The [M]ind of a Slave (Holey & Pendragon)

[Holeypaladin]

Having located the lair of the blue dragon Ulhartiki, a certain knight made his way into his lair, quiet as could be. He was hoping to catch the dragon while he was asleep, as he would be a great deal easier to kill, but instead, as he approached, he began to hear voices. They were speaking in the Northern language of the Vikings, which wasn't much of a surprise, as many of these Viking tribes were known to be members of dragon worshiping cults. As he get closer, he was able to see what was going on.

"My Lord Ulhartiki, we've brought you a slave as tribute," a very hairy, large man was saying. A giant axe was trapped to his back, and his armor was mainly mail. "Half Nereid, half mermaid. Captured at a young age, and raised to be the perfect pleasure slave for her master."

"I hope your training didn't involve pleasing others," the dragon growled, his aura of fear causing even the mighty viking warrior to quiver, "You know how much it would anger me to receive... used goods."

"N-nay, great master," the Viking said, "S-she was taught that her body belongs to her master alone, a-and we've ensured that her virginity has remained intact up until now, for you to defile as you see fit."

"Mmm.." the dragon glanced back at the girl in the cage, who the knight could now see as he drew a bit closer. The bottom half of the cage was full of sea water, and the lower half of her body was indeed that of a fish. He wondered how the dragon would even manage to physically mate with the woman, but then he remembered that not only could dragons shift into human form, but when a mermaid's fins were dried off, they became legs. The knight couldn't help but stare, but in doing so, managed to knock over a rock, alerting the dragon and the viking to his presence.

"Who goes there?" the dragon said, his head shooting in the knight's direction. "Come forth and face me, intruder!"

Well, his cover now blown, the knight stepped forth. "I've come to kill you, Ulhartiki," said the knight. "Too bad for you."

"I don't have time for this," the dragon growled. "Hrothgar, kill this intruder."

"Aye, m'lord," said the Viking, drawing forth his axe to confront the knight. The knight himself chuckled at the Viking and smirked. Well, he had heard about some of these Viking slavers, and this one certainly deserved to die. It was like killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.

[PendragonXeno94]

Looking up at the dragon, Maria nervously pulled her short violet hair back as she adverted her azure eyes. She didn't want to think about losing her virginity to a dragon even though she had been prepared by her slavers for this moment. Her tail, which was shaped like a betta fish's, swished in the water, showing off the multitudes of color that canvased it. Hrothgar was trying his best to keep himself composed as the dragon said he didn't like used goods. "Don't worry," she lightly snapped and staring at the floor, "I've never done anything remotely sexual in my entire life." It had been so long since she had been captured that she had forgotten what her family and former life were like.

She turned her head when the other two glanced at the intruder. As the viking was sent to dispose of the knight, she began to push at her cage in an attempt to topple it over. Maybe when her legs dried off she could run off and try to return to her home. All she remembered was that her father was a merman and her mother was a Nereid. As she kept pushing on the cage, she decided not to look in the direction of the men as she was a little squeamish when it came to violence.

She pressed her back on the opposite end of the cage when the dragon's tail whacked it, causing it to topple over and send glass and water everywhere. The hybrid hissed as a few glass shards dug into her tail and arm. "Damn," she said, carefully moving herself out of the cage in order to try and dry her tail.

[Holeypaladin]

The knight barely even noticed the viking... this Hrothgar... as he approached him. Hrothgar was no doubt a very skilled warrior, a berserker even, by the looks of him. He wasn't sure of how extensive his raiding and pillaging was, but considering the fact that he had abducted this mermaid at a young age, it had to have been for quite some time. By all rights, Hrothgar was an incredibly talented warrior.

So when the knight tapped into his foundry circuit, summoning forth a dragonbane sword, evaded the massive cleave of Hrothgar's axe, and decapitated the viking with a single stroke, even the dragon Ulhartiki was somewhat surprised. Hrothgar had never been the knight's target, just a simple nuissance that was easily dispatched, as far as he was concerned.

He noted that the mermaid slave's cage had been broken, but he didn't have time to worry about her. Even if her fins did turn into legs, if she wasn't used to walking on land, they still wouldn't have the strength to stand up, much less run away. For the time being, however, he kept his attention focused on the dragon, incanting, "Eligne shochraos" to boost his own resistance to electricity.

As the blue dragon unleashed a powerful blast of static electricity from his mouth, the knight stepped aside, rolling underneath the creature and thrusting through its sapphire blue scales with his sword. The dragon was large, and the blade was only able to penetrate so far, but the armored scales did very little to defend against the edge of this dragonbane weapon. Forcefully pulling the blade free, he left a wide gash in the dragon's flesh as he narrowly evaded being stepped on by a massive, clawed foot. For the time being, he chose to keep the dragon's attention focused on himself, mostly to prevent its powerful lightning strike from accidentally hitting the mermaid.

[PendragonXeno94]

Dragging herself on the ground, Maria continued to keep moving until she began to feel her fins transform into which she struggled to get up, only to stumble away where she was out of range of the dragon. Tripping over herself, she hid behind a few rocks as she started pulling glass out of her legs and arm. She grimaced a little, almost hissing from the pain. The hybrid could hardly afford the time to see how the intruder was doing against the dragon as she was too busy tending to her wounds and trying to figure out how she could escape.

While the fight went on, she brought herself up while holding onto anything that would help stabilize her and began to slowly move toward what she thought was the exit. Realizing that she was half naked, she went to a neighboring room and grabbed a fallen banner to wrap around her body. Well, this room seemed safe enough to stay in until she knew for sure that the small battle was over. Nestling herself in a crevice near the opening, the mermaid turned her back to the opening, not wanting to see what might happen.

On one hand, the dragon could stroll in triumphantly and then do whatever he wanted to her. On the other hand, whoever was fighting the dragon could help her escape and point her in the right direction. She would be a slave, either way, until then. She wasn't even sure how long she was kept in that cage, only having it opened to change the water and feed her. Not to mention, she couldn't really escape in order to prevent seeing what couldn't be unseen and being told to pay attention as that was what she would eventually do to whoever her master would be.

If only she wasn't taken at such a young age.

[Holeypaladin]

The knight was vaguely aware of the fact that the mermaid dragged herself to safety, allowing him to fight the dragon without having to worry about collateral damage. "Annoying human," growled the dragon, "Just die already." Another lightning breath attack came, but the knight was able to take cover behind the blast, relying on his electricity resistance to protect him from the stray discharge.

With the incantation of "Sehlek wyogale, trelk," the knight vanished from his current location, reappearing above the dragon's head and burying the blade of his sword in the creature's skull. It narrowly missed the brain and the eye, but created a massive roar of pain from the dragon before it flung him off, causing the knight to slam against the wall forcefully.

Wounded and slightly stunned from the impact, the knight was vaguely aware of another incoming breath attack. Knowing his resistance wasn't strong enough to take a direct blast, he tapped into his foundry circuit, summoning forth a dancing shield of electricity resistance between himself and the dragon. The shield was able to absorb the majority of the blast, but it was still blasted back into him.

The knight knew he had to close the distance, somehow, but a short range teleport wouldn't work a second time. Instead, he took advantage of the short cooldown between breath attacks and charged directly at the dragon. By the time the creature had drawn another breath, he incanted "Svern," jumping over the attack with a magically enhanced leap. As he fell down onto the creature, he brought the sword down onto the creature's neck, delivering a forceful cleave which nearly decapitated the creature. As the dragon began to cough up blood from the attack, he continued to hack at the same wound, opening it wider until the blue scaled head of the dragon fell onto the ground.

Now covered in dragon blood, the knight made his way towards the mermaid slave to see how she was doing. "Are you alright?" he asked the woman. "What's your name?"

[PendragonXeno94]

Maria brought her head up as she heard someone approach. She could barely drag herself along before he asked her if she was alright. Nodding, she fixed her gaze on him before quickly turning away, the sight of him covered in blood making her quiver. What if he was planning to kill her, too? While she was grateful that she didn't have to be defiled by the dragon, she found herself trying to speak but not being able to. "M-Maria," she finally mustered out.

The mermaid began to pull herself up as her wobbly legs staggered. Her sapphire eyes remained cast down as she gulped softly unsure of what to make of him. For all she knew, his intentions were either on par or worse than the dragon's. But then again, he couldn't be any worse. Her short, wavy violet hair framed her face as she tried to stand up straight before her legs began to give out. "Sorry," she said quietly. "I'm not used to being on land." She could already feel her cheeks heating up as she gulped again. This was probably the most interaction she's ever had with someone aside from someone grabbing her face or speaking harshly to her.

[Holeypaladin]

The slave girl seemed to be quite afraid of him, judging by her reaction, but the knight wasn't particularly surprised, as he had just killed both of her masters right in front of her. "Maria..." he repeated her name aloud. "I'm..." he paused as if trying to remember his own name, "Sigurd. Sigurd the dragon slayer," he said with a nod. He doubted she was educated enough to realize that it was also the name of a legendary dragon slayer from the local mythology.

"You don't have anything to apologize for," he commented, wondering why this mermaid was apologizing for being a mermaid. Her legs lacked strength in this form, but this wasn't any surprise at all, as very few mermaids ever set foot on land. "More importantly," he commented, "What are you going to do now? Both of your masters are dead." Sigurd himself certainly had no intentions of keeping a slave, but it was worth asking what she wanted rather than just leaving her, as she did seem to be rather helpless in her current state.

[PendragonXeno94]

Sigurd... Sigurd... Well, it wasn't the name she expected, but she now had something to put to his face. But did he have a hard time remembering his own name? When asked what she planned on doing now, she shrugged. "You're my master now, aren't you?" she asked. Not that she wanted one, but if he was capable of killing a dragon and a viking, then she would rather be stuck with him. If her legs had more strength, she would be running off and going to find anyone of her kind. But due to not being any body of water, Maria was stuck struggling to walk on her legs.

"Could- Could you help me?" She kept one hand on the banner that was concealing her body. "Just... don't peek, OK? I don't-" She cleared her throat. "I don't want you be pervy on me." She certainly couldn't walk away, much less move without falling and resorting to crawl or drag herself along the ground. The last thing she needed was some guy teasingly checking under the banner to check her out.

[Holeypaladin]

Chuckling at the words of the mermaid, the knight shrugged. "I don't need a slave," he said. "But I can't just leave you here, or you'll probably die. So let's at least get you somewhere safe." Gazing down at the girl as she continued to cover herself with a banner, he remarked, "Besides... what kind of slave tells her master not to peek at her? I get the impression you'd be a pretty disobedient slave, even if I did decide to keep you as one."

Reaching down, he went ahead and picked her up in his arms. He left it to her to try to keep her body concealed by the banner, but didn't remove it, either. Carrying the girl in his arms, he began to make his way out of the dragon lair. "Where am I gonna take you then," he said, "Maria? Somehow... I doubt you'd be much help in a fight against a dragon. Certainly not in your current condition." Though she was a bit wet, her body was soft and warm in his arms, and he tried not to focus on the fact that her lower half was bare underneath the banner.

[PendragonXeno94]

"Oh, come now," Maria said. "You must want one. Doesn't every man want one? Especially the more 'exotic' ones?" She glared at him as he said she was a disobedient slave. "What makes you think that? I don't feel comfortable being like this, you know." She didn't ask to have the ability to go between having fins and having legs. The mermaid was about to protest more when Sigurd picked her up and started to carry her.

While adjusting the banner around her numerous times, she hardly heard him ask where she wanted him to take her. "Anywhere but here," she said, gripping the banner more tightly. So far, he didn't seem so bad, and he wasn't that bad looking. She pursed her lips as she had to think over where exactly she wanted to go. "Well... I would like to go somewhere where there's a warm bed and I can walk enough to strengthen my legs." Maria assumed that she didn't have to put much effort into making her legs more stable on land, and walking would do the trick.