The Forgotten Zodiac

((Pfft. xD Okay then, I guess. I'll probably have one of my lerloches be kidnapped by a freak. Like, someone vanishes and they find the cut collar, which will make it hard for them to get their friend back.

Ophile. xD))

Naybrin gave the young man a slight, soft nuzzle, then said "We shall."

*

"Here we are, my little pets," the old slave trader said, pulling back on his horses reins. "Our central market. You'll find new owners here, but for those of you that don't, then you shouldn't worry. I'll take you back to my house and take good care of you until the next market day. I'm a very good master." He nodded happily, getting off of the wagon and moving around behind it, where he opened the gates. "Step right up onto the central platform, that's right. Come along," he said, starting to help the captives out of the wagon and up towards the platform, where each one was chained to a separate ring on the ground. They were able to stand and move a bit, but that was all.

((Ohhh~ Nab someone of mine, for interaction's sake? :3

Also, forget Dmitry, I want the chick to get Nate. >: D))

Nate looked up at where they were, then twisted his head around as a shape took off into the sky. So...this was the capital city, then. Nate sighed; he had nothing to worry about, then. He'd be found by them eventually, surely. He relaxed, though he couldn't fold his wings behind his back; one was still broken, and they were chained together tightly. So really...he couldn't do anything but relax and focus on not making eye contact with anyone that looked like they had traveled here. Dirty shoes, large bags, ignore them. If there was anything Nate didn't want, it was to be taken far...

((I guess.

I like Dmitry moar! D: It'll work out either way, because Mirage always demands that Dmitry 'shares' his servants. And...it would be bad for Nate, because Mirage has a tendancy to work her slaves to death. Among other things.))

Crowds began to gather. The captives were poked and prodded at, and Erilda was asked multiple questions about them. Sometimes the captives were asked questions, but rarely. Finally, the buying started. Sometimes people bidded against each other, but it was rare, as there were enough captives to go around. Many people were interested in Nate, but none really seemed to want to buy him. He was fairly intimidating, of course. They wanted slaves they could control easily; Nate would require a bit more than that.

The twin doves went first, and to a good buyer. It was a single woman looking for a younger slave to mother over and have help her around her home, and she was kind enough to take both sisters and not separate them.

A few of the males went off to people who looked less nice, and the females were nearly all sold within the hour. All except for the blonde gryphon, who growled and glared at the people walking past her whenever Erilda wasn't looking.

Then a royal-looking carriage stopped nearby and two figures got out, followed by a few guards.

The prince and princess of Bulliete, Dmitry and Mirage.

((Nate has a tendency to obey anyways, but it may reach a point where he does something and...winds up in jail. Like, not even do anything. xD But drawing himself up to his full height and giving a glare could be considered a threat, at which Lennon would immediately subdue him. >:3))

Nate didn't growl or even twitch as a child lifted his tail, grinning up at her mother. "Mom, can we keep him?" She giggled. She had been playing with his tail for awhile now.

"No, Alice, come here!" The mother said desperately, a timid older woman. She didn't want to get any closer, obviously. "Please, dear..."

"Listen to your mother," Nate said quietly, pushing the child towards her mother with his tail. She was scooped up and hurried off quickly. There was a bit of relief that swept through the crowd, but also a bit of disappointment. These people didn't see much action, apparently.

((Most likely. But yeah, Dmitry gets him. Mirage would be the wrong owner here, trust me. But she'll get him in trouble either way.))

Mirage stalked slowly up and down the line of captives, eyeing the ones who were left through her soft pink eyes. Dmitry followed at a slower pace, mostly looking uninterested with his surroundings.

Until he came to Nate.

The dragonian happened to catch the prince's bright blue eyes. He turned his head, blinking behind his glasses. Then he stumbled, having been too focused on staring at Nate. He caught himself easily enough, but his glasses flew off of his face, sliding up against Nate's chain-ring. He fumbled for them immediately, his vision terrible without them.

Nate stooped immediately, putting his hand on Dmitry's shoulder to stop his scrambling about and grabbing the glasses with his other hand. He held the spectacles out in front of the boy, calmly offering the pair to the younger boy. "You dropped these," He said quietly, showing his uncanny gentleness for his size.

Dmitry quickly took them, blinking as his eyes refocused. He tilted his head back, blinking up at Nate, then seemed to shake himself and stood up, calmly brushing Nate's hand away. "...Thank you," he said very quietly, brushing off his blue and gold shirt. He turned away, proceeding to study Nate for a few minutes while Mirage picked out several captives she wanted. Once she was back in the carriage, Dmitry spoke to Erilda. "I'll take the half-dragon," he said, putting a full bag of money into the old man's hands. "Have you considered wheat farming, like I told you last time?"

"That I have, that I have, young lord," the man said, pocketing the bag with a smile. "I've been making a few plans here and there."

"It is much more profitable than your current order of business," the prince said, waiting as Erilda unhooked Nate's chain and handed it to him. Dmitry fiddled with the chain for a moment, then handed it to a nearby guard that nearly looked like a giant. Nate had no hope of escaping from him.

"Perhaps by next year I'll have the money to start up shop," Erilda said with a shrug. "The war has cost a lot of us a lot of money."

Nate didn't struggle, knowing full well that it was useless. He let himself be pushed into the second carriage with the other 'captives'. He was calm and collected, but he ached all over still. He may have expelled all the liquid from his system, but now he was both dehydrated and his internal flame remained diminished. Drastically diminished. He didn't feel like he would be capable of standing up again...

The carriage started off, heading back towards the castle. Once they arrived, Mirage wasted no time before setting her slaves to work. She made them get out of the carriage, then spotted Nate and scowled. "Who are you? I didn't perchase you," she said, frowning. "Did you try to sneak away? I'll have you hung for this!"

"Silence, Mirage, that one's mine," Dmitry said, walking forward and taking Nate's chain. "I bought him."

She stared at her brother for a moment, then shrugged and said "Humph. Whatever you like, I suppose." She turned on her heel and stalked off, and Nate could almost swear he saw a puff of fire come out of her mouth.

Dmitry rolled his eyes, then watched as the six new slaves Mirage had bought followed her. He glanced at his single one, wondering why he had even bothered to get a new one. He had enough to deal with anyways...

Nate looked tired. Exhausted. But he noticed Dmitry looking at him and stood up as straight as he could, inhaling and exhaling deeply, which caused a bit of smoke to spill from his mouth and trail upwards. He looked down at the boy holding his chain, then up at the guard, who was backing off. Lennon stopped the new slaves at the door, giving them his usual speech of 'don't dare try anything, or you'll wind up in jail for life'. He spied Nate and walked over calmly.

"Dmitry. Have you already explained the rules to this...man?" Lennon eyed Nate curiously. The Dragonian maintained his silence. "If so, you should get him to work before he falls asleep..."

"I haven't yet, but I assure you that I will," the boy answered. "And I'll get him to work later. Right now...I'd rather do some testing..." He trailed off, then said "Be on your way, Lennon. I'm sure you have better things to do than fuss over one more slave." He tugged on Nate's chain, walking quickly and fully expecting Nate to keep up despite his current state.

Lennon shrugged and moved off obediently, even though he didn't have to listen to Dmitry much at all. Nate followed quickly, lending strength from his dragon blood to keep himself going. Which wasn't good at all; he normally only tapped into that during long battles or when he was injured; to have to dip into his reserves just to walk...

Dmitry led him along the beautiful hallways, finally pushing open a large set of double-doors. Inside the room was what looked like little more than a well-organized, neat and tidy torture chamber, except it was free of the usual bloodstains, corpses, and disgusting tools. It was like a simple sort of...medical study, almost.

Dimitry chained Nate to the wall, putting him close enough to a chair so that he could sit down. The prince pulled himself up onto one of the counters in the room and proceeded to stare at Nate again, a thoughtful frown on his face.

Nate grew increasingly uncomfortable. He had to clench his fists to keep his arms from shaking. He had felt torture before; too many times for one person, perhaps. But this time...there was no real reason for it, why would this boy be torturing him? Nate rolled something around in his mouth, putting it back under his tongue; to keep the gold band safe from thieving fingers, he had stuck it in his mouth. He was getting tired of the metallic taste, but there was no way he was about to spit it out. It was the ring that marked his marriage, of course.

Nate sat there in silence, though he couldn't keep his eyes from wandering around the room. Was there a big burly man hiding in wait to knock him out so he could be tied down more thoroughly? Were there knives and scalpels hidden in the counter Dmitry sat upon?

Dmitry just continued to stare at Nate, seemingly content with the uncomfortabilty he had forced on the dragonian, then he finally spoke.

"What ARE you?"

It was a simple, straightforward question. The boy tilted his head slightly, then said "You appear to be some sort of half dragon, half human thing. A new species of nethinis here. So you might as well start telling me everything you can about yourself. I'll need to know how to take care of you, after all. And you'll probably want to get that ring out of your mouth."

Nate blinked in surprise. He spat the ring out into his palm, wiping it off on his shirt before sliding it back onto his finger. "Forgive my untrust of you people, I was just kidnapped. Didn't want my mark of marriage taken from me, as well..." He sighed heavily, relaxing in his chair. Just questions, then. He could do that. "Dragonian. Indeed, half-dragon, half-human. The main problems I have currently is the fact that I didn't eat anything. I couldn't; all that man offered was bread and water. I gave mine to the dove avons, they needed it more..." He stretched a bit, trying to keep himself from falling asleep. "I can't drink water. I have an internal flame settled near my gut; if that goes down, I get weaker. Like right now. Nearly drowned yesterday...now, you would think that the fire would just boil the water in my stomach, but it doesn't. The cold just gets to it and starts to douse it. If that went out, I'm a dead...er, 'nethini'." Nate frowned, realizing that it meant 'non human' in their language. He dropped the frown, though, remembering that he was a slave now. For a little while, at least. "Bread is nearly as bad. It clogs up my system like a sponge. I need some form of alcoholic drink, and meat." He shifted a bit in his chair, wondering what else Dmitry would need to know.

The boy listened to Nate speak with a look of complete, rapt attention on his face. He had picked up a book while Nate was talking and was scribbling things down without even looking at the page. Once Nate finished, Dmitry studied the page before setting it aside. "I'll avoid asking any questions about how dragonians reproduce," he said, sliding off of the counter and rumaging about in several nearby drawers. He took the new file he had wrote up and slid it into the drawer, then turned to Nate and said "I'll be quite frank with you, as I feel like I can trust you somewhat. I...don't particulary care for the slavery here. I can't do anything legal about it, though, and to keep up appearances I have to have a few slaves of my own. As you might've heard with that old man today, I try other means of stopping the slavery, like encouraging slavers to switch to other types of work, like farming. I treat my 'slaves' very well, too. Exceptionally so. I've been branded quite a few unkind names by my people for this, but I could care less. I'm very frail, too, so that makes it harder to get things done." He pulled his glasses off and cleaned them with the edge of his shirt, then slid them back onto his narrow face. "Plus..." he said slowly. "...I have a few secrets of my own."

"Well, don't spill any of them to me. I know someone who can look at my memories at a moment's notice. So...if you want to keep a lid on it, keep a lid on it." Nate warned. "It's good that you can trust me. I'm glad that you treat your slaves with kindness. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you won't keep me for very long. You see, I'm with someone, and they'll want me back. Believe it or not, I happen to be traveling with--" Nate stopped in his tracks, going completely limp and slumping in his chair. That was that, then. He was unconscious faster than Dmitry could blink. He could have been dead, he fell still so suddenly. It was only a few moments before he started snoring, though. He was so dreadfully exhausted that his mind had just shut everything down for recovery.

Dmitry blinked and stared at Nate in shock, then shook his head and slid off of the table, sighing. "My goodness," he said, crouching beside Nate's chair and poking at the dragonian's tail. "Humph." He shook his head, then walked to the door and glanced out. He searched all up and down the hallway before ducking his head back in, turning towards Nate.

Then he transformed.

Once he was settled, he picked Nate up, trying to be gentle. He didn't want anyone to see what his true form was. Especially not the Emperor. That would end badly for he and his sister.

But he cautiously crept out and carried Nate off, finally making it to his own personal room, where he was quick to lock the doors and set Nate down on the bed. He took his normal form and sighed heavily, then turned and called quietly for one of his most trusted servants.

((I thought you might want to play the servant. Tell me if you don't or something, but I don't think we should switch from Nate just yet. Or else risk having the plot go too fast. ;P ))