked reprovingly. She did not shout or growl. She just stared at her lioness.

"I-"

"Were you going to fuck him? My slave? Mine!" She shook the cat. "Do you have any idea what would have happened." Harp was in tears. She mewled plaintively and sobbed.

"Yes. I wanted it. I...I dont know what happened I just, we were playing, and his tail, and then he got horny, and the smell, and I'm so sorry Mistress." The lioness cried. She wailed and hung loose by her own neck. She had always been deathly afraid of upsetting her mistress. It was a nightmare to be looked down on by her mistress as a failure. Kelsura let go. Harp threw her self at her bare feet. She sobbed, licking at her feet. Kelsura took a step back. Harp looked up with tear streaked eyes, putting a hand out pleadingly. "Mistress...?"

"I feel...betrayed." The dragoness said passively. "I had expected you to act responsibly. I knew what would happen with you five around him. I knew you would eventually fall to instinct, crowd around him. Fawn on him. Dot all over him. Its just what female lions do. You form in prides around the most eligible male. I was going to let you have that, once Benjamin had been properly trained and placed. I was even thinking of adding him to the Sirens. Have you heard him sing?" Kelsura shrugged "But its obvious you cant keep your desires in line-"

"It was an accident Mistress. I'm-" Harp was silenced with the back of Kelsuras hand. The strike knocked her side ways into the snow. She was lifted back up, the speck of blood on her lip gently wiped away.

"Stand up, bare your neck." Harp stood as quickly as possible, lifting her chin. She was shaking furiously as she bared her neck for her mistress. She cried out as she was lifted from her feet, Kelsuras jaws wrapped around her throat. She was to be eaten, a threat to the lair and an insult to her mistress's pride. The dragoness bit done, fangs piercing through her flesh. She could have effortlessly bitten the furs head from her shoulders but stopped short of breaking the skin. She lapped up the blood that flowed from the wound, swallowing greedily. "Who owns you slave?"

"You do Mistress." She panted, the blood staunching quickly from the dragons saliva.

"Whose body is this?" She shook the cat again.

"Yours Mistress."

"Mind, body and soul." The lioness nodded. She had stopped bleeding completely already. Kelsura dropped her. She fell on weak and shaking legs and curled on her knees, arms wrapped around her. She sobbed uncontrollably. "We're not done. I do not accept your apology. I expected better of you Harp. You were going to take something that wasn't yours, steal from me. You hadn't even planned to share with your sisters, with Juno. You betrayed me, and were going to betray them. I'm going to need time to think of something suitable as punishment. Go, get inside, go bathe and then find some place dark. I don't want to even smell you until I send for you. I should leave you out here. I have half a mind to but I promised Remus would hear your music tonight while watching the lights. Get, don't look at me." Harp choked, head down as she ran, picking up her cloak and running back toward the tower lair access.


Benjamin was more frightened than he had ever been. More than when he had gotten lost in the Central Consortium capital when he was five. More than when his father had threatened to disown him when the old tiger found out he had been 'fraternizing with out side influences' while studying in the Republic Capital University. More than when he was forced to accept that his old life was over. Kelsura was angry. He was scared for Harp. He shook not from the cold as he knelt next to the indifferent kangaroo, but from anxiety and terror.

He watched as Harp dashed by, he had reached up a hand to try and catch her attention. Kelsura snapped her staff down into the snow in front of him and shook her head when he looked up at her. Mistress marched up in front of him a few minutes after Harp had disappeared into the open gate at the towers base. He looked up and felt his teeth instinctively clinch shut at the look on her face. She was beyond furious. Livid would be an understatement. She held up a hand. He winced, thinking for a moment she meant to strike him. She took his collar and pulled him up to his feet. "Bare your neck."

"Wha-"

"BARE YOUR NECK!" She roared. His head shot back and body jerked forward, her jaws closing around him. His eyes widened and mouth opened. He let out a noiseless scream as she bit into his skin. He could feel her tongue pressing over his throat and slithering through his fur. She sucked and he could feel the blood flow from his wounds into her mouth. Her throat worked loudly. His legs shook and his jaw worked, making soft choking sounds. The world tumbled and then stomped as his body hit something cold and wet. He laid in a heap in the snow, twitching and reeling. "Mind, body, and soul, slave." she said and then walked away. "Get him on his feet. Have him bathe."

"Lavender soups, mistress?" he asked, voice slurred from lightheadedness.

"Beat him." She snapped, glaring at the four lioness sisters as she passed. They shrank away from her. She snapped her fingers. "Claudius, heel. Follow." the wolfhound lowered himself to all fours and trailed after her.

"Sorry kitten." Juno said, raising her staff.

Battered and bruised, Juno had held nothing back. She did look sympathetic as she half carried him over her shoulder to the slave bathes. She helped him down into the water, easing him back against a flat faced rock and sitting on the edge of the pool to help keep him up. Benjamin looked around. His eyes were blood shot and his vision blurry. He could barley make out his surroundings. Shapes moved around him. There was laughing and moaning and splashing. "Where am I?" he asked.

"One of the slave bathes in Master Remus' lair." She leaned forward, putting an elbow to her knee and laying her chin in her hand. She swung her feet through the water slowly. "Soap is to your left."

"I think I'm cuncussed." he mumbled as he knocked over several vials and bars into the water. "I'm seeing double."

She grimaced, picking one of the bars up out of the water and handing it to him and setting the rest back up on the edge of the pool. She hadn't meant to beat him so hard, let alone around the head. She had struck him on his back to knock him flat and had just intended to beat him about the back, legs, and arms. He had curled into a ball and rolled, the second strike having smacked him on the back of the head. She winced now as he lazily scrubbed himself. "Sorry." she murmured. He didn't respond. "You shouldn't have been smart. You likely would have just gotten off with a bleeding."

He just dropped the soap bar back into the water once done with it, his fur only half scrubbed and he absently pawed around in the water for it, seeming to find it since his arm seemed to be working up and down on his belly, a soft cloud of white forming in the water. "I didn't mean to be smart." He said with a thoughtful frown. He honestly hadn't been. It had become something of an endearing running joke over the weeks. Every time he was sent to bath he would ask if she wanted him to use lavender scents and she would smile. For some reason seeing her smile made him feel good. Juno just shrugged. "Why are you always so...moody?" he asked, trying to focus on her. One eye working and the other just slowly closing and opening.

She tilted her head, lifting it from her palm. She blinked and twitched her ears. "I'm not moody." she said, a bit surprised.

"Yeah you are. Especially around me. Claudius actually smiles. Walter and I actually had a conversation. But you, you're so unapproachable when its just you and I. You were laughing earlier, all smiles and giggles. Now your all glowers and frowns." She just heaved a heavy sigh. She had just opened her mouth to speak, barley uttering a sound when he interrupted. "What do you mean bleeding?"

"Huh?"

"Bleeding. You said all that would have happened was the bleeding." He turned, trying to sit in front of her and nearly falling over. She grabbed him by his collar and roughed him back sitting against the flat rock.

"When she bit you. It was a bleeding." He just gave her a confused look. She rolled her eyes, and grunted. "Some times its just done because they can. They nick a spot that bleeds but not so much it'll kill you before it can be stopped up. They drink the blood. But with others, and definitely Mistress, its a possessive thing. How did it make you feel?

He leaned back, closing her eyes. He gave it some thought. Hit had happened so fast and unexpectedly. He remembered the horror of seeing those white knives rowing her mouth on top and bottom. His body had twitched, struggled and then fell slack when her tongue had swiped over his neck, enough strength in the muscle the she could have pushed his throat closed with it if she had wanted to. His breath had caught in his throat and come out as a gasp. Right now he held his left arm, keeping it from trembling as it had down. He felt like he belonged. Like he wasn't for him self. He had enjoyed it. The power, the possession, the raw animal act. "I...don't know." he lied, blushing, arm still shacking.

"You were smiling." she said, pulling him up out of the water and walking him over to a drying wall. "Just before she dropped you, you were smiling. Why?"

"Why are you always so moody?" he asked. As if to make his point she just growled.


Night had settled. Kelsura sat back and lounged on the same section of the sofa she had been ravaged before. The puddle on the floor long since gone, licked up by one of Remus' slaves. For the sake of enjoying her self she pushed the days earlier frustrations away form her mind and simply enjoyed the soft music played by her Sirens, to include Harp who despite playing her stringed instrument as well as ever was still choking back quiet sobs and winking away tears from blood shot eyes. Above their head, high above, higher than any drake had ever flown, a ribbon of light danced among the stars.

The northern lights shined brightest during the winter. It was calming to watch the strange yet beautiful phenomena over head. The room was specifically designed for its viewing. A tower top rom made completely of double paned glass, 360 degree view all around and a top that sloped at a low and sharp angle to a pyramid point. The middle joints where the glass panels all met was made of wood and opened into a circular dome topped vent to let out the smoke from the fire burning in the center of the room in a mesh wrap around cage.

Remus was on the opposite side of the room, kilt up in his lap and Juno tucked between his knees, softly slurping on his thick prick. The dark blue dragon groaned softly as the kangaroo guard worked his shaft with an expert tongue, lapping from the base all the way to the tip like a long stick of hard candy, kissing the head before gently rubbing her nose to it then sucking it into her mouth. He gave her a favorable rub on the top of her head. She looked up at him gratefully, bright eyes twinkling in fire light. "You were right, your slave does have a beautiful voice."

"Thank you, Sir." Benjamin murmured, pausing from his soft crooning for a moment. He sang long notes, lyrics that were quietly chanted. Dark skies and quiet nights. Safety and comfort through submission and obedience...Kelsura had taught him the lyrics. He sat at her feet, a hand on his head and fingers absently twiddling his hair. She nodded her agreement and ran her hand along his neck. His wounds had clotted, covered in linen and balm to help the healing. He winced as she ran a claw along the cloth. The song was finished, the girls continued to play though, providing a soft atmosphere of music. He let out a soft as Kelsuras hand moved to the back of his head and scritched softly behind his ears. She wasn't angry with him, but she had given Harp the cold shoulder, greeting each girl save for her as they each set up. Harp had not even been bandaged, or bathed, her neck fur streaked with red.

The ribbon of light above was slowly joined by a second. A string of flickering gold and white forming as if unfolding from in on itself through an unseen crack in the dark sky and stretching out under the one of orange, joining into a single band that stretched from one horizon to the other. Like paint from a brush the lights moves in curves and long thin looping bands, fluttering and folding slowly like tinsel in the wind, twining into one another in places. It was startlingly beautiful. "You've never seen them before, have you tiger?" He shook his head. Kelsura pulled him up off his knees, sitting him in her lap and resting her hands on his legs. She pulled him back to rest on her form as she reclined in her seat. "I've seen them several times. Remus gets to enjoy this experience every winter." She went on, explaining that different cultures and religions had different explanations for them. Dragons held theories more grounded in the mundane but most of it untestable.

Benjamin was barley listening, looking up and gazing at the gorgeous river of colors. He gasped as a sensation of weightlessness engulfed him. He rose out of his Mistress's lap, surprised when he opened his mouth to cry out and only let out a long breath. He floated toward the glass ceiling and then moved through it as though there was nothing there. The voices that had been discussing the irrelevance of faith and the importance of knowledge faded, replaced until all that was left was the soft music, the drums slowly replaced with the beating of his own heart. He rose faster, growing closer and closer to the aurora until it stretched in every direction as a multicolored iridescent sea. He rose into it and around him the waves of slowly changing and oscillating color fell around him like a splash and dissipated with out being pulled back in. He floated on its serface, feeling like he was pulled on his back though he now looked down on the whole of the world: the sea of lights below and the land above.

He flowed along with it, bobbing and sinking and rising with its waves and watched as the world above slowly changed. Cities and towns of dragons and slaves looked up, they all saw him and they all smiled. Even with what seemed like an incomprehensible distance he could make them all out in stark detail and clarity. He smiled back at them, waving, and they raised them arms in and called out in celebration as the color around him moved yet faster and he sank deeper with out need for breath. He melted into the colors, his mind and body forming with it. Where ever it stretched, he could see and feel. There was a limit though, at the infinite sky's end was a great hallow mountain, a crater bowl that the color pored into like a fall and filled it. He swirled in the bowl for awhile until his existence boiled. Hot metal had been dipped into him to cool and harden and take shape. He felt him self pulled in to the great metal ring and pulled out as one with both it and the color. A hammer beat down on him. He cried out with each shock, a great ring of exhilaration and excitement, triumph and success. He was shaped, etched with dizzying loops and curves by master hand, set with glistening flawless diamonds and set upon the form of a being that was a beast no longer. Pushed around his neck until head met tail. Oils set between them that smelled of jubilation and exhultation and joined him as a single whole, a circle of infinite completion.

He looked at himself in the mirror, looking upon himself. A gold tiger, fur trimmed and groomed so well its glistened in the mid day light. About his neck sat a silver and gold collar masterfully etched and set with hand selected diamond stones. He smiled and felt the greatest sense of pride he had ever known. Behind him was the permanent collars owner: a radiant creature, the touch of who sent shocks through his body that made him shiver and shake. She smiled and the mirror shattered, his world suddenly replaced with darkness. Fear consumed him as dragon wearing a blood stained apron, holding a large fork and a carving knife loomed over him. He was stretched out on a table. An orange dragoness stood on his opposite side, holding a plate. She looked down at him disgusted, shaking her head. He screamed for her, his mouth gagged and his cries muffled. Abandonment stoked his fear as she walked away. "Not even fit to eat." she commented with revulsion.

He shook his head madly as a red dragoness replaced her, dirty and disgusting. Her body looked desiccated and barley clinging to her bones. She held an impossibly large platter. "All of him." she said. When the butcher dragon nodded and stabbed his fork into the tigers chest, Benjamin sat unbound and bolt upright. He looked around, in a room of some kind, laying in a bed. He held a hand to his flank where the fork had stuck and felt no wound, no remnant of a wound, no burn in is muscles or scar tissue. He heaved a sigh of relief and turned, putting his feet on the floor and moving to rise before jolting as a hand touched his shoulder. "Where are you going pet?" his mistress asked sleepily.

He looked down at her, as if seeing her like he had the first time: a thing of beauty. He liked his lips. "I...erm...may I...relieve my self, Mistress?" he had meant it as an excuse to get up and walk around but found he really did have to pee.

"The bathroom is through the door on the left wall, come right back." She murmurred. He left the bed, the room colder than he had thought. It was all a dream, and then a nightmare. His feelings had been real though, undeniable. He had felt pride looking at himself in the mirror on his knees, sitting on his heels. Real and unadulterated. A sensation and emotion he couldn't even begin to describe had coerced through him when Kelsuras reflection had smiled at him. He ran a hand over his collar, rough and pockmarked iron, ugly and roughly beaten. Then over his neck where the bandage was wrapped. He shivered at the light sting of fang wounds, an inkling of that same pride

He did his business and then looked at himself in a floor to ceiling mirror much like the one in his dream. Though the light was almost non-existent his eyes filtered what little there was and gave him just enough vision to make him self out weakly. He was clean, but by no means glossy. His collar stood out more like a seeping wound than as a shinning piece of comfortably fitted custom jewelry. He felt empty when he looked at him self and was only starting to figure out why. The words of a cat and a kangaroo came to him in the darkness. He was a closet case: a natural submissive, just don't realize it yet. He didn't know what to feel as he stood back up. Kelsura was strong, powerful, forceful when she wanted to be. She was beautiful, kind, and cruel when she needed to be. She was a far cry better than most in the capital he had learned from his conversation with Walter.

An old but still scrappy fur and four time resell of bad luck dragons who either lost their lives in the war on the front or just couldn't afford to keep him. The mountain goat had some horror stories to tell. Dragons who tortured their slaves just to hear them beg for death, live dissections, gruesome open wound 'body art.' He had been lucky to avoid it all, to end up with masters who only knew a friend or a friend of a friend who enjoyed these things. They were the worst and graciously they were also rare. But so too were dragons like Kelsura.

Few could claim to be treated less like property and more like pets. To be dotted on fondly when their master was happy. To be afforded simple clothes and a modicum of dignity with out being regularly visited upon with cruelty. They were still slaves, she made sure they never forgot that. They did what they were told. Words were never minced, threats were never made. If told to jump they jumped. If told to crawl they crawled. If told to suck dick they sucked dick. No matter the indignation, no matter how foul, because each was made well aware or already knew that the alternative was a world of nightmares and pain. The rewards for obedience far out weighed the punishments, and those that were loyal were given far better.

He was standing in the door of the bathroom, starring. It was a moment before he realized she was staring back. He lowered him self to his knees and crawled back into the large bed. She watched him the entire time, not saying a word. She made no move as he climbed back under the large comforter, so warm against the cold room. "I'm sorry." He said, swallowing a lump that had formed in his throat. She nodded, but said nothing. "I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. Its feels like...like abandoning every thing that I am."

She put an arm over him, pulling him close and pushing his head down into her bare breasts. "I'm going to make you better than you could have ever been before." She whispered, pulling him into a hug, holding him like a child holds a stuffed animal. "Go back to sleep." she ordered, resting her chin on his head and closing her eyes.