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"description": "[url=https://www.furaffinity.net/view/60882414/]Chapter Three[/url]\n\nJaro is a male green dragon with a distaste for the blatancy of mammals, and Vull is a blatant mammal male tiger. Vull was foolish and ended up as Jaro's pet, and [b]NOW Jaro has to do routine maintenance to take care of Vull.[/b]\n\nIf you are interested in guest starring, please let me know.\n[i]The current opening is for another pet of Jaro's, who Vull will be tasked with breaking. Vull will be unable to do so, so Jaro will break the pet for him. It will be brutal, but will not involve snuff. If you have a pet (or are a pet) that needs to be broken ruthlessly and with no regard for their health and safety, contact me with information about that pet and how much you would $ to see that happen. The commissioner will be the final arbiter as to which characters will be in the story.[/i]\n\n[i]If you have interest in seeing other characters - such as fellow doms of Jaro, friends/family of Vull, etc, showing up, that can also be arranged. This is a commissioned series but it is open to other people splicing ideas that they have onto it if it fits the vibe. Thank you![/i]\n\n[url=https://subscribestar.adult/charnparn]Posted earlier on the Unfortunut Subscribestar![/url]",
"description_bbcode_parsed": "Chapter Three
Jaro is a male green dragon with a distaste for the blatancy of mammals, and Vull is a blatant mammal male tiger. Vull was foolish and ended up as Jaro's pet, and NOW Jaro has to do routine maintenance to take care of Vull.
If you are interested in guest starring, please let me know.
The current opening is for another pet of Jaro's, who Vull will be tasked with breaking. Vull will be unable to do so, so Jaro will break the pet for him. It will be brutal, but will not involve snuff. If you have a pet (or are a pet) that needs to be broken ruthlessly and with no regard for their health and safety, contact me with information about that pet and how much you would $ to see that happen. The commissioner will be the final arbiter as to which characters will be in the story.
If you have interest in seeing other characters - such as fellow doms of Jaro, friends/family of Vull, etc, showing up, that can also be arranged. This is a commissioned series but it is open to other people splicing ideas that they have onto it if it fits the vibe. Thank you!
Posted earlier on the Unfortunut Subscribestar!",
"writing": "Leopold's paws padded silently across the plush carpet, each step carrying him deeper into Jaro's domain. The dragon's office smelled of leather-bound books and smoldering incense, a heady mixture that made Leopold's whiskers twitch with nervous energy. He kept his eyes downcast, his slender frame made even smaller by the way he hunched his shoulders, as if trying to disappear into the expensive silk of his collar. The summons had been unexpected, and Leopald was quickly learning that in Jaro's household, unexpected rarely meant pleasant.\nThe morning light filtered through stained glass windows, casting jewel-toned patterns across the polished mahogany desk where Jaro sat. The dragon's emerald scales caught the light, reflecting it like countless tiny mirrors as he crouched over the surface. Leopold felt his ears fold back against his head; the shimmering dragon scales created an aura of dangerous beauty about him. The dragon turned his head, a single golden eye narrowing as Leopold approached.\n\"Ah, my delicate little housecat,\" Jaro growled, his cultured voice hissing softly. \"Punctual as always. So refreshing to have a pet who understands the value of time.\"\nLeopold bowed his head, the blue waves of his carefully maintained hair falling forward to partially obscure his face. \"Thank you for noticing, sir,\" he murmured, the words practiced and proper, just as he'd been taught.\nJaro's claws drummed against the desktop, and he glanced up to the the window. \"We're waiting on one more,\" he said, gesturing toward a leather chair positioned before his desk. \"As always, it seems. Do sit. I despise looking up at anyone, even someone as... diminutive as yourself.\"\nThe chair is too large for Leopold, designed to accommodate Jaro's impressive frame. He perched on the edge of it, his dainty feet barely touching the floor. The monocolor nature of his fur - stark black against pristine white - stood out against the chair's deep burgundy leather. He folded his hands in his lap, modestly covering his genitals. It was a reflexive gesture of modesty that he couldn't quite break.\nThe door burst open without a knock, and Vull strode in with the confident swagger of someone who either doesn't understand or doesn't care about the concept of deference. The Siberian tiger's orange and black striped fur ripples over his muscular form, each movement an advertisement of strength. The tiger was nude, blatantly so, his broad chest and powerful thighs catching the eyes as he sauntered into Jaro's room. \nJaro couldn't help but smirk at the feline's bravado, considering the sharp shards of gravel that were all that remained of his sharp fangs. Leopold had not seen the feline for nearly a week, the sexless freak having hidden himself away to lick his wounds, as it were. The raw nerves in his mouth had been salved and healed over, but the jagged enamel fragments still jutted out of his gums, painful and defiant.\nLeopold's eyes widened slightly at the smooth, flat front of Vull's groin. Where there should be an impressive display, there was nothing. Just a smooth curve of metal nestled between short-fuzzed thighs. It gave the tiger a weird, doll-like appearance, with an obvious, attention-drawing gap where the tiger's masculinity should be hanging.\n\"You wanted to see me?\" Vull said, his voice carrying a forced casualness that doesn't quite mask the exhaustion and tension underneath. His eyes flick toward Leopold, sizing the smaller cat up for a moment before returning to Jaro.\nThe dragon's lips curl into a cold smirk. \"Indeed. I do enjoy having both of you here at once. It is such a... contrast.\" He rose from his chair, his full seven-foot-two height unfolding as he circled the desk. \n\"Leopold has acclimated to his new lodgings,\" Jaro said, placing a clawed hand on Leopold's shoulder, \"and I think it's time for him to spend time with my... hmm, what shall we call you today, Vull? Not quite a prize specimen anymore, are you?\"\nLeopold felt the tiger's irritation from across the room, a palpable sense of heat and resentment. \n\"I'm the strongest one here,\" Vull said, his voice a dismissive sulk. \"Whatever you've taken from me hasn't changed that.\"\nJaro laughed. \"Ah, yes. Your physical prowess. How fortunate for you that I allowed you to keep that, at least, eh?\" His hand slid from Leopold's shoulder to stroke the cat's cheek, the touch making Leopold shiver despite himself. \"Some of us appreciate more... refined qualities, however.\"\nLeopold blushed beneath his fur, the pink skin of his ears betraying his discomfort. The dragon's attention makes him feel small, delicate, and vulnerable, but he knew better than to pull away. \n\"Leopold here has such gentle hands,\" Jaro continued, his claw tracing the line of Leopold's jaw. \"And such a sweet disposition. Don't you, my pretty kitty?\"\n\"I... I try to be kind, sir,\" Leopold replied, his voice barely above a whisper.\nVull made a sound somewhere between a scoff and a snort. \"Kind doesn't get things done,\" he said. \"Kind doesn't survive in the real world.\"\nJaro ignored him, and continued to lavish attention on Leopold, who sat frozen under the dangerous caresses. The way the tiger stared at Leopold made him even more uncomfortable then the sudden softness being shown to him by the dragon. \"You're so well-spoken, too. Not like some others, who grunt and growl their way through conversations.\" \nJaro's hand moved up to Leopold's hair, stroking the carefully maintained blue waves. \"That color suits you. It brings out the gentleness in your eyes.\" \nLeopold's blush deepened, the heat in his cheeks becoming tight and uncomfortable. \"Thank you, sir,\" he managed. He could feel Vull's glare burning into him, though he couldn't understand why Vull would be mad at him for Jaro's preferential treatment. As far as Leopold could tell, Jaro treated Vull horribly.\n\"Also of note,\" Jaro continued, his voice dropping to a stage whisper that's clearly meant for Vull to hear, \"unlike some of my other acquisitions, Leopold still has all his... natural equipment. Small and dainty, to be sure, but... quite prettily formed.\"\nLeopold wanted to sink through the floor. Leopold's small shaft and tight scrotum had never, specifically, impressed anyone, but he had never wanted it to. He knew the dragon was taunting him, was intentionally goading the tiger by drawing attention to Leopold's masculinity. Leopold knew that, regardless of the smaller size, it was infinitely more than Vull had between his own legs. \n\"Perhaps I should have him show you,\" Jaro said, turning to Vull with a cruel smile. \"Would you like that? A reminder of what you've lost?\"\n\"I don't need reminders,\" Vull said, his tongue licking up through his ruined mouth to stroke along his upper lip. \"I know exactly what I've lost, and I know who took it from me.\"\n\"Tsk, tsk. Such hostility.\" Jaro returned to Leopold, kneeling before the chair to bring his face level with the cat's. This close, Leopold can smell the dragon's breath, sharp with cinnamon and smoke. \"Don't mind him, sweet Leopold. He's just jealous because I see the value in gentleness. In kindness.\" His claw traces the line of Leopold's collarbone. \"Some believe strength is everything, but I find intelligence and a willing spirit far more... endearing.\"\nLeopold swallowed hard, his tail lashing against the back of his calves. \"You're very kind to say so, sir,\" he said, the words automatic and pleasant. \n\"See? Do you see how polite he is?\" Jaro said, addressing Vull without bothering to turn to look at him. \"Can you see how well he takes a compliment? You could learn from him, tiger.\"\n\"I don't need lessons from a pampered housecat,\" Vull said, irritatedly. \n\"Perhaps not lessons in strength,\" Jaro concedes, finally turning to look at the tiger. \"But in manners? In knowing when to speak and when to hold your tongue? Most definitely. After all, your tongue is just as extraneous as any other part of you. If you can't learn to use it correctly, well...\"\nLeopold could tell he was caught between them, a reluctant pawn in whatever power struggle this was. He could tell that the tiger was outclassed, beaten, dishevelled, but still stupidly, drunkenly fighting back. He only wondered why. He wished he could simply excuse himself and retreat to the quiet safety of his one quarters, but he would never leave his master's presence without dismissal. At least, not unless one seeked punishment, and Leopold was terrified of what Jaro thought of as 'punishment'. \n\"You know what I adore the most about Leopold?\" Jaro continued, returning his attention to the uncomfortable house cat. \"He has a quiet resilience to him. Look at him, Vull. He has accepted his place entirely, and without constant challenges.\" His claw trailed down Leopold's arm, raising goosebumps beneath the fur. \"He understands submission isn't weakness. It's wisdom. In fact-\"\n\"It's pathetic,\" Vull interrupted, plaintively. \"If you want a lapdog, just get an actual dog. At least dogs have some dignity in their servitude.\"\nThe room went silent. He couldn't fathom the idea of interrupting the dragon. \nJaro straightened slowly, his full height unfurling like a deadly flower blooming. His expression hadn't changed, but something in his eyes had.\n\"Did I ask for your opinion, tiger?\" Jaro's voice was soft, which makes it all the more terrifying. \"Did I, at any point, indicate that I wished to hear the thoughts rattling around in that musclebound head of yours?\"\nVull, to his credit, didn't back down, though Leopold can see a flicker of something in his eyes, something like nervousness. \"You were talking about me. To him. About what I've lost. I have a right to-\"\n\"Right?\" Jaro laughed, eager to interrupt the tiger. \"You think you have rights? In my house?\" He moved toward Vull with deliberate slowness. \"You have no rights here. You have the rights that I feel like allowing you to have. Nothing more.\"\nLeopold watched the confrontation with growing alarm. He'd heard of what happened when Jaro was angered, and it was never pleasant. Despite Vull's treatment of him, with his snide comments and dismissive glances, Leopold didn't wish Jaro's kind of punishment on anyone.\n\"Perhaps,\" Jaro said, circling Vull like a predator, \"if you feel so strongly about speaking when not spoken to, you need to be reminded of your place.\" He stopped, tapping a claw against his scaled chin. \"I've been meaning to have the old cobblestone path in the east garden dug up and relaid. The frost has heaved it quite badly.\"\nVull's expression shifted from defiance to wariness. \"That's grounds work. I'm not a-\"\n\"You're whatever I say you are,\" Jaro cut him off. \"And today, you're a laborer.\" He turned to Leopold, his expression softening into something that might almost pass for kindness if not for the cruel excitement in his eyes. \"And you, my sweet kitty, shall assist him.\"\nLeopold's stomach dropped. Manual labor? Him? His small frame wasn't built for such work. His soft hands have never known calluses or blisters. But he knew better than to protest.\n\"Of course, sir,\" he said, his voice barely audible. \"If that's what you wish.\"\n\"It is,\" Jaro confirmed, turning back to Vull with a smirk. \"You see? Acceptance. Grace. Qualities you sorely lack.\" He returned to his desk, settling into his chair with fluid elegance. \"You'll begin immediately and work until sunset. I expect to see significant progress by then.\"\nVull's jaw worked as if he was chewing on words he knew better than to say. Finally, he gave a stiff nod. \"Fine. We'll dig up your precious path.\"\n\"Excellent.\" Jaro picked up a document from his desk, his dismissal clear. \"Leopold, do try to keep up with our strapping tiger. I'd hate to see those delicate hands of yours damaged beyond repair.\"\nLeopold rose from the chair on legs that feel like water, his heart sinking at the prospect of the day ahead. \"I'll do my best, sir,\" he promised, though he has no idea how he'll manage such strenuous work.\nAs they turned to leave, Jaro called after them: \"And Vull? Do remember that Leopold is my property. Return him in the same condition you received him, or you'll find yourself missing more than just your... 'pride'.\"\nThe threat hung in the air as Leopold followed Vull from the room, the door closing behind them with a finality that feels like a prison sentence.\nOutside, the sun beat down on Jaro's estate with the ferocity of the center of the summer, transforming the garden into a furnace of misery. It baked into Leopold's black fur like a physical weight, and sweat was already matting the soft hair at the nape of his neck, his elegant blue coiffure wilting in the oppressive heat. Vull led him down the hill behind Jaro's property, along a cobblestone path that led down to a pristine, clear-watered lake. The ancient stones, heaved and displaced by countless winter frosts, jutted up from the ground with a certain arrogance, daring trespassers to trod upon them. Beside the path stood a weathered shed, its wood bleached and splintered by years of exposure, looking as dejected as Leopold feels.\nVull towered beside him, his short-cropped striped orange and black fur barely damp despite the heat. The tiger's muscular frame cast a long shadow across the ground, a temporary relief that Leopold found himself unconsciously leaning toward. Despite Jaro's humiliating punishment, Vull's physical presence remained imposing, with his broad shoulders and powerful arms a stark contrast to Leopold's slender build.\n\"The wheelbarrow's in the shed,\" Vull barked, not bothering to look at Leopold as he spoke. \"Bring it out. And the shovels. And the pry bars.\" His voice carries the sharp weariness, a resentment that he was not trying to hide.\nLeopold hesitated only a moment before moving toward the shed. The splintered door groaned in protest as he pulled it open, releasing a cloud of dust that sent him into a fit of sneezing. Inside, the air is stale and thick with the smell of rusted metal and decaying wood. The wheelbarrow sat against the far wall, its metal basin spotted with rust. The tools hang on the wall, their handles smooth from years of use by hands far stronger and more capable than his own.\nHe grasped the handles of the wheelbarrow, surprised by its weight even when empty. His arms strained as he maneuvered it through the narrow doorway. The shovels and pry bars proved equally challenging, their awkward size causing Leopold to stagger unbalanced as he lugged them out to the path. By the time he returned to Vull, his breath already comes in shallow pants, a humiliating testament to his lack of physical conditioning.\n\"Took you long enough,\" Vull said, snatching a pry bar up from the wheelbarrow. \"We start at the end there.\" He points to where the path meets the main garden walkway. \"We pry up the stones, we load them in the wheelbarrow, and we dump them over there.\" He gestured to a patch of bare earth some thirty yards away. \"We'll clean them and relay them after.\"\nLeopold nodded not trusting his voice. He followed Vull to the starting point, watching as the tiger effortlessly jammed the pry bar beneath a large cobblestone and heaved. The stone popped free with a sound like a sigh, revealing a nest of displaced earth and wriggling worms beneath. Vull crouched, hugging his strong arms around the stone and then standing, and tossing the heavy stone into the wheelbarrow with a casual flick of his wrist, the metal basin thumping with the impact.\n\"Your turn,\" he said, stepping back with a smirk.\nLeopold took the pry bar, its weight immediately dragging his arms downward. He positioned it as Vull did and pushed down with all his might. The bar barely moved. He readjusted, bracing one foot against the handle for leverage, and pushed again. This time, the stone shifted slightly, but didn't pop free.\n\"Pathetic,\" Vull commented, crossing his muscular arms across his chest. \"Put your back into it.\"\nHeat rose in Leopold's cheeks, a mixture of embarrassment and exertion. He repositioned himself once more, summoning every ounce of strength in his slender frame. With a grunt that sounded embarrassingly loud in his own ears, he forced the bar downward. The stone finally gave way, though with far less grace than when Vull did it. Instead of popping free, it slid sideways, scraping Leopold's exposed ankle in the process.\n\"Pick it up,\" Vull ordered, ignoring the thin line of blood now trickling through Leopold's fur.\nThe cobblestone felt impossibly heavy in Leopold's hands. His fingers strained around its rough edges, the coarse texture abrading his soft pads. With a staggering step, he carried it to the wheelbarrow and dropped it in, the impact jarring his already aching wrists.\n\"One down,\" Vull said with mocking cheerfulness. \"Only about three hundred to go.\"\nLeopold's heart sank. He looked up the path, at the large stones jeering out of the ground at him, each one heavy and rounded. Three hundred? He'll never be able to lift them all. The alternative, though - failing, or complaining - seemed even worse. He reached for the pry bar again, determined to prove himself, if not to Vull, then at least to himself.\nAs the morning stretched on, a grim rhythm developed. Pry, lift, carry, dump. Repeat. Leopold's movements grew increasingly clumsy as fatigue settled into his muscles like lead weights. His once-pristine fur was streaked with dirt and sweat, clinging to his frame in damp patches. His breath came in ragged gasps, each inhalation burning in his chest.\nVull, by contrast, worked with mechanical efficiency, his powerful body seemingly immune to fatigue. For every stone Leopold managed to pry loose, Vull removed three. The tiger's skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat, but his breathing remained steady, his movements fluid and controlled.\n\"Keep up,\" Vull growled when Leopold pauses to wipe sweat from his eyes. \"We don't have all day.\"\nBut they did have all day, Leopold thought bitterly. Until sunset, Jaro had said. Hours more of this torture. He forced himself back to work, ignoring the trembling in his limbs, the burning in his lungs.\nThe wheelbarrow grows heavier with each stone added, until Leopold could barely push it to the dumping ground. The wheel squealed in protest, the sound drilling into his sensitive ears. On his third trip, the wheelbarrow caught on an exposed root, nearly tipping over. Leopold threw his body weight against it, preventing the spill but bruising his hip in the process.\n\"Careful with those,\" Vull calls, not bothering to help of course. \"Jaro will have your hide if you chip the rocks.\"\nLeopold struggled to right the wheelbarrow, his vision blurring at the edges from exertion. His throat was parched, his tongue feeling swollen in his mouth. He hadn't had water since breakfast, and the merciless sun continued to beat down, drawing every last drop of moisture from his body.\n\"Could I... could I please have some water?\" he asked when he returned, his voice a rasping whisper.\nVull paused, regarding Leopold with narrowed eyes. For a moment, something like concern flickered across his face, quickly replaced by hardened resolve. \"After the next section,\" he said, turning back to his work. \"If you can keep up.\"\nLeopold's heart sank, but he nodded, accepting the challenge because he had no choice. He returned to the pry bar, each movement a negotiation with his failing body. His muscles screamed in protest, but he pushed through, focusing on the promise of water - just a few more stones away.\nA stone came loose unexpectedly, throwing Leopold off balance. He stumbled, dropping the pry bar, which lands painfully across his foot. A cry escaped him before he can suppress it, high and thin in the heavy air.\n\"What now?\" Vull demanded, straightening from his work with an exasperated sigh.\n\"Nothing,\" Leopold gasped, retrieving the bar with trembling hands. \"I'm fine.\"\n\"You're weak,\" Vull corrected him, striding over to where Leopold stands. \"Soft, and useless. Just a pleasure pet.\" He took the pry bar, demonstrating again how easily he could lever up a stone. \"Like this. Put some force behind it.\"\nLeopold watched, trying to memorize the exact angle, the precise application of strength. When Vull handed the bar back, he mimiced the movement as closely as his aching body would allow. The stone shifted, but didn't come free.\n\"Pathetic,\" Vull spat between his craggy teeth. \"No wonder Jaro treats you like a porcelain doll. You'd break if someone breathed on you too hard.\"\nThe words stung more than Leopold wanted to admit. He tried again, forcing his screaming muscles to comply. This time, the stone popped free, a small victory that brung a fleeting smile to his lips.\n\"Don't look so pleased with yourself,\" Vull said, dousing Leopold's moment of pride. \"A child could do better.\"\nLeopold carried the stone to the wheelbarrow, each step a battle against gravity. As he dropped it in, he noticed his paws are bleeding, the soft pads worn raw by the rough stone. He flexed his fingers, wincing at the sharp pain.\n\"Hurts, doesn't it?\" Vull asked, suddenly beside him. There's a strange satisfaction in his voice, as if Leopold's pain brought him pleasure. \"This is real work. Not the pampered life you're used to.\"\nLeopold didn't respond, focusing instead on controlling his breathing, on finding the strength to continue. He returned to the path, selecting another stone to remove. Each brick slammed onto the dusty ground with a jarring clatter as he worked, the sound like punctuation marks in a sentence of suffering.\nBy midday, they've cleared perhaps a quarter of the path. The pile of extracted cobblestones grows, a monument to their labor, or at least, Leopold thinks, to his torment and Vull's barely disguised enjoyment of it. The sun sat directly overhead now, its rays a physical force pressing down on Leopold's shoulders. The black portions of his fur absorb the heat, baking the soft skin underneath.\n\"Break,\" Vull announced suddenly, dropping his shovel. \"Ten minutes.\"\nLeopold collapsed where he stands, his legs folding beneath him like wet paper. He sat in the sparse shade of a nearby ornamental tree, its thin branches offering little protection from the sun but better than nothing. His entire body throbbed in time with his racing heartbeat, each pulse sending fresh waves of pain through his abused muscles.\nVull disappeared into the shed, returning with a canteen. He drank deeply, water dribbling down his chin to dampen the white fur of his chest. Leopold watched, his parched throat working reflexively, silently begging for just a sip.\nAfter what felt like an eternity, Vull held out the canteen. \"Here,\" he said gruffly. \"Don't drink it all.\"\nLeopold took it with trembling hands, nearly dropping it in his eagerness. The water was lukewarm and tasted faintly of metal, but it's the most delicious thing he's ever experienced. He forced himself to drink slowly, knowing that gulping it down will only make him sick.\n\"Time's up,\" Vull said, snatching the canteen back when Leopold had taken barely enough to wet his mouth. \"Back to work.\"\nLeopold struggled to his feet, his brief rest having done little to restore his strength. If anything, the pause had only allowed his muscles to stiffen, making movement even more painful. He picked up the pry bar again, its weight seemingly doubled since morning.\n\"We're falling behind,\" Vull said, surveying the path with a critical eye. \"Pick up the pace.\"\nLeopold wanted to protest that they have hours yet before sunset, that there's no need to hurry, but the words died in his throat. Vull isn't concerned about finishing on time. He's concerned with pushing Leopold to his breaking point, with proving his superiority through Leopold's failure.\nUnderstanding doesn't make the work any easier. If anything, it makes it harder, knowing that his suffering is not simply a byproduct of necessary labor but the very point of the exercise. Still, he forced himself back to the pattern. Pry, lift, carry, dump. Repeat.\nThe stones blurred together, each one indistinguishable from the last. Leopold's world narrowed to the next task, the next breath, the next painful step. He lost track of time, of how many trips he's made with the wheelbarrow, of how many stones he's extracted from the earth.\n\"Faster,\" Vull demanded, his voice cutting through Leopold's foggy consciousness. \"You're slowing down.\"\nLeopold tried to comply, but his body rebels. His movements became clumsier, more desperate. He dropped a stone, watching in horror as it lands on another, a small chip flying off from the impact.\n\"Careful!\" Vull barked, striding over to inspect the damage. \"What did I tell you about chipping them?\"\n\"I'm sorry,\" Leopold mumbled, his voice barely audible over the pounding of his own heart in his ears. \"I'll be more careful.\"\n\"See that you are,\" Vull said, his face inches from Leopold's, close enough that Leopold can feel the heat of his breath. \"Or I'll make sure Jaro knows exactly how incompetent you are.\"\nThe threat hung between them, unnecessary but delivered with relish. Leopold nodded, not trusting himself to speak without his voice breaking. He bent down to retrieve the fallen stone, his vision momentarily going dark at the edges from the sudden movement.\nVull returned to his section of the path, working now with renewed vigor, as if Leopold's mistake has energized him. The contrast between them grew more stark with each passing minute, with Vull powerful and focused, Leopold stumbling and fading.\n\"The wheelbarrow's full,\" Vull called. \"Take it to the pile.\"\nLeopold grasped the handles, his raw paws stinging at the contact. The wheelbarrow felt impossibly heavy now, laden with stones and his own exhaustion. He pushed it forward, each step a negotiation with gravity and pain.\nHalfway to the dumping ground, his strength failed him. The wheelbarrow tilted dangerously to one side, then the other, as Leopold struggled to maintain control. His arms shook uncontrollably, his legs threatening to buckle beneath him.\n\"What's the holdup?\" Vull called from behind him.\nLeopold didn't dare turn around to answer, focusing all his remaining energy on keeping the wheelbarrow upright. One more step. Then another. The pile is so close now, just a few more feet.\nHis foot caught on an exposed root, sending him stumbling forward. The wheelbarrow tipped, spilling stones across the ground with a series of dull thuds. Leopold fell to his knees beside it, the impact sending fresh pain shooting through his already abused joints.\n\"Dude, you're useless,\" Vull snarled, suddenly looming over him. \"Completely useless. Pick them up.\"\nLeopold stared at the scattered stones, too exhausted even for tears. His paws hovered over them helplessly, leaving small smears of blood on their rough surfaces.\n\"Pick them up,\" Vull ordered again, his voice cold. \"Every last one.\"\nLeopold tried to stand but couldn't. So, instead, he crawled to the wheelbarrow and sat next to it, and gathered the rocks up with trembling hands and placed them, one by one, back in the wheelbarrow. Each one felt heavier than the last.\n\"You're pathetic,\" Vull continued, watching Leopold's painful progress with undisguised contempt. \"I don't know what Jaro sees in you. You're nothing but a pretty face with no substance behind it.\"\nThe words barely registered through Leopold's haze of exhaustion. He focused on the task at hand, on simply staying conscious from one moment to the next. The path of stones was an endless, trail of broken promises, stretching away from the two of them back up towards the estate.\nWhen he finally got the last stone back into the wheelbarrow, Leopold remained on his knees, unable to summon the strength to stand again. His hair clung limply to the sides of his snout, and his breath comes in shallow gasps, his chest burning painfully. He was deeply nauseous, head spinning with exhaustion.\n\"Get up,\" Vull said, nudging Leopold's thigh with the toe of his boot. \"We're not even halfway done.\"\nLeopold tried, he truly did. He planted one paw on the ground, then the other, attempting to push himself upright. His arms shook violently with the effort, the muscles having long since passed the point of endurance.\n\"I said get up!\" Vull's voice rose, nudging Leopold with his foot again. \"Goddammit stop being so lazy! Jaro will be checking on us soon.\"\nThe mention of Jaro acts like a stimulant, sending a fresh wave of fear through Leopold's exhausted body. He pushed up one last time, managing to get one foot beneath him and rising partially to to a crouch, but as he pushed himself to stand, he found himself swinging backwards, and then his strength gives out completely. He collapsed back to the ground with a whumph.\n\"Fine,\" Vull muttered after a moment. \"Five minutes. That's all. Then you're back to work whether you're ready or not.\"\nLeopold closed his eyes, grateful for even this small mercy. The ground beneath him spun slowly, as if the earth itself has begun to rotate faster, attempting to throw him off into the void. He focused on his breathing, trying to slow it, to find some reserve of strength hidden deep within himself.\nBut there's nothing left to find, nothing left to give. His body had reached its limit, pushed beyond what it was ever designed to endure. As consciousness begins to slip away, Leopold's last thought is that he had failed—failed Jaro, failed himself, and somehow, inexplicably, failed even Vull.\nThe darkness, when it finally claims him, feels like a blessing.\n________________\n\n\n~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~\nConsciousness returned to Leopold in uneven waves, like a tide reluctantly coming back to shore. The world resolved itself in fragments, first with the feel of cool grass against his cheek, then the distant sound of voices, sharp and argumentative. His eyelids felt weighted with lead, but he forced them open, staring in an unfocused way across a plane green grass and the distant dark-watered lake. The first thing he recognized was a pair of polished leather shoes inches from his face, their emerald scales gleaming with an unnatural sheen. Jaro. Leopold's heart lurched painfully in his chest, a fresh burst of adrenaline cutting through the fog of exhaustion.\n\"Ah, he rejoins us,\" Jaro's cultured voice sliced through the air, each syllable precise and cutting. \"How considerate of you to wake up, Leopold. We were just discussing your... performance.\"\nLeopold tried to push himself up, his arms trembling violently with the effort. The ground beneath him seemed to tilt and shift, forcing him to pause halfway, supporting himself on his elbows while the world steadied. His fur is caked with dirt and sweat, his once-pristine blue hair now hanging in limp, soiled strands around his face.\n\"I'm sorry, sir,\" he managed, his voice a dry rasp that barely carries. \"I'll get back to work immediately.\"\n\"Will you?\" Jaro crouched down, bringing his face level with Leopold's. His golden eyes gleam with malicious amusement, the vertical pupils contracting in the bright sunlight. \"Because from what I've observed, you've accomplished remarkably little. Vull tells me you've been... struggling.\"\nLeopold dared to glance over at Vull, who stood a few paces away, his powerful arms crossed over his chest. The tiger's expression was unreadable, but there's a tension in his posture that wasn't there before, a stiffness that spoke of discomfort.\n\"I... I'm trying my best, sir,\" Leopold said, returning his gaze to Jaro.\n\"Your 'best'.\" Jaro let the words hang in the air, infusing them with contempt. \"How disappointing that must be for you, to discover the limits of your 'best' so quickly.\" He stood in one fluid motion, brushing imaginary dust from his immaculate suit. \"Get up. Now.\"\nLeopold forced his body to obey, though every muscle screams in protest. He managed to get to his knees, then to his feet, swaying dangerously as blood rushes from his head. For a moment, the garden dissolved into a blur of colors and shapes, then slowly resolves back into focus. He stood with his head bowed, awaiting whatever comes next.\n\"Look at this mess,\" Jaro said, gesturing toward the partially dismantled path. \"Not even a third complete, and the sun has already begun its descent. At this rate, you'll be working well into tomorrow.\"\n\"I can work faster,\" Leopold promised, though he has no idea how he could fulfill that pledge. His body had already given everything it had to give.\n\"Indeed, you will,\" Jaro agreed, his smile revealing teeth too sharp for comfort. \"Vull, you may take a break. I'll supervise Leopold personally for a while.\"\nVull's expression flickered with surprise, then something that might almost be concern. \"I can keep working,\" he said, his voice gruff. \"We'll get more done if we both—\"\n\"Did I ask for your input?\" Jaro cut him off, his voice dropping to a dangerous softness. \"Take a break, Vull. That's an order.\"\nThe tiger's jaw tightened, but he nodded stiffly and moved away, settling on a stone bench at the edge of the garden. From there, he has a clear view of Leopold and Jaro, though he affected an air of disinterest, examining his claws as if they're the most fascinating things in the garden.\nJaro turned his attention back to Leopold. \"Now then. Let's see what you're capable of when properly motivated.\" He pointed to a particularly large cobblestone, one that even Vull had needed to use the pry bar to extract. \"That one. Remove it.\"\nLeopold stared at the stone, his heart sinking. It's easily twice the size of the ones he's been struggling with all morning. \"Sir, I—I might need the pry bar for that one.\"\n\"No tools,\" Jaro said, his smile widening. \"Just your hands. Now, my precious little bull.\"\nLeopold approached the stone, his legs threatening to give way with each step. He knelt beside it, examining its edges, looking for some purchase point that might make the impossible task merely extremely difficult. Finding none, he wedged his raw, bleeding fingers into the narrow gap between the stone and its neighbor, and pulled.\nNothing happened.\n\"Put your back into it,\" Jaro said, echoing Vull's earlier command. \"Unless you're even weaker than you look.\"\nLeopold gritted his teeth and tried again, summoning every last reserve of strength. The stone shifted slightly, just enough to inspire a desperate hope. He adjusted his grip, ignoring the fresh pain as the rough edges cut into his already damaged pads, and pulled again.\nThis time, the stone moved. It rose perhaps an inch before Leopold's strength fails him, and it drops back into place with a dull thud. He gasped for breath, spots dancing before his eyes.\n\"Again,\" Jaro commanded.\nLeopold tried once more, straining until the veins stood out on his forehead, until his vision narrowed to a pinpoint focused solely on the obstinate stone. This time, he managed to lift it clear of its setting, cradling it against his chest as he staggered to his feet.\n\"Bring it here,\" Jaro said, indicating a spot directly before him.\nThe stone might have weighted as much as Leopold itself, its mass threatening to pull Leopold's arms from their sockets. Each step is an exercise in will over physics, his body a reluctant vehicle for a burden it was never designed to bear. When he reached Jaro, his legs were shaking so badly he fears they'll simply fold beneath him.\n\"Set it down,\" Jaro instructed. \"Gently.\"\nLeopold started to bend his knees, trying to lower the stone without dropping it. Instead, he fell forward, flopping over the large heavy stone and groaning as the rain-washed surface kicked hard up into his belly. The house cat managed, barely, to extricate his hands from it before they were crushed, but before he could straight himself, Jaro's foot came to rest on the small of his back, the pressure just firm enough to keep him crouch over the \n\"Good,\" Jaro said, his voice silky. \"Now that one.\" He points to another large stone a few feet away.\n\"Please,\" Leopold whispered, the word escaping before he can stop it. \"I need a moment to-\"\n\"Did I ask for your opinion on the timing?\" Jaro pressed down harder with his foot, forcing Leopold into an awkward squat. \"That stone. Now.\"\nLeopold straightened when Jaro released him, his vision swimming. He made his way to the indicated stone, each step an act of defiance against his body's demands to be allowed to collapse. This stone is just as large as the first, its edges just as sharp against his bleeding hands. He pulled, failed, tried again. On the third attempt, the stone came free, and he cradled it to his chest once more.\n\"Bring it here,\" Jaro called, his voice carrying a note of satisfaction that sent a chill down Leopold's spine despite the heat.\nThe return journey was even harder, the stone seeming to gain weight with each step. Leopold's arms burned, his shoulders threatening to dislocate. He reached Jaro and carefully set the stone alongside the first one.\n\"Again,\" Jaro said, pointing to yet another stone.\nAnd so it goes. Stone after stone, each one a mountain to be conquered, each journey back to Jaro a test of endurance that Leopold is increasingly ill-equipped to pass. His world shrank to this endless cycle of strain and pain, of momentary relief followed by fresh demands.\n\"Again.\"\nLeopold's hands are slick with blood now, the soft pads shredded by the rough stone edges. His once-white chest and belly fur is stained red and brown with blood and dirt.\n\"Again.\"\nHis breathing was now a series of shallow gasps, each inhalation burning in his chest as if he's breathing fire instead of air. The garden span around him, colors bleeding into one another, shapes losing definition.\n\"Again.\"\nFrom his position on the bench, Vull watched with growing unease. The tiger's initial satisfaction at seeing Leopold struggle had faded, replaced by a growing discomfort in his guts that he was reluctant to acknowledge. He had wanted to put the little bitch in his place, and he had done so. This was something else entirely, something that made even Vull, with his resentment and jealousy, shift uncomfortably as he watched.\n\"Again.\"\nLeopold stumbled, nearly dropping the stone he's carrying. He recovered, barely, his body operating now on pure instinct rather than conscious control. He reached Jaro and set the stone down, adding it to the growing pile.\n\"You're slowing down,\" Jaro observed, his tone conversational, as if they're discussing the weather rather than Leopold's systematic incapacitatation. \"Perhaps you simple need more motivation.\"\nLeopold swayed on his feet, unable to respond. His eyes lost their focus, staring at a point somewhere beyond Jaro's shoulder.\n\"That one,\" Jaro said, pointing to a stone so large that not even Vull could have picked it up. \"Now.\"\nLeopold turned, took one step, then another. On the third step, his legs finally surrendered. He collapsed to his knees, then forward onto his hands, his head hanging between his shoulders like a broken flower.\n\"Get up,\" Jaro commanded, his voice hardening. \"We're not finished.\"\n\"He can't,\" Vull said suddenly, rising from the bench. \"He's done. Finished. Look at him.\"\nJaro turned to Vull, his expression darkening. \"I don't recall asking for your assessment, tiger. This is between Leopold and me.\"\n\"He's going to die if you keep pushing him,\" Vull insisted, taking a step forward. \"Is that what you want? To kill him?\"\n\"My possessions are mine to do with as I please,\" Jaro replied, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl. \"That includes determining when they've reached their limits, or not.\"\nLeopold, meanwhile, had somehow found the strength to drag himself toward the indicated stone. His movements were slow and clumsy, crawling on hands and knees, but he's making progress. His determination, even now, was a pitiful thing to witness.\n\"Look at him,\" Jaro said to Vull, gesturing toward the battered housecat. \"He's still trying to please me. Still hoping for approval.\" His smile is cold, calculating. \"That's what I value in him, you see. Not his strength, which is meaningless. He has no strength. No, what I value is his willingness to destroy himself for my satisfaction. You wouldn't understand that, would you?\"\nVull's teeth clenched, resulting in a spasm of pain as loose shards crushed against each other in his mouth. He blanched, opening his mouth to relieve the pressure and staggering a step backwards. \n\"It's sick,\" Vull muttered, too low for Leopold to hear but clear enough for Jaro. \"This whole thing is sick.\"\n\"Oh?\" Jaro raised an eyebrow. \"And what would you do differently, tiger? If he were yours to command, what would you do with such a pathetic specimen?\"\nVull hesitated, his gaze moving from Jaro to Leopold and back. \"I'd put him out of his misery,\" he said finally, his voice hard. \"Make him disappear. It would be a kindness compared to this.\"\nLeopold, who had reached the stone and was attempting to work his bleeding fingers beneath it, froze. The words, carried on the still afternoon air, reached him with perfect clarity. Make him disappear. His heart, already racing from exertion, skipped several beats. He turned his head, meeting Vull's gaze across the garden.\nThe fear in Leopold's eyes was naked, primal. He's too exhausted to mask it, too broken to pretend he didn't hear or didn't understand. For a moment, the three of them form a tableau, with Jaro watching with cruel amusement, Vull with dawning horror at the realization that Leopold heard him, and Leopold with the stark understanding that he's trapped between two predators with very different but equally horrific intentions.\n\"I didn't mean-\" Vull began, but stops when Jaro holds up a hand.\n\"Don't apologize for your honesty,\" the dragon said. \"It's refreshing.\" He turned back to Leopold. \"You heard him, pet. Better get back to work if you want to prove your value.\"\nLeopold's fear provided one last surge of adrenaline. Every part of his body ached, but he turned back to the stone, digging his fingers beneath it with desperate strength. He heaved, straining, his muscles throughout his entire body already taxed beyond their limit, and now he taxed them further, spending every last ounce of energy in trying to pick up the impossibly heavy rock. His arms began to shake violently, the muscles standing out in stark relief against his thin frame.\n\"Yes, see, Vull? That's it,\" Jaro encouraged, his voice a silken whisper. \"He's stronger than you think. I think he's stronger than you, even. Come on, little one. Show us what you're made of.\"\nLeopold got his hands underneath it, and began to pull it backwards, the huge rock being dragged slowly over the ground towards him. It pushed in against his inner thighs, and as he lifted it up, it's weight shifted to rest against his lower belly. He crouched protectively around it, and struggled to stand, his delicate features contorted in anguised strain. \nThen, it happened. \nSomething inside him gives way. There was no dramatic sound, no visible rupture, just a sudden, complete surrender of his body's systems. The stone slipped away from his nerveless fingers, sliding through his hug and landing on the ground between his knees with a dull thud. Leopold followed it down, crumpling like a discarded piece of paper, his limbs splaying at awkward angles.\nThis time, there was no partial awakening, no clinging to consciousness through sheer will. Leopold's eyes rolled back, showing only the whites, and his body went completely limp. A small trickle of blood runs from the corner of his nose, bright red against his white fur.\nFor a moment, neither Jaro nor Vull moved, both seemingly surprised by the finality of Leopold's collapse. Then Jaro sighs, the sound almost disappointed.\n\"Well,\" he said, stroking along the underside of his chin thoughtfully. \"It seems we've found his limit, after all.\"\nVull stared at Leopold's crumpled form for one long, frozen moment, the cat's chest barely rising with each shallow breath. A peculiar feeling settled in Vull's stomach, something acidic and uncomfortable that he refused to recognize as guilt. The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the garden, turning the scattered cobblestones into dark islands in a sea of golden light. Jaro's expectant gaze burned into Vull's back, waiting to see what the tiger will do next. With a grunt that's half exertion and half resignation, Vull bent down and gathered Leopold's limp body into his arms, surprised at how little the cat weighs, how fragile he feels against Vull's substantial frame.\n\"Take him back to the house,\" Jaro commanded, his voice airy and devoid of concern. \"I've seen enough of this particular entertainment for one day.\"\nVull adjusted his grip, hefting Leopold onto his broad shoulder like a sack of grain. The cat's head lolled against Vull's back, his arms dangling lifelessly. A small smear of blood transfered from Leopold's mouth to Vull's tank top, the bright red stark against the white fabric.\n\"What about the path?\" Vull asked, gesturing toward the half-dismantled cobblestones.\nJaro waved a dismissive hand. \"It can wait. This has proven more... educational than I anticipated.\" His golden eyes gleamed with an emotion Vull can't quite identify. \"I'll meet you at the front entrance. Don't dawdle.\"\nWithout waiting for a response, Jaro turned and strides away, his polished shoes crunching on the gravel path. His tail, normally held in a precise arc behind him, swished once in what might be irritation or anticipation.\nLeft alone with his unconscious burden, Vull shifted uncomfortably. Leopold's body was warm against his. Too warm, in fact. The heat of exhaustion and strain radiated through the thin fabric of the sweat matted fur. Vull could feel every rib, every delicate bone pressing against him, a physical reminder of the difference between them.\nHe started walking, following a side path that will take him around the mansion to the front entrance. Each step jostled Leopold, but the cat gives no sign of awareness, no protest at the rough treatment. Only the faint flutter of his pulse against Vull's shoulder confirms he's still alive.\nThe path wound through carefully manicured gardens, past fountains whose burbling waters seemed to mock Vull with their carefree music. The mansion gradually came into view, its dark gray stone facade gleaming in the late afternoon light like the wall of some ancient fortress. Tall windows reflected the sun in blinding flashes, their glass surfaces immaculate and unwelcoming.\nVull's thoughts churned as he walks, a confusing mixture of satisfaction and disquiet. He'd wanted to see Leopold fail, to prove the cat's weakness, to show Jaro that his newest acquisition was nothing special. He had succeeded. Leopold had collapsed completely, proving himself incapable of handling even a few hours of real work, but, the victory felt hollow, tainted with the memory of Leopold's terrified eyes when he'd overheard Vull's casual cruelty.\n\"'Make him disappear',\" Vull muttered under his breath, repeating his own words. They sounded different now, hanging in the open air rather than contained in the heated moment. They sounded cruel, mean, sadistic. They sounded beneath him... right? \nHe shook the thought away. Leopold was nothing to him personally, just another of Jaro's passing fixations, another pretty toy that would eventually be discarded when the dragon grew bored. Vull had seen it happen before, had seen the accumulation of 'trinkets' representing Jaro's shifting attentions in the wall of the basement. Jaro enjoyed leaving broken things in his wake.\nStill, there was something about the way Leopold had kept trying, kept pushing himself long past the point where most would have just given up. There was something about his determination that Vull respected, even if he also despised the weakness that made that determination necessary.\nVull made it into Jaro's manor, the cool, dark interior of the building a welcome reprieve from the oppressive heat of the raging summer outside. Vull straightened, adjusting Leopold's weight in his arms, still cradling the unconscious form against his chest. This was his moment of triumph, right? He had proven his point. He has shown Jaro that Leopold was weak and unworthy of the attention the dragon had lavished on him. He forced confidence into his stride as he approached the stairs to the basement, ignoring the ache in his own muscles from the day's labor. \n\"I see you've managed not to drop him along the way,\" Jaro commented as Vull reached the doorway that led down to the dungeon and pet's quarters downstairs. \"How considerate.\"\nVull's tail flickered at the slight in the dragon's words, even if he couldn't determine what exactly the slight was. He pushed the idea aside, focusing instead on presenting Leopold like a trophy. He held his arms out, the broken frame of the smaller feline offered like an expensive coat. \"Conditioned, just like you wanted,\" he announced, with more bravado then he felt.\nJaro's expression doesn't change. \"Did I say that was what I wanted, tiger? I don't recall issuing such instructions.\"\nVull faltered, momentarily uncertain. \"You... you said to take him to relay the path. To work until sunset. You said his master wanted him to be taught discipline. You knew he couldn't handle that kind of work.\"\n\"I knew many things,\" Jaro agreed, his voice velvet over steel. \"That doesn't mean I instructed you to return hi, like this.\"\nA cold feeling began to spread in Vull's chest, a premonition of danger he can't quite define. He shifted Leopold's weight again, suddenly eager to be rid of the burden. With little ceremony, he dumped the cat at Jaro's feet, letting Leopold's limp form sprawl across the marble landing.\nLeopold made a small, pained sound as he hit the stone, but didn't wake. His fur was matted with sweat and dirt, his hands raw and bleeding from the day's work. He looked broken, used up, and discarded. He looked exactly the way Vull had wanted him to look, but the sight of it now brought a strange hollow feeling inside the tiger, rather than satisfaction.\n\"Look at him,\" Vull said, gesturing towards Leopold's prone form. \"Weak. Ineffective. No discipline, no endurance.\" He took a step back, his tail lashing agitatedly behind him. \"He's not worth your time. He's really not worth your attention.\"\nJaro's gaze moved from Leopold to Vull, his reptilian features expressionless. \"Oh, and you believe you are qualified to make that assessment?\"\n\"I know strength when I see it,\" Vull replied, straightening to his full height, though he still fell short of Jaro's imposing stature. \"And I know weakness, too. He's nothing but a pretty face with fancy fur. The first bit of real work, and he collapsed like a house of cards.\"\n\"Indeed.\" Jaro crouched beside Leopold, one clawed hand coming to rest on the cat's forehead. The gesture is almost gentle, incongruous with everything Vull knows about the dragon. \"And you took such pleasure in demonstrating that fact.\"\n\"I did what needed to be done,\" Vull insisted, an uneasy feeling simmering in his belly at Jaro's tone. \"What you wanted done. I showed you what he really is.\"\n\"What he really is,\" Jaro repeated, his voice thoughtful. \"And what is that, exactly?\"\n\"A weakling. A pampered pet who can't handle the real world.\" Vull's confidence grew as he spoke, feeding on his own words. \"Not like me. I'm strong. I can take whatever you dish out and... and ask for more.\"\n\"Yes, you've made that abundantly clear over the last few months.\" Jaro stood, his movement fluid and controlled. \"Your strength has never been in question, tiger. Your judgment, however...\"\nThe unfinished sentence hung in the air between them, a threat Vull couldn't quite define. He shifted his weight, even more uncomfortable under Jaro's scrutiny.\n\"I broke him quickly,\" Vull continues, trying to recapture his earlier bravado. \"Efficiently. Just like a master would. Just like... you would.\"\nAt this, Jaro's expression changed for the first time, a flash of genuine anger crossing his features before being smoothed away behind his usual mask of control. \"Like a 'master',\" he repeated, and Vull knew immediately that he had fucked up. \"You think yourself a master, Vull?\"\nThe question caught Vull off-guard, and he felt his cheeks and ears burning bright red. \"I.. I just meant...\"\n\"You meant,\" Jaro interrupted, \"that you see yourself as my equal. As someone with the right to decide how my possessions should be treated. As someone with the authority to break what belongs to me.\"\nPut that way, Vull's actions suddenly took on a different light. The cold feeling in his chest expanded, spreading through his limbs. \"No, I didn't...\"\n\"You were meant to work with him,\" Jaro said, his voice dropping even lower. \"To guide him. To show him how the task should be done, yes, but not to destroy him in the process.\" He gestured toward Leopold's bloodied hands. \"Look at this. The damage you've done. How long before these heal? How long before he can be useful again?\"\nVull stared at Leopold's injuries, seeing them clearly for the first time. The soft pads are shredded, the fur around them stained dark with dried blood. \"He'll heal,\" he muttered, though the words sounded hollow even to his own ears.\n\"Of course he will,\" Jaro agreed, his tone deceptively light. \"But that isn't the point, is it? The point is that you exceeded your authority. You took something that belonged to me and damaged it out of your own misplaced pride. Again.\"\n\"Again?\" Vull sputtered, \"I didn't.. and I haven't...\" but he stopped when Jaro raises a hand.\n\"That is exactly what happened,\" the dragon said. \"You resented my attention toward him. You saw him as a rival rather than what he truly is, a possession. My possession. And in your arrogance, you thought to prove your superiority by breaking him. By trying to 'prove' to me that he should be beneath my notice. Just like every other task I've given you, you chose to complete it in a way that benefitted you, and that's infuriating.\"\nVull's mouth goes dry, the accusation striking uncomfortably close to the truth. \"I was just following your orders,\" he said, realizing how lame it sounded even as he said it.\n\"My orders were to relay the path. To work until sunset. Not to push him beyond endurance. Not to take pleasure in his suffering.\" Jaro's golden eyes bore into Vull's. \"You weren't acting as my agent, tiger. You were acting as a would-be master. And that is something I cannot allow.\"\nThe threat in his voice was unmistakable now, a promise of consequences Vull didn't want to contemplate. He took a step back, suddenly aware again of how vulnerable - no, of how completely at Jaro's mercy he remained.\n\"I didn't -\" he started, but Jaro cut him off with a sharp gesture.\n\"You did,\" the dragon said, simply. \"And now we both know exactly what you are.\" He looked down at Leopold's unconscious form, then back at Vull. \"Not a master. Not even close. Just another pet who has forgotten his place, yet again.\"\nVull's head bowed, shame flooding through him as he realized, exactly, that Jaro was right.\n\"Take him to his room,\" Jaro said, nodding toward Leopold. \"Gently, this time. Stabilize him, and then report to my office. We need to discuss the ramifications for your misunderstanding.\"\nVull bent to lift Leopold again, scooping him up in his arms again. The gesture felt like an admission, a concession he has no choice but to offer.\n\"And Vull?\" Jaro added, as the tiger started down the stairs. \"Remember that everything you believe you possess - your strength, your position, even the clothes on your back - exists at my discretion. Just as the smoothness at your groin reminds you daily of what I can take away, this incident will remind you of what you can never have.\"\nVull didn't respond. He carried Leopold down the stairs, and the door closed behind them. \n________________\n\n\n* ~ * ~ Some Time Later ~ * ~ *\nThe tiger had been summoned to the lab, the area where Jaro did most of his more unforgiving experiments. The fluorescent lights overhead buzz like persistent insects, casting the stark room in a pallid, unforgiving glow. Vull was, as always, nude, and he stood underneath the light in the center of the room, his muscles tense as Jaro approached. The dragon held a syringe in one hand.\n\"Arm,\" Jaro commanded, his cultured voice slicing through the sterile air.\nVull hesitated, a final, futile act of resistance, and Jaro's claws dug into Vull's bicep, obsidian tips pressing crescents into flesh. \"I said, arm.\"\nVull extended his limb, the movement mechanical and resigned. His eyes fix on a point beyond Jaro's shoulder, refusing to witness whatever fresh hell this was going to be. \n\"Still pretending to have dignity?\" Jaro's words curled with amusement as he swabs a patch of Vull's skin with antiseptic. The cold liquid made the tiger flinch. \"Adorable.\"\nThe needle pierced into Vull's skin with a practiced, precise insertion. Vull felt the initial pinch, then the spreading chill as Jaro depresses the plunger. The liquid fire rushed through his veins, but if it was poison or medicine, the tiger had no idea. His heartbeat quickened, then stumbled, like a runner hitting an unexpected hurdle.\n\"There we go,\" Jaro purred, withdrawing the needle and pressing a cotton ball to the puncture. \"Our special cocktail for the day. Something to remind you of your... position.\"\nThe drug worked with horrifying efficiency. First came the heaviness, as if his bones were transforming to lead, one marrow cell at a time. His knees buckled, betraying him before his mind can even process the command to stand tall. His head spun, and he staggered down to his kneels in front of the dragon.\n\"Oh, look at that,\" Jaro observed, stepping back to watch as Vull struggles to remain even partially upright. \"Gravity seems extra strong today, doesn't it?\"\nVull's tongue felt swollen, his words slurring as he tried to respond, but words were turning to mush in his brain as he tried. The room swam, colors bleeding into each other like watercolors in rain. His arms dangled uselessly at his sides, his biceps and triceps as useful as wet tissue paper.\nJaro circled Vull like a predator assessing wounded prey. The dragon's claws clicked against the tiled floor, and he rested a paw on the back of the tiger's head. \"What a crude beast you've become, Vull. And here I thought we were making progress with your manners.\"\nVull's head lolled, his neck muscles unable to maintain the simple task of keeping his gaze level. The short striped fur of his chest heaves with labored breathing. Each inhale felt like sucking air through a straw that was gradually narrowing.\nJaro knelt down, the paw pushing down against his skull. Vull couldn't help himself as he sank down to the ground, the dragon easily overwhelming him with just the nudge. \n\"There we go, back in your rightful place. How does the floor taste, pet?\" There was a familiar curl to the dragon's words, a smug, familiar satisfaction that Vull knew far too well. This was the dragon's comfort zone. Vull couldn't respond. The hand on his back prodded, nudging him, and then the dragon crouched over him.\nScaled arms slid under Vull's armpits and around his chest. The dragon lifted him as if he weighed nothing, hauling the big tiger up and off of the ground. Vull's feet dragged across the floor, leaving twin streaks of fur and sweat.\n\"My, my,\" Jaro murmured into Vull's ear, cool breath stirring the fur there. \"The mighty personal trainer, reduced to a sack of meat. How your clients would laugh to see you now.\"\nA wheelchair sits in the corner, waiting for Vull. The tiger squirmed, but Jaro ignored his protests and deposited Vull into it with casual indifference. Vull's head dropped forward, chin to chest, the simple act of looking up requiring effort he can't summon, as Jaro lifted his hands up and placed them on his lap.\n\"There we are,\" Jaro said, patting Vull's cheek with patronizing affection. \"Comfy?\"\nVull managed to lift his gaze, eyes clouded with the drug but still burning with embarrassment. His lips formed silent obscenities that his voice couldn't deliver.\n\"I'll take that as a yes.\" Jaro moved behind the chair and released the brake with a sharp click. \"Time for our little constitutional.\"\nThe first push sent the wheelchair lurching forward, and Vull's stomach lurched with it. The room scrolled as Jaro wheels him through the doorway and into the main hallway. Vull moaned, unable to make words that made sense, as he bounced helplessly on the archaic metal wheelchair.\n\"You know,\" Jaro said conversationally as he pushed, \"I used to wonder what it would take to break someone like you. So full of yourself. So convinced of your superiority because of your... endowments. Those were easy enough to remove, to destroy. But that didn't seem to bother you. So I wondered.\" The dragon paused, as he twisted the chair. \"It turns out, it's remarkably simple. It merely takes chemistry, and time.\"\nVull's body jostled with each bump in the floor tiles. His head rocked, his tail hung limply through the space between the chair's back and seat, dragging on the floor behind him. Each movement felt disconnected, as if he was watching someone else's body being carted around like a sack of potatoes.\nJaro guided the wheelchair through the manor, and into the master bathroom. It was Jaro's personal bathroom, resplendent with the ornate frivolities that the well groomed and well heeled surround themselves with. Jaro positioned the wheelchair so that it faced the toilet, then strolled around the front of it.\n\"I thought you might enjoy watching this part,\" Jaro said, as he unzipped his slacks. Vull couldn't quite see what Jaro's hand pulled out through his fly, but he could see something, a sliver of purple flesh. \"Consider this an education.\"\nVull allowed his head to sag, more than willing to just stare at the floor, but Jaro's other hand grabbed his skull by the loose skin in the back of his neck and lifted him up, forcing him to watch.\n\"No, no. Eyes open. This is part of your therapy.\"\nThe sound of liquid hitting porcelain seemed unnaturally loud in the tiled room. Vull felt a vague heat rise up through the drug's fog from his chest to his face. It was meant to be degrading, obviously. Vull could care less about how Jaro pissed, but being forced to watch it raised his hackles, exactly the way he knew it was supposed to. The urine splattered into the porcelain bowl with a constant, almost soothing splatter.\n\"See how civilized I am?\" Jaro commented, shaking himself before tucking back into his pants. \"Unlike your kind. I hear felines stilli that mark territory, like animals.\" He smirked. He did not wash his hands, but he wiped his hand off on the tiger's snout, staining the short fur with a salted musk.\n\"Now, aren't you hungry, pet? Perhaps it's time I, as your benevolent master, treat you to a feeding. All that work outside must have you famished.\"\nVull's stomach contracted at the word \"feeding,\" not knowing what was coming next but knowing he was going to hate it. \n~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~\nVull did not like sitting at the large dining room table. He had been pushed up to it until it bumped against his chest, pinning him against the back of the chair. The dragon retrieved a steaming bowl of grayish gruel from the microwave, its consistency somewhere between oatmeal and concrete.\n\"Today's specialty,\" Jaro announced, as he brought it to the table. \"Protein-enriched nutrient paste. Keeps those muscles from atrophying. We wouldn't want to lose all your... assets, right?\"\nJaro stood next to the table, stirring the gruel with a thick spoon. He stirred the gruel with a spoon, testing its temperature with a tap of his fingertip. Apparently satisfied, he scooped a small amount onto the spoon.\n\"Open wide,\" he said, with a mockery of enthusiasm. \"Here comes the airplane!\"\nThe spoon swooped through the air, as Jaro guided it toward Vull's mouth. The tiger's lips remain stubbornly closed, a final redoubt of resistance. Jaro nudged the spoon against the tiger's lips, smearing the hot gruel against underside of Vull's nose. The tiger managed to look upwards, still drugged but coherent enough to glare up at the dragon who was so clearly enjoying mocking his state of helplessness.\n\"Aren't you hungry?\" Jaro teased, as he stuffed the spoon into the tiger's maw. There was no way for Vull to clench his jaws together, now with his ruined fangs, and the hot metal scraped over the dull shards, sending a rictus of pain into the tiger's brain. He tried to turn away, but Jaro caught him by the chin, holding his muzzle in place.\n\"You know how this ends. You either eat willingly, or I force your mouth open and you eat anyway. The only difference is how much dignity you lose in the process.\" His voice dropped to a malevolent whisper. \"And we both know how precious little you have left of that.\"\nVull's jaw trembled, then parted. The spoon slid between his teeth, depositing the tasteless gruel on his tongue in a hot, flavorless mass. The texture was revolting, simultaneously grainy and slimy, but Vull forced himself to swallow the scalding 'food' down. His throat worked mechanically, a machine performing its function without joy or purpose.\n\"Good boy,\" Jaro praised, speaking to a pet. \"See how easy life is when you cooperate?\"\nSpoonful after spoonful, the feeding continues. Occasionally, Jaro deliberately missed Vull's mouth, smearing gruel across his cheek or chin, then tut-tutting at the mess. It was infuriating, and Vull found himself glowering, and then found himself hating that he was glowering, as if this was somehow bothering him. It was just food. Why was he so humiliated that he was eating food?\n\"Look at you now,\" the dragon observed between spoonfuls, \"just a pitiful shadow of your former self. Remember when you first arrived? All swagger and threats. You were going to escape, going to make me pay.\" He chuckled, the sound like stones sliding against each other. \"Now you can't even feed yourself.\"\nVull didn't bother to lick the gruel off the spoon, as Jaro stuffed it into his mouth. He looked up at Jaro, his eyes narrowing, his expression - even muted with the muscle relaxants - confused, and hurt. \n\"Oh, you didn't like to hear that, did you?\" Jaro asked, as he pushed up with the spoon, lifting and dragging it to scrape the gruel on the spoon free into Vull's maw. \"You think I haven't noticed your pride, little tiger? You see yourself as the main character, the hero of this story. Capable of doing anything. But you aren't, are you?\" Jaro shook his head, as he scraped the spoon into the bowl. \"You haven't been capable of doing anything on your own. Oh, I've seen you trying, I've watch you give in to your urges and lash out against your bindings, I've seen you cheat and steal and selfishly indulge yourself, and- now what's this?\"\nJaro was briefly confused, as he watched a single tear tracking through the tiger's facial fur. It clung to a whisker before dripping onto his chest, a tiny reflection of the tiger's despair.\n\"Oh, tears now?\" Jaro reaches out, catching the next one on a claw tip. \"How gratifying.\" He examines the droplet as if it's a rare specimen, glistening on the tip of his finger. \"I'll add this to my collection of your surrenders.\"\nSpoonful by spoonful, the bowl emptied, the ritual of humiliation being completed. Vull sat slumped in the wheelchair, his body listless in defeat. \n\"Please,\" he managed to whisper, the word emerging slurred and broken.\n\"Please what?\" Jaro asked, leaning forward with mock attentiveness. \"Please more? Please stop? You'll have to be more specific.\"\nVull's tongue felt like a foreign object in his mouth. \"Help... me.\"\nJaro's laughter filled the room. \"But, my striped friend, I am helping you. I'm helping you understand exactly what you are.\" The dragon rose, and he moved behind the wheelchair once more. \"And, more importantly, what you aren't.\"\nAs Jaro wheeled him back toward the sterile room where this cycle of degradation began, Vull felt the last fragments of his former self - the confident trainer, the desirable male, the being with agency and will - slip away like water between cupped paws. All that remained now was the trembling vessel of his body, a cage that now imprisoned nothing but a memory of who he once was.\nThe wheelchair creaked under Vull's weight as he shifted, trying to find a position that didn't send needles of discomfort through his drugged limbs. His tongue felt too large for his mouth, words sliding off it like raindrops on waxed fur. \"C-could you... please... adjust the...\" He couldn't even finish the sentence, his voice just a fractured whisper that barely disturbed the air between them. The tiger who once commanded attention with a flex of his bicep now reduced to begging for the smallest mercy.\nJaro's emerald scales caught the light as he circled the wheelchair, a predator still assessing prey that's already been caught. \"What was that? I couldn't quite hear you over the sound of your dignity evaporating.\"\nVull swallowed hard, the muscles in his throat working visibly beneath the short cropped orange and black fur. \"My arm... it's... pinned.\" His right arm had slipped between the wheelchair's metal frame and seat cushion, the circulation slowly being cut off. The tingling sensation would be merely uncomfortable if he could move, but in his drugged state, it was another layer of helplessness atop the mountain already crushing him.\n\"Oh dear,\" Jaro said, voice dripping with concern. \"The mighty tiger can't manage a simple adjustment? The same tiger who boasted about bench-pressing three hundred pounds on his first night here?\" The dragon leaned down, his lips close to Vull's ear. \"How does it feel to need help with everything? To be so utterly dependent on the same being you once threatened to—what was it again?—'tear limb from scaly limb'?\"\nVull's eyes closed, unable to bear the scrutiny. \"Please,\" he whispered again, the word a prayer to a deity who has proven consistently cruel and uncaring.\nJaro's claws tapped rhythmically against the wheelchair's armrest. \"Please, what? Please, Master Jaro? Please, oh merciful keeper?\" The dragon's golden eyes narrowed. \"You still can't be bothered to learn the most basic proper etiquette, can you?\"\n\"Please... Master Jaro,\" Vull managed, each syllable dragging his tender tongue across the sharp shards of his ruined fangs. \"My arm hurts.\"\n\"'C-c-can you help me, Master Jaro?'\" the dragon mimics, his voice a high-pitched parody of Vull's drug-slurred speech. \"'I'm j-j-just a helpless k-kitty who can't take care of himself.'\" And then, in an act of disgust, the dragon spit, a slick and cool blob of phlegm landing on the tiger's shoulder. It drooled slowly down over his pectoral, dangling off of the tiger's wide nipple. \nVull wanted to shrink into himself, but even that small movement was denied him. A tremor ran through his body, not from the drugs in his system, but from the effort of containing the emotion building in his chest. His broad shoulders hunched forward as much as his paralyzed state would allow.\nThe tears came unbidden, warm and wet in trickles down his cheek, staining the striped fur. Then another. And another. The tears came unbidden, each one a silent betrayal of the last fragments of his composure.\nJaro paused mid-taunt, his forked tongue flickering out to taste the air. The dragon's head tilted, curiosity replacing mockery for a moment. \"Are you... crying? Over this?\" Genuine surprise colored his tone. \"After everything else I've done to you, this is what breaks the dam?\"\nVull couldn't answer. His chest heaved with silent sobs, each one sending ripples of shame through him. The tears flowed freely now, matting the fur beneath his eyes and clinging to his whiskers before dropping onto his denuded lap.\nJaro moved around to face him, bending at the waist to bring their eyes level. The dragon studied him with clinical detachment, as if observing a specimen under glass. \"Fascinating. This isn't the first time I've humiliated you. Not even the hundredth. Yet here you are, dissolving into tears over a pinned arm and some name-calling.\" A claw traced the wet path on Vull's cheek. \"Why now, tiger? What makes today different?\"\nThe question hung between them, unexpectedly genuine. Vull's breath hitched, caught between sobs. He tried to turn away, but Jaro's hand gripped his jaw, holding him in place.\n\"Answer me,\" the dragon commanded, his voice lower now, almost intimate in its intensity. \"What's different today?\"\nVull's lips trembled. The drug made it hard to organize his thoughts, but something in Jaro's gaze compelled him to try.\n\"I... I just want...\" The words stuck in his throat like burrs. \"I want to be good enough.\"\nThe scales on Jaro's brow ridges rose with surprise. \"Good enough? For what?\"\n\"For you.\" The admission escaped Vull's lips, shocking them both. \"I keep... trying. To earn it. Freedom. Respect. Something. Anything.\" His speech came out in quick, broken fragments, each one painful to extract. \"But nothing works. I can't... can't be what you want.\"\nThe dragon stepped back slightly, as if Vull has suddenly become radioactive. \"What I want? And what do you think that is, exactly?\"\nVull's drugged mind scrambled for clarity. \"I don't know anymore. At first, I thought... escape. That was all I wanted. To get away.\" The tears continued to fall, but his voice steadied somewhat. \"Now I just want... to stop disappointing you. To be worth...you know... something. Anything. In your eyes.\"\nDiscomfort flickered across Jaro's reptilian features. He straightened up, creating distance. \"You want my approval? After everything?\" His laugh held less cruelty than before, edged instead with bewilderment. \"After everything you've gone through?\" He scoffed. \"You're more broken than I realized.\"\n\"Maybe.\" Vull's admission hung in the air between them. \"Or maybe... when everything else is gone... there's just one thing left for me to hold on to.\"\nJaro stared at him, silent for a long moment. Then, with mechanical precision, he reached down and gently extracted Vull's arm from where it's trapped. His scaled fingers move with unexpected care, supporting the limb as he repositioned it onto the nude tiger's lap.\n\"Better?\" The question lacked the dragon's usual bite.\nVull nodded, unable to speak through the knot in his throat. Blood rushed back into his arm, bringing with it a thousand prickling needles.\n\"You're a puzzle, tiger.\" Jaro pulled up a chair, sitting across from the wheelchair. His movements had lost their performative cruelty, replaced by something more contemplative. \"Most in your position would hate me with every fiber of their being. They'd fantasize about my death, my suffering. Yet here you are, crying because you think you've failed me.\" He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. \"Why?\"\nVull swallowed, tasting salt. \"Because hate.. hate would take energy I don't have anymore.\" His chest rose and fell with each labored breath. \"Because... maybe... if I could just be what you wanted... this could stop. Or change.\" His eyes, clouded by drugs but still burning with something more profound than mere defiance, meet Jaro's. \"Maybe I still need to win, even if it's by losing.\"\nThe confession hung between them, fragile and terrifying in its nakedness.\nJaro's claws tapped against the arm of his chair, a nervous gesture at odds with his usual calculated movements. \"And if I told you that what I want is your complete submission? Your dignity ground to dust beneath my heel?\"\n\"Then I'd give it,\" Vull whispers. \"I already have. You didn't give me that choice. You just did it.\"\nSomething shifted in the air between them, a charge, like the moment before lightning strikes. Jaro's expression softened almost imperceptibly, the hard lines of his reptilian face smoothing for just a heartbeat.\n\"You're not what I expected,\" the dragon admitted, his voice low. \"When I first saw you, with your swagger and your physique and your... obvious assets... I thought you were just another pretty shell with nothing inside worth examining.\" His clawed hand reached out, hesitated, and then brushes a tear from Vull's whiskers with surprising gentleness. \"Perhaps I was mistaken.\"\nThe touch sent an electric current through Vull, so different from the clinical handling he's grown accustomed to. Their eyes met, and for a moment, recognition passed between them. An acknowledgment of something more complex than captor and captive.\nThen Jaro blinked, and the spell broke.\nThe dragon pulled his hand back as if burned, scales flushing a darker green. He stood abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor. \"What am I doing?\" The question seemed directed at himself rather than Vull.\nVull watched him, hope and dread mingling in his chest. \"Jaro?\"\n\"Don't.\" The word snapped like a whip. \"Don't mistake momentary curiosity for weakness, mammal.\" But the insult lacked its usual venom, sounding instead like a man trying to convince himself.\nJaro paced, his claws clicking against the floor. \"This is pathetic. You're pathetic.\" Again, the words seem directed inward as much as outward. \"Getting soft over a few tears? What next—a bedtime story and a goodnight kiss?\"\nVull remained silent, watching the dragon's internal struggle play out in real time. His own mind, clearing slightly as the drug began to metabolize, raced with implications. This is new territory - a crack in Jaro's armor he'd never glimpsed before.\n\"You think your weakness moves me?\" Jaro rounded on him suddenly, golden eyes flashing. \"That I care about your feelings, your desires? You're entertainment, property. Nothing more.\"\nBut the words rang hollow, lacking the conviction they held only hours before. Vull saw it in the way Jaro's tail lashed, in the tightness around his eyes. The dragon was rattled.\n\"I understand,\" Vull said softly, not pushing, not challenging.\n\"No, you don't.\" Jaro's voice hardened again, scales visibly tightening against his frame. \"If you understood, you wouldn't sit there looking at me like... like that.\" He gestured vaguely at Vull's face. \"Like you see something that isn't there.\"\n\"What do you think I see?\" The question slipped out before Vull can stop it.\nJaro stiffens. \"I think you're constructing fantasies to help yourself cope with reality. Stockholm syndrome at its finest.\" He moved behind the wheelchair, gripping the handles with unnecessary force. \"You're soft. Weak. Pathetically eager for any scrap of kindness. It's revolting.\"\nBut his hands, when they adjusted Vull's position in the chair, remain gentle despite his harsh words.\n\"Maybe I am,\" Vull acknowledged, his voice steadier now. \"But something just changed between us. You felt it too.\"\nJaro's only response is a noncommittal grunt as he began wheeling Vull from the room. The silence stretched between them, filled with unspoken questions neither is ready to articulate. The tiger's tears have dried, leaving his fur stiff and salty, but the vulnerability they revealed cannot be so easily wiped away.\nAs they move down the corridor, Vull realized that for the first time since his captivity began, he's seen something in Jaro beyond calculated cruelty. He's seen something flawed and uncertain and, paradoxically, more dangerous because of it. The realization settles in his chest, not quite hope, but perhaps its distant cousin: possibility.\nJaro guided the wheelchair back into the bathroom, as the manor's help cleared the table behind them. Vull's head wobbled as he stared at the bathtub that took up one side of the room, a huge white porcelain island in a sea of sterile tiles. Overhead heat lamps bathed it in warm, reddish glow, but the deep smooth basin was empty. Vull's limbs remained treacherously heavy, the drug's grip loosened but still present enough to keep Vull docile and contained.\nJaro twisted set the plug, and turned on the handle. Water splashed into the bowl, and began to steam as it heated up. \n\"You've been wallowing in your own filth for days,\" Jaro announced, as he stroked fingers through the pool of water. He flicked them dry, and turned back to Vull, stepping behind him. A hand pushed at his shoulders, forcing him to lean forward. \"Your stench offends me. I think it's time to bathe the dirty kitten.\"\nVull watched the water level rise, swirling excitedly in the large, deep tub. He felt the arms of the dragon slide under his armpits, lifting upwards and pulling him from the chair. The dragon's scales felt cool and dry against the tiger's fur, and while Vull had felt the scales before, this felt different, some how. The tiger was helpless to assist or resist, as Jaro carried him over the tub. Vull's thighs, and knees, scraped over the edge of the rounded rub edge, as Jaro began to lower him into it. His tail flopped into the scalding water. \n\"It's too hot,\" Vull said, knowing that Jaro already knew. The dragon hadn't even touched the cold water tap, and the heater in the basement was nothing if not efficient.\n\"Is it?\" Jaro asks with feigned innocence. \"For soft, puffy little kittens perhaps. I guess I hadn't noticed.\"\nVull's arms hung limply down, and with his legs still caught against the edge of the bathtub, it was his fingers that touched the water first. It was scalding. He gasped as he was lowered in, trying to buck, to pull away as the heat swallowed his palms and wrists. His tail twitched involuntarily, the only part of him still responding properly to stimuli.\n\"Too hot for the kitty?\" Jaro asked, as Vull's rear end dipped into the hot water. The dragon released the felin, and Vull found himself suddenly dunked. The hot water rushed up over belly, his chest, his thighs and arms, as he dropped down into the rising water with a splash. With his feet hooked over the edge of the tub, this meant he was laying down on the bottom of the tub, with the hot water already almost over the end of his snout. \nSteam rose between them, as Jaro grinned down at Vull. \"Oops.\" He reached down, and caressed his fingers over the tiger's head. \"Your foot is stuck.\"\nVull wanted to reply, but if he opened his mouth, it would fill with water. So he stared, pleadingly up to the dragon who's thick claws traced along his brow. His entire body burned, scalded by the hot water, but \n\"Isn't the heat nice?\" Jaro asked, as he strolled around the edge of the tump, grasping the tiger's feet in his paws. He lifted them up, pulling Vull's butt along the bottom of the tub, and the tiger found his head briefly dunked under the scalding water. It stung as it flowed up into his nose, and Vull wheezed outwards, blowing bubbles out through his snout to keep from choking on the hot water. He tried to kick, to pull his leg free of Jaro's grip, but he was still far, far too weak.\nAnd that's when Vull felt fear. He was submerged, and his arms wouldn't respond, and he couldn't push himself up out of the water. Bubbles trickled out of his nose, as he weakly flexed his legs, trying to push himself free. He couldn't hear what the dragon was saying, but he could hear the muted, muffled tone as Jaro mumbled something.\nWas this how Vull was going to die? Had he crossed an immutable line, in his revelation of himself to the dragon? Vull knew that Jaro got bored of toys easily, but, despite Jaro's sadistic cruelty, he had never gotten the impression that Jaro was capable of something like this. Hot water began to drool down the back of his throat, through his sinuses, and he feebly kicked again, his toes splaying as he tried to free himself from Jaro's grip.\nThe dragon pushed down, then, his grip around Vull's ankles using the length of the tiger's limbs to shovel him against the back of the tub. Vull's head surfaced, water pouring out of his nose, dribbling and tickling as it seeped out over his lips. His lungs twitched, and he coughed, blinkling blearily.\n\"Welcome back, stinky cat,\" Jaro said, as he perched on the side of the tub. The water was still filling up the water, but the air of the bathroom was cold against the tiger's wet, steaming skin. \"Oh, you look so petulant. It was merely a dunk, to help rinse off the brine of your filth. Surely you don't mind my assistance, right?\"\nVull said nothing, his eyes burning with the heat of the scalding. He coughed, and looked down, at the water that was sliding up along his chest. He was still slumped in the tub, and he knew that it would take very little effort for Jaro to push down on his head and submerge him back beneath the water.\n\"Come on, kitten, why are you being so quiet?\" Jaro asked, as he ran his fingers through the water, splashing it onto Vull's face. \"No threats? No pleas? I admit, I miss your colorful vocabulary.\"\nVull's eyes trackedthe rising water. \"Hard to talk,\" he managed, \"when you're focused on not drowning.\"\nThe water reached his shoulders. He tried to flex his powerful abs, to lift himself up a bit out of the water, but could not. He tried to lock his legs, to force him up out of the water that way - but he could not. Vull began sliding back down the sloped back of the tub, his body seeking the path of least resistance. Soon the water laps at his neck, threatening to subsume him entirely again.\n\"Jaro,\" he said, the name an urgent warning. \"The water.\"\n\"Yes, it's wet. Very observant.\" The dragon makes no move toward the faucet. His eyes remain fixed on Vull's face, watching with scientific interest at the contortions of panic begin to re-emerge on Vull's handsome muzzle. The water touched Vull's chin, and he strained to lift his head, neck muscles trembling with the effort. His drug-weakened body betrayed him again, as he finds himself only able to raise his muzzle perhaps an inch before the strength abandoned him.\n\"Jaro!\" This time, the name was spoken as a plea. \"Please!\"\nWater licked at the corners of Vull's mouth. He can taste it, hot and metallic. He was going to do it. The dragon was just going to let him slowly sink under the water. Maybe he hadn't killed off his previous pets, but he couldn't help himself, and fuck if Vull wasn't about to be the first. Just as the water threatened to cover Vull's nostrils, Jaro's clawed hand reached past him and twisted the faucet shut. The sudden silence is deafening, as the water rippled against the tiger's snout, exhales gusting across its surface.\n\"Were you worried?\" the dragon asked, amused. \"Did you think I'd let you drown, after all the effort I've put into training you?\" His claw traced the waterline on Vull's neck. \"Death is so... final. And we're only just beginning to understand each other, aren't we?\"\nRelief crashed through Vull's system, leaving him weak in ways the drug couldn't explain. The water remained perilously high, requiring constant vigilance to keep his muzzle above the surface. Even still, even if each breath came with the risk of inhaling liquid instead of air, it was not getting worse.\n\"Thank you,\" Vull whispered, the words genuine... despite everything.\nSomething shifted in Jaro's expression, a minute softening around the eyes, gone so quickly Vull might have imagined it. \"Don't thank me yet,\" the dragon said, rolling up the sleeves of his tailored shirt. \"We haven't even started the actual bathing.\"\nJaro reached for a bottle of shampoo on the tub's edge, squeezing a generous amount onto his palm. The scent, rich with sandalwood and something citrusy, soaked into the steam. Without warning, his clawed hands plunge into the water, finding Vull's chest beneath the surface.\nThe tiger flinches, expecting pain. Instead, Jaro's touch is shockingly... careful? The dragon began to work the shampoo into Vull's fur. Scaled fingers moved in slow circles, creating a lather that turns the water cloudy.\n\"You've neglected your grooming,\" Jaro observed, working methodically down Vull's torso, fingers caressing the tiger's abs. \"Your fur is cropped, and you've still somehow gotten it matted in places. Not very becoming for a species that prides itself on cleanliness.\"\nVull said nothing, too focused on keeping his nose above water and processing this unexpected gentleness. Jaro's claws, capable of slicing through his flesh with minimal effort, now examined the tiger's body. Vull waited for the surprise, the stab, the slice. It didn't come.\n\"Lift your arm,\" Jaro commanded, tapping Vull's elbow under the water. The tiger's arms floated in the water, a few inches below the surface.\n\"I can't,\" Vull whispered. \"Too heavy. Too weak.\"\n\"Do it anyways,\" Jaro replied.\nWith monumental effort, Vull managed to raise his arm perhaps two inches above the water, though the weight of it was almost overwhelmingly. Jaro tsked disapprovingly but worked with what he's given, cleaning the sensitive area beneath with unexpected consideration.\n\"The other one.\"\nAgain, Vull struggled to comply, achieving even less movement this time. Frustration flashed across his face, the tiger furious at himself for being unable to do as expected.\n\"I can't do any better,\" he admitted, the words catching in his throat.\nJaro sighs, but instead of mockery, his response held a note of something almost like patience. \"Then I'll help.\" He lifted Vull's arm himself, supporting its weight while he washes underneath. The intimate contact of scaled hands against scalded skin sent shivers across Vull's skin that had nothing to do with temperature.\nThe dragon worked his way down Vull's body with professional efficiency. When he reached the tiger's waist, he paused, golden eyes flicking up to meet Vull's.\n\"Even this needs cleaning,\" he said, clinical detachment failing to mask something else in his tone. His clawed hand slid lower, beneath the water's surface.\nVull's breath catches as Jaro's fingers wrapped around the chrome portal ring that he was forced to wear between his thighs. The fingers curved underneath it, pulling against it. The touch was impersonal, but the sensation of those fingers exploring that area caused the tiger to flush hot and red, even more so than he was from the hot water soak/\n\"You had impressive equipment,\" Jaro admitted, as his fingers gently stroked under the chrome rim with unexpected care. \"I can see why you built your identity around it. It made it all the more enjoyable to remove that part of your identity. I wondered what I'd find underneath that machismo. I knew there would be more to you. Now, I'm finally seeing what it is.\"\nThe comment landed like a slap, all the more shocking for its backhanded compliment. Vull blinked, water droplets clinging to his lashes. \"What?\"\nBut Jaro had already moved on, his hands finding Vull's thighs beneath the water. He kneaded the powerful muscles there, working shampoo into the striped fur with circular motions. \"You're filthy all over,\" he said, but the insult lacks its usual sting. \"No wonder you mammals need to bathe so frequently. Your fur traps everything.\"\nThe bath continued in this strange, intimate dance, with Jaro's hands moving over Vull's body with alternating clinical detachment and unsettling tenderness. The tiger remained hyperaware of the water level, still high enough to threaten drowning if he relaxed his vigilance. Yet Jaro's touch, for all its complexity, had become almost hypnotic.\n\"Turn your head,\" Jaro instructed, one clawed hand supporting Vull's neck as he maneuvered him. \"I need to wash your mane.\"\nVull complied, letting Jaro adjust his position. The dragon cupped water in his palm, pouring it carefully over Vull's head to wet his fur while keeping his face above the surface. It's a considerate gesture that seemed at odds with the Jaro who filled the tub to near-drowning levels in the first place.\n\"You're being... careful,\" Vull observed, the words slow and deliberate.\nJaro's hands paused momentarily in their shampooing. \"You're valuable property,\" he said, the explanation coming too quickly. \"Damaged goods fetch a lower price.\"\n\"Is that all I am? Property?\" The question hung between them, made possible only by this strange moment of vulnerability.\nJaro's claws scraped gently against Vull's scalp as he worked the shampoo into a lather. \"What else would you be?\" The question sounds almost genuine, as if the dragon was truly curious.\n\"I don't know anymore.\" Vull's eyes closed as Jaro's fingers worked against his scalp, the sensation unexpectedly pleasurable after months of pain. \"Something... more?\"\nThe dragon makes a noncommittal sound, hands never stilling in their rhythmic motions. \"You're certainly cleaner now, though still unbearably stinky by dragon standards.\"\n\"You don't seem to mind the stink,\" Vull observed, a hint of his old boldness resurfacing. \"You're being very thorough.\"\nSomething like amusement flickered in Jaro's golden eyes. \"A proper master maintains his possessions, even the malodorous ones.\"\n\"Is that what you're doing? Maintaining me?\" Vull watched Jaro's face, searching for cracks in the façade.\n\"Among other things.\" The dragon reached for a cup on the edge of the tub. \"Close your eyes. I'm going to rinse your fur.\"\nVull obeyed, feeling hot water cascade over his head, running in rivulets down his face and neck. Jaro's hand shielded his eyes from the soapy water, another small kindness that confused more than it comforted.\nWhen the rinsing is complete, Jaro sat back, surveying his work. Vull's fur, cleaner than it's been in months, clung to his form in wet patterns that emphasized his musculature. Despite months of captivity, his body still held the memory of strength.\n\"There,\" Jaro pronounced, satisfaction evident in his tone. \"Much better. You were beginning to smell like a wet throw rug left in the sun.\"\n\"Thank you,\" Vull said again, meaning it regardless of the insult.\nJaro's expression shifted, discomfort replacing satisfaction. \"Don't thank me. This isn't kindness.\"\n\"Then what is it?\"\nThe dragon stood abruptly, water dripping from his scaled forearms onto the tiled floor. \"It's maintenance, as I said. Nothing more.\" But his eyes didn't meet Vull's as he said it.\n\"The water's getting cool,\" Vull said, a shiver running through him to prove the point. \"Is this the part where you push my underneath the surface and walk away?\"\nJaro pursed his narrow lips. \"Go on and give me ideas, see how that works for you.\" Jaro reached down, strong arms sliding beneath Vull's shoulders and knees. \"Let's get you out.\"\nThe lift from the water was smooth and careful. Jaro cradled Vull against his chest, mindful of the tiger's drug-weakened state. Water streamed from Vull's fur, forming puddles on the bathroom floor that reflected the warm overhead lighting.\nJaro set him on a bench beside the tub, then reached for a towel. Instead of handing it to Vull, he begins drying the tiger himself, rubbing the soft fabric against short wet fur with methodical thoroughness.\n\"You don't have to—\" Vull began.\n\"You can't even lift your arms properly,\" Jaro interrupted. \"Would you prefer to sit here dripping until the drug wears off completely? That will be hours.\"\nVull subsided, letting the dragon tend to him. The towel moved across his body, his chest, arms, back, and flanks, leaving warm, dry paths through his damp fur. The sensation is surprisingly pleasant after the bath's tension.\n\"You're good at this,\" Vull observed quietly.\nJaro's hands stilled for a moment. \"I've had practice.\"\n\"With other... pets?\"\nThe dragon resumed drying, his movements perhaps slightly less gentle. \"That's none of your concern.\"\n\"I'd like to know,\" Vull persisted, emboldened by this strange new dynamic. \"If there were others like me. If they're...\" He trailed off, unsure how to finish.\n\"If they survived?\" Jaro supplied, voice hardening. \"If they earned their freedom? If I showed them... kindness?\" He wrung the towel between his hands with unnecessary force. \"You ask dangerous questions, tiger.\"\n\"Only because today, for the first time, I think you might actually answer them.\"\nTheir eyes met. Amber versus gold, mammal versus reptile, captive versus captor. It wasn't friendship, it probably wasn't even understanding, but it might be the first, fragile tendril of recognition.\nJaro broke the contact first, turning away to hang the damp towel. \"You're clean now. Less offensive to my senses.\" His voice held forced casualness. \"You can thank me.\"\nBut as Jaro helped Vull back into the wheelchair, his touch lingered longer than necessary. And when he thought the tiger isn't looking, his expression held something that might, in a different light, almost resemble tenderness. Perhaps he didn't know that Vull could see it. Perhaps he did.\nThe bathroom's humid air surrounded them, thick and cloying. \n\"Where now?\" Vull asked, his voice quiet in the steam-filled room.\nJaro's claws rested on the wheelchair's handles, his reflection fragmenting across the bathroom's mirrored surfaces. \"I don't know,\" he admited, the words barely audible. \"I genuinely don't know.\"",
"writing_bbcode_parsed": "Leopold's paws padded silently across the plush carpet, each step carrying him deeper into Jaro's domain. The dragon's office smelled of leather-bound books and smoldering incense, a heady mixture that made Leopold's whiskers twitch with nervous energy. He kept his eyes downcast, his slender frame made even smaller by the way he hunched his shoulders, as if trying to disappear into the expensive silk of his collar. The summons had been unexpected, and Leopald was quickly learning that in Jaro's household, unexpected rarely meant pleasant.
The morning light filtered through stained glass windows, casting jewel-toned patterns across the polished mahogany desk where Jaro sat. The dragon's emerald scales caught the light, reflecting it like countless tiny mirrors as he crouched over the surface. Leopold felt his ears fold back against his head; the shimmering dragon scales created an aura of dangerous beauty about him. The dragon turned his head, a single golden eye narrowing as Leopold approached.
"Ah, my delicate little housecat," Jaro growled, his cultured voice hissing softly. "Punctual as always. So refreshing to have a pet who understands the value of time."
Leopold bowed his head, the blue waves of his carefully maintained hair falling forward to partially obscure his face. "Thank you for noticing, sir," he murmured, the words practiced and proper, just as he'd been taught.
Jaro's claws drummed against the desktop, and he glanced up to the the window. "We're waiting on one more," he said, gesturing toward a leather chair positioned before his desk. "As always, it seems. Do sit. I despise looking up at anyone, even someone as... diminutive as yourself."
The chair is too large for Leopold, designed to accommodate Jaro's impressive frame. He perched on the edge of it, his dainty feet barely touching the floor. The monocolor nature of his fur - stark black against pristine white - stood out against the chair's deep burgundy leather. He folded his hands in his lap, modestly covering his genitals. It was a reflexive gesture of modesty that he couldn't quite break.
The door burst open without a knock, and Vull strode in with the confident swagger of someone who either doesn't understand or doesn't care about the concept of deference. The Siberian tiger's orange and black striped fur ripples over his muscular form, each movement an advertisement of strength. The tiger was nude, blatantly so, his broad chest and powerful thighs catching the eyes as he sauntered into Jaro's room.
Jaro couldn't help but smirk at the feline's bravado, considering the sharp shards of gravel that were all that remained of his sharp fangs. Leopold had not seen the feline for nearly a week, the sexless freak having hidden himself away to lick his wounds, as it were. The raw nerves in his mouth had been salved and healed over, but the jagged enamel fragments still jutted out of his gums, painful and defiant.
Leopold's eyes widened slightly at the smooth, flat front of Vull's groin. Where there should be an impressive display, there was nothing. Just a smooth curve of metal nestled between short-fuzzed thighs. It gave the tiger a weird, doll-like appearance, with an obvious, attention-drawing gap where the tiger's masculinity should be hanging.
"You wanted to see me?" Vull said, his voice carrying a forced casualness that doesn't quite mask the exhaustion and tension underneath. His eyes flick toward Leopold, sizing the smaller cat up for a moment before returning to Jaro.
The dragon's lips curl into a cold smirk. "Indeed. I do enjoy having both of you here at once. It is such a... contrast." He rose from his chair, his full seven-foot-two height unfolding as he circled the desk.
"Leopold has acclimated to his new lodgings," Jaro said, placing a clawed hand on Leopold's shoulder, "and I think it's time for him to spend time with my... hmm, what shall we call you today, Vull? Not quite a prize specimen anymore, are you?"
Leopold felt the tiger's irritation from across the room, a palpable sense of heat and resentment.
"I'm the strongest one here," Vull said, his voice a dismissive sulk. "Whatever you've taken from me hasn't changed that."
Jaro laughed. "Ah, yes. Your physical prowess. How fortunate for you that I allowed you to keep that, at least, eh?" His hand slid from Leopold's shoulder to stroke the cat's cheek, the touch making Leopold shiver despite himself. "Some of us appreciate more... refined qualities, however."
Leopold blushed beneath his fur, the pink skin of his ears betraying his discomfort. The dragon's attention makes him feel small, delicate, and vulnerable, but he knew better than to pull away.
"Leopold here has such gentle hands," Jaro continued, his claw tracing the line of Leopold's jaw. "And such a sweet disposition. Don't you, my pretty kitty?"
"I... I try to be kind, sir," Leopold replied, his voice barely above a whisper.
Vull made a sound somewhere between a scoff and a snort. "Kind doesn't get things done," he said. "Kind doesn't survive in the real world."
Jaro ignored him, and continued to lavish attention on Leopold, who sat frozen under the dangerous caresses. The way the tiger stared at Leopold made him even more uncomfortable then the sudden softness being shown to him by the dragon. "You're so well-spoken, too. Not like some others, who grunt and growl their way through conversations."
Jaro's hand moved up to Leopold's hair, stroking the carefully maintained blue waves. "That color suits you. It brings out the gentleness in your eyes."
Leopold's blush deepened, the heat in his cheeks becoming tight and uncomfortable. "Thank you, sir," he managed. He could feel Vull's glare burning into him, though he couldn't understand why Vull would be mad at him for Jaro's preferential treatment. As far as Leopold could tell, Jaro treated Vull horribly.
"Also of note," Jaro continued, his voice dropping to a stage whisper that's clearly meant for Vull to hear, "unlike some of my other acquisitions, Leopold still has all his... natural equipment. Small and dainty, to be sure, but... quite prettily formed."
Leopold wanted to sink through the floor. Leopold's small shaft and tight scrotum had never, specifically, impressed anyone, but he had never wanted it to. He knew the dragon was taunting him, was intentionally goading the tiger by drawing attention to Leopold's masculinity. Leopold knew that, regardless of the smaller size, it was infinitely more than Vull had between his own legs.
"Perhaps I should have him show you," Jaro said, turning to Vull with a cruel smile. "Would you like that? A reminder of what you've lost?"
"I don't need reminders," Vull said, his tongue licking up through his ruined mouth to stroke along his upper lip. "I know exactly what I've lost, and I know who took it from me."
"Tsk, tsk. Such hostility." Jaro returned to Leopold, kneeling before the chair to bring his face level with the cat's. This close, Leopold can smell the dragon's breath, sharp with cinnamon and smoke. "Don't mind him, sweet Leopold. He's just jealous because I see the value in gentleness. In kindness." His claw traces the line of Leopold's collarbone. "Some believe strength is everything, but I find intelligence and a willing spirit far more... endearing."
Leopold swallowed hard, his tail lashing against the back of his calves. "You're very kind to say so, sir," he said, the words automatic and pleasant.
"See? Do you see how polite he is?" Jaro said, addressing Vull without bothering to turn to look at him. "Can you see how well he takes a compliment? You could learn from him, tiger."
"I don't need lessons from a pampered housecat," Vull said, irritatedly.
"Perhaps not lessons in strength," Jaro concedes, finally turning to look at the tiger. "But in manners? In knowing when to speak and when to hold your tongue? Most definitely. After all, your tongue is just as extraneous as any other part of you. If you can't learn to use it correctly, well..."
Leopold could tell he was caught between them, a reluctant pawn in whatever power struggle this was. He could tell that the tiger was outclassed, beaten, dishevelled, but still stupidly, drunkenly fighting back. He only wondered why. He wished he could simply excuse himself and retreat to the quiet safety of his one quarters, but he would never leave his master's presence without dismissal. At least, not unless one seeked punishment, and Leopold was terrified of what Jaro thought of as 'punishment'.
"You know what I adore the most about Leopold?" Jaro continued, returning his attention to the uncomfortable house cat. "He has a quiet resilience to him. Look at him, Vull. He has accepted his place entirely, and without constant challenges." His claw trailed down Leopold's arm, raising goosebumps beneath the fur. "He understands submission isn't weakness. It's wisdom. In fact-"
"It's pathetic," Vull interrupted, plaintively. "If you want a lapdog, just get an actual dog. At least dogs have some dignity in their servitude."
The room went silent. He couldn't fathom the idea of interrupting the dragon.
Jaro straightened slowly, his full height unfurling like a deadly flower blooming. His expression hadn't changed, but something in his eyes had.
"Did I ask for your opinion, tiger?" Jaro's voice was soft, which makes it all the more terrifying. "Did I, at any point, indicate that I wished to hear the thoughts rattling around in that musclebound head of yours?"
Vull, to his credit, didn't back down, though Leopold can see a flicker of something in his eyes, something like nervousness. "You were talking about me. To him. About what I've lost. I have a right to-"
"Right?" Jaro laughed, eager to interrupt the tiger. "You think you have rights? In my house?" He moved toward Vull with deliberate slowness. "You have no rights here. You have the rights that I feel like allowing you to have. Nothing more."
Leopold watched the confrontation with growing alarm. He'd heard of what happened when Jaro was angered, and it was never pleasant. Despite Vull's treatment of him, with his snide comments and dismissive glances, Leopold didn't wish Jaro's kind of punishment on anyone.
"Perhaps," Jaro said, circling Vull like a predator, "if you feel so strongly about speaking when not spoken to, you need to be reminded of your place." He stopped, tapping a claw against his scaled chin. "I've been meaning to have the old cobblestone path in the east garden dug up and relaid. The frost has heaved it quite badly."
Vull's expression shifted from defiance to wariness. "That's grounds work. I'm not a-"
"You're whatever I say you are," Jaro cut him off. "And today, you're a laborer." He turned to Leopold, his expression softening into something that might almost pass for kindness if not for the cruel excitement in his eyes. "And you, my sweet kitty, shall assist him."
Leopold's stomach dropped. Manual labor? Him? His small frame wasn't built for such work. His soft hands have never known calluses or blisters. But he knew better than to protest.
"Of course, sir," he said, his voice barely audible. "If that's what you wish."
"It is," Jaro confirmed, turning back to Vull with a smirk. "You see? Acceptance. Grace. Qualities you sorely lack." He returned to his desk, settling into his chair with fluid elegance. "You'll begin immediately and work until sunset. I expect to see significant progress by then."
Vull's jaw worked as if he was chewing on words he knew better than to say. Finally, he gave a stiff nod. "Fine. We'll dig up your precious path."
"Excellent." Jaro picked up a document from his desk, his dismissal clear. "Leopold, do try to keep up with our strapping tiger. I'd hate to see those delicate hands of yours damaged beyond repair."
Leopold rose from the chair on legs that feel like water, his heart sinking at the prospect of the day ahead. "I'll do my best, sir," he promised, though he has no idea how he'll manage such strenuous work.
As they turned to leave, Jaro called after them: "And Vull? Do remember that Leopold is my property. Return him in the same condition you received him, or you'll find yourself missing more than just your... 'pride'."
The threat hung in the air as Leopold followed Vull from the room, the door closing behind them with a finality that feels like a prison sentence.
Outside, the sun beat down on Jaro's estate with the ferocity of the center of the summer, transforming the garden into a furnace of misery. It baked into Leopold's black fur like a physical weight, and sweat was already matting the soft hair at the nape of his neck, his elegant blue coiffure wilting in the oppressive heat. Vull led him down the hill behind Jaro's property, along a cobblestone path that led down to a pristine, clear-watered lake. The ancient stones, heaved and displaced by countless winter frosts, jutted up from the ground with a certain arrogance, daring trespassers to trod upon them. Beside the path stood a weathered shed, its wood bleached and splintered by years of exposure, looking as dejected as Leopold feels.
Vull towered beside him, his short-cropped striped orange and black fur barely damp despite the heat. The tiger's muscular frame cast a long shadow across the ground, a temporary relief that Leopold found himself unconsciously leaning toward. Despite Jaro's humiliating punishment, Vull's physical presence remained imposing, with his broad shoulders and powerful arms a stark contrast to Leopold's slender build.
"The wheelbarrow's in the shed," Vull barked, not bothering to look at Leopold as he spoke. "Bring it out. And the shovels. And the pry bars." His voice carries the sharp weariness, a resentment that he was not trying to hide.
Leopold hesitated only a moment before moving toward the shed. The splintered door groaned in protest as he pulled it open, releasing a cloud of dust that sent him into a fit of sneezing. Inside, the air is stale and thick with the smell of rusted metal and decaying wood. The wheelbarrow sat against the far wall, its metal basin spotted with rust. The tools hang on the wall, their handles smooth from years of use by hands far stronger and more capable than his own.
He grasped the handles of the wheelbarrow, surprised by its weight even when empty. His arms strained as he maneuvered it through the narrow doorway. The shovels and pry bars proved equally challenging, their awkward size causing Leopold to stagger unbalanced as he lugged them out to the path. By the time he returned to Vull, his breath already comes in shallow pants, a humiliating testament to his lack of physical conditioning.
"Took you long enough," Vull said, snatching a pry bar up from the wheelbarrow. "We start at the end there." He points to where the path meets the main garden walkway. "We pry up the stones, we load them in the wheelbarrow, and we dump them over there." He gestured to a patch of bare earth some thirty yards away. "We'll clean them and relay them after."
Leopold nodded not trusting his voice. He followed Vull to the starting point, watching as the tiger effortlessly jammed the pry bar beneath a large cobblestone and heaved. The stone popped free with a sound like a sigh, revealing a nest of displaced earth and wriggling worms beneath. Vull crouched, hugging his strong arms around the stone and then standing, and tossing the heavy stone into the wheelbarrow with a casual flick of his wrist, the metal basin thumping with the impact.
"Your turn," he said, stepping back with a smirk.
Leopold took the pry bar, its weight immediately dragging his arms downward. He positioned it as Vull did and pushed down with all his might. The bar barely moved. He readjusted, bracing one foot against the handle for leverage, and pushed again. This time, the stone shifted slightly, but didn't pop free.
"Pathetic," Vull commented, crossing his muscular arms across his chest. "Put your back into it."
Heat rose in Leopold's cheeks, a mixture of embarrassment and exertion. He repositioned himself once more, summoning every ounce of strength in his slender frame. With a grunt that sounded embarrassingly loud in his own ears, he forced the bar downward. The stone finally gave way, though with far less grace than when Vull did it. Instead of popping free, it slid sideways, scraping Leopold's exposed ankle in the process.
"Pick it up," Vull ordered, ignoring the thin line of blood now trickling through Leopold's fur.
The cobblestone felt impossibly heavy in Leopold's hands. His fingers strained around its rough edges, the coarse texture abrading his soft pads. With a staggering step, he carried it to the wheelbarrow and dropped it in, the impact jarring his already aching wrists.
"One down," Vull said with mocking cheerfulness. "Only about three hundred to go."
Leopold's heart sank. He looked up the path, at the large stones jeering out of the ground at him, each one heavy and rounded. Three hundred? He'll never be able to lift them all. The alternative, though - failing, or complaining - seemed even worse. He reached for the pry bar again, determined to prove himself, if not to Vull, then at least to himself.
As the morning stretched on, a grim rhythm developed. Pry, lift, carry, dump. Repeat. Leopold's movements grew increasingly clumsy as fatigue settled into his muscles like lead weights. His once-pristine fur was streaked with dirt and sweat, clinging to his frame in damp patches. His breath came in ragged gasps, each inhalation burning in his chest.
Vull, by contrast, worked with mechanical efficiency, his powerful body seemingly immune to fatigue. For every stone Leopold managed to pry loose, Vull removed three. The tiger's skin glistened with a light sheen of sweat, but his breathing remained steady, his movements fluid and controlled.
"Keep up," Vull growled when Leopold pauses to wipe sweat from his eyes. "We don't have all day."
But they did have all day, Leopold thought bitterly. Until sunset, Jaro had said. Hours more of this torture. He forced himself back to work, ignoring the trembling in his limbs, the burning in his lungs.
The wheelbarrow grows heavier with each stone added, until Leopold could barely push it to the dumping ground. The wheel squealed in protest, the sound drilling into his sensitive ears. On his third trip, the wheelbarrow caught on an exposed root, nearly tipping over. Leopold threw his body weight against it, preventing the spill but bruising his hip in the process.
"Careful with those," Vull calls, not bothering to help of course. "Jaro will have your hide if you chip the rocks."
Leopold struggled to right the wheelbarrow, his vision blurring at the edges from exertion. His throat was parched, his tongue feeling swollen in his mouth. He hadn't had water since breakfast, and the merciless sun continued to beat down, drawing every last drop of moisture from his body.
"Could I... could I please have some water?" he asked when he returned, his voice a rasping whisper.
Vull paused, regarding Leopold with narrowed eyes. For a moment, something like concern flickered across his face, quickly replaced by hardened resolve. "After the next section," he said, turning back to his work. "If you can keep up."
Leopold's heart sank, but he nodded, accepting the challenge because he had no choice. He returned to the pry bar, each movement a negotiation with his failing body. His muscles screamed in protest, but he pushed through, focusing on the promise of water - just a few more stones away.
A stone came loose unexpectedly, throwing Leopold off balance. He stumbled, dropping the pry bar, which lands painfully across his foot. A cry escaped him before he can suppress it, high and thin in the heavy air.
"What now?" Vull demanded, straightening from his work with an exasperated sigh.
"Nothing," Leopold gasped, retrieving the bar with trembling hands. "I'm fine."
"You're weak," Vull corrected him, striding over to where Leopold stands. "Soft, and useless. Just a pleasure pet." He took the pry bar, demonstrating again how easily he could lever up a stone. "Like this. Put some force behind it."
Leopold watched, trying to memorize the exact angle, the precise application of strength. When Vull handed the bar back, he mimiced the movement as closely as his aching body would allow. The stone shifted, but didn't come free.
"Pathetic," Vull spat between his craggy teeth. "No wonder Jaro treats you like a porcelain doll. You'd break if someone breathed on you too hard."
The words stung more than Leopold wanted to admit. He tried again, forcing his screaming muscles to comply. This time, the stone popped free, a small victory that brung a fleeting smile to his lips.
"Don't look so pleased with yourself," Vull said, dousing Leopold's moment of pride. "A child could do better."
Leopold carried the stone to the wheelbarrow, each step a battle against gravity. As he dropped it in, he noticed his paws are bleeding, the soft pads worn raw by the rough stone. He flexed his fingers, wincing at the sharp pain.
"Hurts, doesn't it?" Vull asked, suddenly beside him. There's a strange satisfaction in his voice, as if Leopold's pain brought him pleasure. "This is real work. Not the pampered life you're used to."
Leopold didn't respond, focusing instead on controlling his breathing, on finding the strength to continue. He returned to the path, selecting another stone to remove. Each brick slammed onto the dusty ground with a jarring clatter as he worked, the sound like punctuation marks in a sentence of suffering.
By midday, they've cleared perhaps a quarter of the path. The pile of extracted cobblestones grows, a monument to their labor, or at least, Leopold thinks, to his torment and Vull's barely disguised enjoyment of it. The sun sat directly overhead now, its rays a physical force pressing down on Leopold's shoulders. The black portions of his fur absorb the heat, baking the soft skin underneath.
"Break," Vull announced suddenly, dropping his shovel. "Ten minutes."
Leopold collapsed where he stands, his legs folding beneath him like wet paper. He sat in the sparse shade of a nearby ornamental tree, its thin branches offering little protection from the sun but better than nothing. His entire body throbbed in time with his racing heartbeat, each pulse sending fresh waves of pain through his abused muscles.
Vull disappeared into the shed, returning with a canteen. He drank deeply, water dribbling down his chin to dampen the white fur of his chest. Leopold watched, his parched throat working reflexively, silently begging for just a sip.
After what felt like an eternity, Vull held out the canteen. "Here," he said gruffly. "Don't drink it all."
Leopold took it with trembling hands, nearly dropping it in his eagerness. The water was lukewarm and tasted faintly of metal, but it's the most delicious thing he's ever experienced. He forced himself to drink slowly, knowing that gulping it down will only make him sick.
"Time's up," Vull said, snatching the canteen back when Leopold had taken barely enough to wet his mouth. "Back to work."
Leopold struggled to his feet, his brief rest having done little to restore his strength. If anything, the pause had only allowed his muscles to stiffen, making movement even more painful. He picked up the pry bar again, its weight seemingly doubled since morning.
"We're falling behind," Vull said, surveying the path with a critical eye. "Pick up the pace."
Leopold wanted to protest that they have hours yet before sunset, that there's no need to hurry, but the words died in his throat. Vull isn't concerned about finishing on time. He's concerned with pushing Leopold to his breaking point, with proving his superiority through Leopold's failure.
Understanding doesn't make the work any easier. If anything, it makes it harder, knowing that his suffering is not simply a byproduct of necessary labor but the very point of the exercise. Still, he forced himself back to the pattern. Pry, lift, carry, dump. Repeat.
The stones blurred together, each one indistinguishable from the last. Leopold's world narrowed to the next task, the next breath, the next painful step. He lost track of time, of how many trips he's made with the wheelbarrow, of how many stones he's extracted from the earth.
"Faster," Vull demanded, his voice cutting through Leopold's foggy consciousness. "You're slowing down."
Leopold tried to comply, but his body rebels. His movements became clumsier, more desperate. He dropped a stone, watching in horror as it lands on another, a small chip flying off from the impact.
"Careful!" Vull barked, striding over to inspect the damage. "What did I tell you about chipping them?"
"I'm sorry," Leopold mumbled, his voice barely audible over the pounding of his own heart in his ears. "I'll be more careful."
"See that you are," Vull said, his face inches from Leopold's, close enough that Leopold can feel the heat of his breath. "Or I'll make sure Jaro knows exactly how incompetent you are."
The threat hung between them, unnecessary but delivered with relish. Leopold nodded, not trusting himself to speak without his voice breaking. He bent down to retrieve the fallen stone, his vision momentarily going dark at the edges from the sudden movement.
Vull returned to his section of the path, working now with renewed vigor, as if Leopold's mistake has energized him. The contrast between them grew more stark with each passing minute, with Vull powerful and focused, Leopold stumbling and fading.
"The wheelbarrow's full," Vull called. "Take it to the pile."
Leopold grasped the handles, his raw paws stinging at the contact. The wheelbarrow felt impossibly heavy now, laden with stones and his own exhaustion. He pushed it forward, each step a negotiation with gravity and pain.
Halfway to the dumping ground, his strength failed him. The wheelbarrow tilted dangerously to one side, then the other, as Leopold struggled to maintain control. His arms shook uncontrollably, his legs threatening to buckle beneath him.
"What's the holdup?" Vull called from behind him.
Leopold didn't dare turn around to answer, focusing all his remaining energy on keeping the wheelbarrow upright. One more step. Then another. The pile is so close now, just a few more feet.
His foot caught on an exposed root, sending him stumbling forward. The wheelbarrow tipped, spilling stones across the ground with a series of dull thuds. Leopold fell to his knees beside it, the impact sending fresh pain shooting through his already abused joints.
"Dude, you're useless," Vull snarled, suddenly looming over him. "Completely useless. Pick them up."
Leopold stared at the scattered stones, too exhausted even for tears. His paws hovered over them helplessly, leaving small smears of blood on their rough surfaces.
"Pick them up," Vull ordered again, his voice cold. "Every last one."
Leopold tried to stand but couldn't. So, instead, he crawled to the wheelbarrow and sat next to it, and gathered the rocks up with trembling hands and placed them, one by one, back in the wheelbarrow. Each one felt heavier than the last.
"You're pathetic," Vull continued, watching Leopold's painful progress with undisguised contempt. "I don't know what Jaro sees in you. You're nothing but a pretty face with no substance behind it."
The words barely registered through Leopold's haze of exhaustion. He focused on the task at hand, on simply staying conscious from one moment to the next. The path of stones was an endless, trail of broken promises, stretching away from the two of them back up towards the estate.
When he finally got the last stone back into the wheelbarrow, Leopold remained on his knees, unable to summon the strength to stand again. His hair clung limply to the sides of his snout, and his breath comes in shallow gasps, his chest burning painfully. He was deeply nauseous, head spinning with exhaustion.
"Get up," Vull said, nudging Leopold's thigh with the toe of his boot. "We're not even halfway done."
Leopold tried, he truly did. He planted one paw on the ground, then the other, attempting to push himself upright. His arms shook violently with the effort, the muscles having long since passed the point of endurance.
"I said get up!" Vull's voice rose, nudging Leopold with his foot again. "Goddammit stop being so lazy! Jaro will be checking on us soon."
The mention of Jaro acts like a stimulant, sending a fresh wave of fear through Leopold's exhausted body. He pushed up one last time, managing to get one foot beneath him and rising partially to to a crouch, but as he pushed himself to stand, he found himself swinging backwards, and then his strength gives out completely. He collapsed back to the ground with a whumph.
"Fine," Vull muttered after a moment. "Five minutes. That's all. Then you're back to work whether you're ready or not."
Leopold closed his eyes, grateful for even this small mercy. The ground beneath him spun slowly, as if the earth itself has begun to rotate faster, attempting to throw him off into the void. He focused on his breathing, trying to slow it, to find some reserve of strength hidden deep within himself.
But there's nothing left to find, nothing left to give. His body had reached its limit, pushed beyond what it was ever designed to endure. As consciousness begins to slip away, Leopold's last thought is that he had failed—failed Jaro, failed himself, and somehow, inexplicably, failed even Vull.
The darkness, when it finally claims him, feels like a blessing.
________________
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Consciousness returned to Leopold in uneven waves, like a tide reluctantly coming back to shore. The world resolved itself in fragments, first with the feel of cool grass against his cheek, then the distant sound of voices, sharp and argumentative. His eyelids felt weighted with lead, but he forced them open, staring in an unfocused way across a plane green grass and the distant dark-watered lake. The first thing he recognized was a pair of polished leather shoes inches from his face, their emerald scales gleaming with an unnatural sheen. Jaro. Leopold's heart lurched painfully in his chest, a fresh burst of adrenaline cutting through the fog of exhaustion.
"Ah, he rejoins us," Jaro's cultured voice sliced through the air, each syllable precise and cutting. "How considerate of you to wake up, Leopold. We were just discussing your... performance."
Leopold tried to push himself up, his arms trembling violently with the effort. The ground beneath him seemed to tilt and shift, forcing him to pause halfway, supporting himself on his elbows while the world steadied. His fur is caked with dirt and sweat, his once-pristine blue hair now hanging in limp, soiled strands around his face.
"I'm sorry, sir," he managed, his voice a dry rasp that barely carries. "I'll get back to work immediately."
"Will you?" Jaro crouched down, bringing his face level with Leopold's. His golden eyes gleam with malicious amusement, the vertical pupils contracting in the bright sunlight. "Because from what I've observed, you've accomplished remarkably little. Vull tells me you've been... struggling."
Leopold dared to glance over at Vull, who stood a few paces away, his powerful arms crossed over his chest. The tiger's expression was unreadable, but there's a tension in his posture that wasn't there before, a stiffness that spoke of discomfort.
"I... I'm trying my best, sir," Leopold said, returning his gaze to Jaro.
"Your 'best'." Jaro let the words hang in the air, infusing them with contempt. "How disappointing that must be for you, to discover the limits of your 'best' so quickly." He stood in one fluid motion, brushing imaginary dust from his immaculate suit. "Get up. Now."
Leopold forced his body to obey, though every muscle screams in protest. He managed to get to his knees, then to his feet, swaying dangerously as blood rushes from his head. For a moment, the garden dissolved into a blur of colors and shapes, then slowly resolves back into focus. He stood with his head bowed, awaiting whatever comes next.
"Look at this mess," Jaro said, gesturing toward the partially dismantled path. "Not even a third complete, and the sun has already begun its descent. At this rate, you'll be working well into tomorrow."
"I can work faster," Leopold promised, though he has no idea how he could fulfill that pledge. His body had already given everything it had to give.
"Indeed, you will," Jaro agreed, his smile revealing teeth too sharp for comfort. "Vull, you may take a break. I'll supervise Leopold personally for a while."
Vull's expression flickered with surprise, then something that might almost be concern. "I can keep working," he said, his voice gruff. "We'll get more done if we both—"
"Did I ask for your input?" Jaro cut him off, his voice dropping to a dangerous softness. "Take a break, Vull. That's an order."
The tiger's jaw tightened, but he nodded stiffly and moved away, settling on a stone bench at the edge of the garden. From there, he has a clear view of Leopold and Jaro, though he affected an air of disinterest, examining his claws as if they're the most fascinating things in the garden.
Jaro turned his attention back to Leopold. "Now then. Let's see what you're capable of when properly motivated." He pointed to a particularly large cobblestone, one that even Vull had needed to use the pry bar to extract. "That one. Remove it."
Leopold stared at the stone, his heart sinking. It's easily twice the size of the ones he's been struggling with all morning. "Sir, I—I might need the pry bar for that one."
"No tools," Jaro said, his smile widening. "Just your hands. Now, my precious little bull."
Leopold approached the stone, his legs threatening to give way with each step. He knelt beside it, examining its edges, looking for some purchase point that might make the impossible task merely extremely difficult. Finding none, he wedged his raw, bleeding fingers into the narrow gap between the stone and its neighbor, and pulled.
Nothing happened.
"Put your back into it," Jaro said, echoing Vull's earlier command. "Unless you're even weaker than you look."
Leopold gritted his teeth and tried again, summoning every last reserve of strength. The stone shifted slightly, just enough to inspire a desperate hope. He adjusted his grip, ignoring the fresh pain as the rough edges cut into his already damaged pads, and pulled again.
This time, the stone moved. It rose perhaps an inch before Leopold's strength fails him, and it drops back into place with a dull thud. He gasped for breath, spots dancing before his eyes.
"Again," Jaro commanded.
Leopold tried once more, straining until the veins stood out on his forehead, until his vision narrowed to a pinpoint focused solely on the obstinate stone. This time, he managed to lift it clear of its setting, cradling it against his chest as he staggered to his feet.
"Bring it here," Jaro said, indicating a spot directly before him.
The stone might have weighted as much as Leopold itself, its mass threatening to pull Leopold's arms from their sockets. Each step is an exercise in will over physics, his body a reluctant vehicle for a burden it was never designed to bear. When he reached Jaro, his legs were shaking so badly he fears they'll simply fold beneath him.
"Set it down," Jaro instructed. "Gently."
Leopold started to bend his knees, trying to lower the stone without dropping it. Instead, he fell forward, flopping over the large heavy stone and groaning as the rain-washed surface kicked hard up into his belly. The house cat managed, barely, to extricate his hands from it before they were crushed, but before he could straight himself, Jaro's foot came to rest on the small of his back, the pressure just firm enough to keep him crouch over the
"Good," Jaro said, his voice silky. "Now that one." He points to another large stone a few feet away.
"Please," Leopold whispered, the word escaping before he can stop it. "I need a moment to-"
"Did I ask for your opinion on the timing?" Jaro pressed down harder with his foot, forcing Leopold into an awkward squat. "That stone. Now."
Leopold straightened when Jaro released him, his vision swimming. He made his way to the indicated stone, each step an act of defiance against his body's demands to be allowed to collapse. This stone is just as large as the first, its edges just as sharp against his bleeding hands. He pulled, failed, tried again. On the third attempt, the stone came free, and he cradled it to his chest once more.
"Bring it here," Jaro called, his voice carrying a note of satisfaction that sent a chill down Leopold's spine despite the heat.
The return journey was even harder, the stone seeming to gain weight with each step. Leopold's arms burned, his shoulders threatening to dislocate. He reached Jaro and carefully set the stone alongside the first one.
"Again," Jaro said, pointing to yet another stone.
And so it goes. Stone after stone, each one a mountain to be conquered, each journey back to Jaro a test of endurance that Leopold is increasingly ill-equipped to pass. His world shrank to this endless cycle of strain and pain, of momentary relief followed by fresh demands.
"Again."
Leopold's hands are slick with blood now, the soft pads shredded by the rough stone edges. His once-white chest and belly fur is stained red and brown with blood and dirt.
"Again."
His breathing was now a series of shallow gasps, each inhalation burning in his chest as if he's breathing fire instead of air. The garden span around him, colors bleeding into one another, shapes losing definition.
"Again."
From his position on the bench, Vull watched with growing unease. The tiger's initial satisfaction at seeing Leopold struggle had faded, replaced by a growing discomfort in his guts that he was reluctant to acknowledge. He had wanted to put the little bitch in his place, and he had done so. This was something else entirely, something that made even Vull, with his resentment and jealousy, shift uncomfortably as he watched.
"Again."
Leopold stumbled, nearly dropping the stone he's carrying. He recovered, barely, his body operating now on pure instinct rather than conscious control. He reached Jaro and set the stone down, adding it to the growing pile.
"You're slowing down," Jaro observed, his tone conversational, as if they're discussing the weather rather than Leopold's systematic incapacitatation. "Perhaps you simple need more motivation."
Leopold swayed on his feet, unable to respond. His eyes lost their focus, staring at a point somewhere beyond Jaro's shoulder.
"That one," Jaro said, pointing to a stone so large that not even Vull could have picked it up. "Now."
Leopold turned, took one step, then another. On the third step, his legs finally surrendered. He collapsed to his knees, then forward onto his hands, his head hanging between his shoulders like a broken flower.
"Get up," Jaro commanded, his voice hardening. "We're not finished."
"He can't," Vull said suddenly, rising from the bench. "He's done. Finished. Look at him."
Jaro turned to Vull, his expression darkening. "I don't recall asking for your assessment, tiger. This is between Leopold and me."
"He's going to die if you keep pushing him," Vull insisted, taking a step forward. "Is that what you want? To kill him?"
"My possessions are mine to do with as I please," Jaro replied, his voice dropping to a dangerous growl. "That includes determining when they've reached their limits, or not."
Leopold, meanwhile, had somehow found the strength to drag himself toward the indicated stone. His movements were slow and clumsy, crawling on hands and knees, but he's making progress. His determination, even now, was a pitiful thing to witness.
"Look at him," Jaro said to Vull, gesturing toward the battered housecat. "He's still trying to please me. Still hoping for approval." His smile is cold, calculating. "That's what I value in him, you see. Not his strength, which is meaningless. He has no strength. No, what I value is his willingness to destroy himself for my satisfaction. You wouldn't understand that, would you?"
Vull's teeth clenched, resulting in a spasm of pain as loose shards crushed against each other in his mouth. He blanched, opening his mouth to relieve the pressure and staggering a step backwards.
"It's sick," Vull muttered, too low for Leopold to hear but clear enough for Jaro. "This whole thing is sick."
"Oh?" Jaro raised an eyebrow. "And what would you do differently, tiger? If he were yours to command, what would you do with such a pathetic specimen?"
Vull hesitated, his gaze moving from Jaro to Leopold and back. "I'd put him out of his misery," he said finally, his voice hard. "Make him disappear. It would be a kindness compared to this."
Leopold, who had reached the stone and was attempting to work his bleeding fingers beneath it, froze. The words, carried on the still afternoon air, reached him with perfect clarity. Make him disappear. His heart, already racing from exertion, skipped several beats. He turned his head, meeting Vull's gaze across the garden.
The fear in Leopold's eyes was naked, primal. He's too exhausted to mask it, too broken to pretend he didn't hear or didn't understand. For a moment, the three of them form a tableau, with Jaro watching with cruel amusement, Vull with dawning horror at the realization that Leopold heard him, and Leopold with the stark understanding that he's trapped between two predators with very different but equally horrific intentions.
"I didn't mean-" Vull began, but stops when Jaro holds up a hand.
"Don't apologize for your honesty," the dragon said. "It's refreshing." He turned back to Leopold. "You heard him, pet. Better get back to work if you want to prove your value."
Leopold's fear provided one last surge of adrenaline. Every part of his body ached, but he turned back to the stone, digging his fingers beneath it with desperate strength. He heaved, straining, his muscles throughout his entire body already taxed beyond their limit, and now he taxed them further, spending every last ounce of energy in trying to pick up the impossibly heavy rock. His arms began to shake violently, the muscles standing out in stark relief against his thin frame.
"Yes, see, Vull? That's it," Jaro encouraged, his voice a silken whisper. "He's stronger than you think. I think he's stronger than you, even. Come on, little one. Show us what you're made of."
Leopold got his hands underneath it, and began to pull it backwards, the huge rock being dragged slowly over the ground towards him. It pushed in against his inner thighs, and as he lifted it up, it's weight shifted to rest against his lower belly. He crouched protectively around it, and struggled to stand, his delicate features contorted in anguised strain.
Then, it happened.
Something inside him gives way. There was no dramatic sound, no visible rupture, just a sudden, complete surrender of his body's systems. The stone slipped away from his nerveless fingers, sliding through his hug and landing on the ground between his knees with a dull thud. Leopold followed it down, crumpling like a discarded piece of paper, his limbs splaying at awkward angles.
This time, there was no partial awakening, no clinging to consciousness through sheer will. Leopold's eyes rolled back, showing only the whites, and his body went completely limp. A small trickle of blood runs from the corner of his nose, bright red against his white fur.
For a moment, neither Jaro nor Vull moved, both seemingly surprised by the finality of Leopold's collapse. Then Jaro sighs, the sound almost disappointed.
"Well," he said, stroking along the underside of his chin thoughtfully. "It seems we've found his limit, after all."
Vull stared at Leopold's crumpled form for one long, frozen moment, the cat's chest barely rising with each shallow breath. A peculiar feeling settled in Vull's stomach, something acidic and uncomfortable that he refused to recognize as guilt. The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the garden, turning the scattered cobblestones into dark islands in a sea of golden light. Jaro's expectant gaze burned into Vull's back, waiting to see what the tiger will do next. With a grunt that's half exertion and half resignation, Vull bent down and gathered Leopold's limp body into his arms, surprised at how little the cat weighs, how fragile he feels against Vull's substantial frame.
"Take him back to the house," Jaro commanded, his voice airy and devoid of concern. "I've seen enough of this particular entertainment for one day."
Vull adjusted his grip, hefting Leopold onto his broad shoulder like a sack of grain. The cat's head lolled against Vull's back, his arms dangling lifelessly. A small smear of blood transfered from Leopold's mouth to Vull's tank top, the bright red stark against the white fabric.
"What about the path?" Vull asked, gesturing toward the half-dismantled cobblestones.
Jaro waved a dismissive hand. "It can wait. This has proven more... educational than I anticipated." His golden eyes gleamed with an emotion Vull can't quite identify. "I'll meet you at the front entrance. Don't dawdle."
Without waiting for a response, Jaro turned and strides away, his polished shoes crunching on the gravel path. His tail, normally held in a precise arc behind him, swished once in what might be irritation or anticipation.
Left alone with his unconscious burden, Vull shifted uncomfortably. Leopold's body was warm against his. Too warm, in fact. The heat of exhaustion and strain radiated through the thin fabric of the sweat matted fur. Vull could feel every rib, every delicate bone pressing against him, a physical reminder of the difference between them.
He started walking, following a side path that will take him around the mansion to the front entrance. Each step jostled Leopold, but the cat gives no sign of awareness, no protest at the rough treatment. Only the faint flutter of his pulse against Vull's shoulder confirms he's still alive.
The path wound through carefully manicured gardens, past fountains whose burbling waters seemed to mock Vull with their carefree music. The mansion gradually came into view, its dark gray stone facade gleaming in the late afternoon light like the wall of some ancient fortress. Tall windows reflected the sun in blinding flashes, their glass surfaces immaculate and unwelcoming.
Vull's thoughts churned as he walks, a confusing mixture of satisfaction and disquiet. He'd wanted to see Leopold fail, to prove the cat's weakness, to show Jaro that his newest acquisition was nothing special. He had succeeded. Leopold had collapsed completely, proving himself incapable of handling even a few hours of real work, but, the victory felt hollow, tainted with the memory of Leopold's terrified eyes when he'd overheard Vull's casual cruelty.
"'Make him disappear'," Vull muttered under his breath, repeating his own words. They sounded different now, hanging in the open air rather than contained in the heated moment. They sounded cruel, mean, sadistic. They sounded beneath him... right?
He shook the thought away. Leopold was nothing to him personally, just another of Jaro's passing fixations, another pretty toy that would eventually be discarded when the dragon grew bored. Vull had seen it happen before, had seen the accumulation of 'trinkets' representing Jaro's shifting attentions in the wall of the basement. Jaro enjoyed leaving broken things in his wake.
Still, there was something about the way Leopold had kept trying, kept pushing himself long past the point where most would have just given up. There was something about his determination that Vull respected, even if he also despised the weakness that made that determination necessary.
Vull made it into Jaro's manor, the cool, dark interior of the building a welcome reprieve from the oppressive heat of the raging summer outside. Vull straightened, adjusting Leopold's weight in his arms, still cradling the unconscious form against his chest. This was his moment of triumph, right? He had proven his point. He has shown Jaro that Leopold was weak and unworthy of the attention the dragon had lavished on him. He forced confidence into his stride as he approached the stairs to the basement, ignoring the ache in his own muscles from the day's labor.
"I see you've managed not to drop him along the way," Jaro commented as Vull reached the doorway that led down to the dungeon and pet's quarters downstairs. "How considerate."
Vull's tail flickered at the slight in the dragon's words, even if he couldn't determine what exactly the slight was. He pushed the idea aside, focusing instead on presenting Leopold like a trophy. He held his arms out, the broken frame of the smaller feline offered like an expensive coat. "Conditioned, just like you wanted," he announced, with more bravado then he felt.
Jaro's expression doesn't change. "Did I say that was what I wanted, tiger? I don't recall issuing such instructions."
Vull faltered, momentarily uncertain. "You... you said to take him to relay the path. To work until sunset. You said his master wanted him to be taught discipline. You knew he couldn't handle that kind of work."
"I knew many things," Jaro agreed, his voice velvet over steel. "That doesn't mean I instructed you to return hi, like this."
A cold feeling began to spread in Vull's chest, a premonition of danger he can't quite define. He shifted Leopold's weight again, suddenly eager to be rid of the burden. With little ceremony, he dumped the cat at Jaro's feet, letting Leopold's limp form sprawl across the marble landing.
Leopold made a small, pained sound as he hit the stone, but didn't wake. His fur was matted with sweat and dirt, his hands raw and bleeding from the day's work. He looked broken, used up, and discarded. He looked exactly the way Vull had wanted him to look, but the sight of it now brought a strange hollow feeling inside the tiger, rather than satisfaction.
"Look at him," Vull said, gesturing towards Leopold's prone form. "Weak. Ineffective. No discipline, no endurance." He took a step back, his tail lashing agitatedly behind him. "He's not worth your time. He's really not worth your attention."
Jaro's gaze moved from Leopold to Vull, his reptilian features expressionless. "Oh, and you believe you are qualified to make that assessment?"
"I know strength when I see it," Vull replied, straightening to his full height, though he still fell short of Jaro's imposing stature. "And I know weakness, too. He's nothing but a pretty face with fancy fur. The first bit of real work, and he collapsed like a house of cards."
"Indeed." Jaro crouched beside Leopold, one clawed hand coming to rest on the cat's forehead. The gesture is almost gentle, incongruous with everything Vull knows about the dragon. "And you took such pleasure in demonstrating that fact."
"I did what needed to be done," Vull insisted, an uneasy feeling simmering in his belly at Jaro's tone. "What you wanted done. I showed you what he really is."
"What he really is," Jaro repeated, his voice thoughtful. "And what is that, exactly?"
"A weakling. A pampered pet who can't handle the real world." Vull's confidence grew as he spoke, feeding on his own words. "Not like me. I'm strong. I can take whatever you dish out and... and ask for more."
"Yes, you've made that abundantly clear over the last few months." Jaro stood, his movement fluid and controlled. "Your strength has never been in question, tiger. Your judgment, however..."
The unfinished sentence hung in the air between them, a threat Vull couldn't quite define. He shifted his weight, even more uncomfortable under Jaro's scrutiny.
"I broke him quickly," Vull continues, trying to recapture his earlier bravado. "Efficiently. Just like a master would. Just like... you would."
At this, Jaro's expression changed for the first time, a flash of genuine anger crossing his features before being smoothed away behind his usual mask of control. "Like a 'master'," he repeated, and Vull knew immediately that he had fucked up. "You think yourself a master, Vull?"
The question caught Vull off-guard, and he felt his cheeks and ears burning bright red. "I.. I just meant..."
"You meant," Jaro interrupted, "that you see yourself as my equal. As someone with the right to decide how my possessions should be treated. As someone with the authority to break what belongs to me."
Put that way, Vull's actions suddenly took on a different light. The cold feeling in his chest expanded, spreading through his limbs. "No, I didn't..."
"You were meant to work with him," Jaro said, his voice dropping even lower. "To guide him. To show him how the task should be done, yes, but not to destroy him in the process." He gestured toward Leopold's bloodied hands. "Look at this. The damage you've done. How long before these heal? How long before he can be useful again?"
Vull stared at Leopold's injuries, seeing them clearly for the first time. The soft pads are shredded, the fur around them stained dark with dried blood. "He'll heal," he muttered, though the words sounded hollow even to his own ears.
"Of course he will," Jaro agreed, his tone deceptively light. "But that isn't the point, is it? The point is that you exceeded your authority. You took something that belonged to me and damaged it out of your own misplaced pride. Again."
"Again?" Vull sputtered, "I didn't.. and I haven't..." but he stopped when Jaro raises a hand.
"That is exactly what happened," the dragon said. "You resented my attention toward him. You saw him as a rival rather than what he truly is, a possession. My possession. And in your arrogance, you thought to prove your superiority by breaking him. By trying to 'prove' to me that he should be beneath my notice. Just like every other task I've given you, you chose to complete it in a way that benefitted you, and that's infuriating."
Vull's mouth goes dry, the accusation striking uncomfortably close to the truth. "I was just following your orders," he said, realizing how lame it sounded even as he said it.
"My orders were to relay the path. To work until sunset. Not to push him beyond endurance. Not to take pleasure in his suffering." Jaro's golden eyes bore into Vull's. "You weren't acting as my agent, tiger. You were acting as a would-be master. And that is something I cannot allow."
The threat in his voice was unmistakable now, a promise of consequences Vull didn't want to contemplate. He took a step back, suddenly aware again of how vulnerable - no, of how completely at Jaro's mercy he remained.
"I didn't -" he started, but Jaro cut him off with a sharp gesture.
"You did," the dragon said, simply. "And now we both know exactly what you are." He looked down at Leopold's unconscious form, then back at Vull. "Not a master. Not even close. Just another pet who has forgotten his place, yet again."
Vull's head bowed, shame flooding through him as he realized, exactly, that Jaro was right.
"Take him to his room," Jaro said, nodding toward Leopold. "Gently, this time. Stabilize him, and then report to my office. We need to discuss the ramifications for your misunderstanding."
Vull bent to lift Leopold again, scooping him up in his arms again. The gesture felt like an admission, a concession he has no choice but to offer.
"And Vull?" Jaro added, as the tiger started down the stairs. "Remember that everything you believe you possess - your strength, your position, even the clothes on your back - exists at my discretion. Just as the smoothness at your groin reminds you daily of what I can take away, this incident will remind you of what you can never have."
Vull didn't respond. He carried Leopold down the stairs, and the door closed behind them.
________________
* ~ * ~ Some Time Later ~ * ~ *
The tiger had been summoned to the lab, the area where Jaro did most of his more unforgiving experiments. The fluorescent lights overhead buzz like persistent insects, casting the stark room in a pallid, unforgiving glow. Vull was, as always, nude, and he stood underneath the light in the center of the room, his muscles tense as Jaro approached. The dragon held a syringe in one hand.
"Arm," Jaro commanded, his cultured voice slicing through the sterile air.
Vull hesitated, a final, futile act of resistance, and Jaro's claws dug into Vull's bicep, obsidian tips pressing crescents into flesh. "I said, arm."
Vull extended his limb, the movement mechanical and resigned. His eyes fix on a point beyond Jaro's shoulder, refusing to witness whatever fresh hell this was going to be.
"Still pretending to have dignity?" Jaro's words curled with amusement as he swabs a patch of Vull's skin with antiseptic. The cold liquid made the tiger flinch. "Adorable."
The needle pierced into Vull's skin with a practiced, precise insertion. Vull felt the initial pinch, then the spreading chill as Jaro depresses the plunger. The liquid fire rushed through his veins, but if it was poison or medicine, the tiger had no idea. His heartbeat quickened, then stumbled, like a runner hitting an unexpected hurdle.
"There we go," Jaro purred, withdrawing the needle and pressing a cotton ball to the puncture. "Our special cocktail for the day. Something to remind you of your... position."
The drug worked with horrifying efficiency. First came the heaviness, as if his bones were transforming to lead, one marrow cell at a time. His knees buckled, betraying him before his mind can even process the command to stand tall. His head spun, and he staggered down to his kneels in front of the dragon.
"Oh, look at that," Jaro observed, stepping back to watch as Vull struggles to remain even partially upright. "Gravity seems extra strong today, doesn't it?"
Vull's tongue felt swollen, his words slurring as he tried to respond, but words were turning to mush in his brain as he tried. The room swam, colors bleeding into each other like watercolors in rain. His arms dangled uselessly at his sides, his biceps and triceps as useful as wet tissue paper.
Jaro circled Vull like a predator assessing wounded prey. The dragon's claws clicked against the tiled floor, and he rested a paw on the back of the tiger's head. "What a crude beast you've become, Vull. And here I thought we were making progress with your manners."
Vull's head lolled, his neck muscles unable to maintain the simple task of keeping his gaze level. The short striped fur of his chest heaves with labored breathing. Each inhale felt like sucking air through a straw that was gradually narrowing.
Jaro knelt down, the paw pushing down against his skull. Vull couldn't help himself as he sank down to the ground, the dragon easily overwhelming him with just the nudge.
"There we go, back in your rightful place. How does the floor taste, pet?" There was a familiar curl to the dragon's words, a smug, familiar satisfaction that Vull knew far too well. This was the dragon's comfort zone. Vull couldn't respond. The hand on his back prodded, nudging him, and then the dragon crouched over him.
Scaled arms slid under Vull's armpits and around his chest. The dragon lifted him as if he weighed nothing, hauling the big tiger up and off of the ground. Vull's feet dragged across the floor, leaving twin streaks of fur and sweat.
"My, my," Jaro murmured into Vull's ear, cool breath stirring the fur there. "The mighty personal trainer, reduced to a sack of meat. How your clients would laugh to see you now."
A wheelchair sits in the corner, waiting for Vull. The tiger squirmed, but Jaro ignored his protests and deposited Vull into it with casual indifference. Vull's head dropped forward, chin to chest, the simple act of looking up requiring effort he can't summon, as Jaro lifted his hands up and placed them on his lap.
"There we are," Jaro said, patting Vull's cheek with patronizing affection. "Comfy?"
Vull managed to lift his gaze, eyes clouded with the drug but still burning with embarrassment. His lips formed silent obscenities that his voice couldn't deliver.
"I'll take that as a yes." Jaro moved behind the chair and released the brake with a sharp click. "Time for our little constitutional."
The first push sent the wheelchair lurching forward, and Vull's stomach lurched with it. The room scrolled as Jaro wheels him through the doorway and into the main hallway. Vull moaned, unable to make words that made sense, as he bounced helplessly on the archaic metal wheelchair.
"You know," Jaro said conversationally as he pushed, "I used to wonder what it would take to break someone like you. So full of yourself. So convinced of your superiority because of your... endowments. Those were easy enough to remove, to destroy. But that didn't seem to bother you. So I wondered." The dragon paused, as he twisted the chair. "It turns out, it's remarkably simple. It merely takes chemistry, and time."
Vull's body jostled with each bump in the floor tiles. His head rocked, his tail hung limply through the space between the chair's back and seat, dragging on the floor behind him. Each movement felt disconnected, as if he was watching someone else's body being carted around like a sack of potatoes.
Jaro guided the wheelchair through the manor, and into the master bathroom. It was Jaro's personal bathroom, resplendent with the ornate frivolities that the well groomed and well heeled surround themselves with. Jaro positioned the wheelchair so that it faced the toilet, then strolled around the front of it.
"I thought you might enjoy watching this part," Jaro said, as he unzipped his slacks. Vull couldn't quite see what Jaro's hand pulled out through his fly, but he could see something, a sliver of purple flesh. "Consider this an education."
Vull allowed his head to sag, more than willing to just stare at the floor, but Jaro's other hand grabbed his skull by the loose skin in the back of his neck and lifted him up, forcing him to watch.
"No, no. Eyes open. This is part of your therapy."
The sound of liquid hitting porcelain seemed unnaturally loud in the tiled room. Vull felt a vague heat rise up through the drug's fog from his chest to his face. It was meant to be degrading, obviously. Vull could care less about how Jaro pissed, but being forced to watch it raised his hackles, exactly the way he knew it was supposed to. The urine splattered into the porcelain bowl with a constant, almost soothing splatter.
"See how civilized I am?" Jaro commented, shaking himself before tucking back into his pants. "Unlike your kind. I hear felines stilli that mark territory, like animals." He smirked. He did not wash his hands, but he wiped his hand off on the tiger's snout, staining the short fur with a salted musk.
"Now, aren't you hungry, pet? Perhaps it's time I, as your benevolent master, treat you to a feeding. All that work outside must have you famished."
Vull's stomach contracted at the word "feeding," not knowing what was coming next but knowing he was going to hate it.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
Vull did not like sitting at the large dining room table. He had been pushed up to it until it bumped against his chest, pinning him against the back of the chair. The dragon retrieved a steaming bowl of grayish gruel from the microwave, its consistency somewhere between oatmeal and concrete.
"Today's specialty," Jaro announced, as he brought it to the table. "Protein-enriched nutrient paste. Keeps those muscles from atrophying. We wouldn't want to lose all your... assets, right?"
Jaro stood next to the table, stirring the gruel with a thick spoon. He stirred the gruel with a spoon, testing its temperature with a tap of his fingertip. Apparently satisfied, he scooped a small amount onto the spoon.
"Open wide," he said, with a mockery of enthusiasm. "Here comes the airplane!"
The spoon swooped through the air, as Jaro guided it toward Vull's mouth. The tiger's lips remain stubbornly closed, a final redoubt of resistance. Jaro nudged the spoon against the tiger's lips, smearing the hot gruel against underside of Vull's nose. The tiger managed to look upwards, still drugged but coherent enough to glare up at the dragon who was so clearly enjoying mocking his state of helplessness.
"Aren't you hungry?" Jaro teased, as he stuffed the spoon into the tiger's maw. There was no way for Vull to clench his jaws together, now with his ruined fangs, and the hot metal scraped over the dull shards, sending a rictus of pain into the tiger's brain. He tried to turn away, but Jaro caught him by the chin, holding his muzzle in place.
"You know how this ends. You either eat willingly, or I force your mouth open and you eat anyway. The only difference is how much dignity you lose in the process." His voice dropped to a malevolent whisper. "And we both know how precious little you have left of that."
Vull's jaw trembled, then parted. The spoon slid between his teeth, depositing the tasteless gruel on his tongue in a hot, flavorless mass. The texture was revolting, simultaneously grainy and slimy, but Vull forced himself to swallow the scalding 'food' down. His throat worked mechanically, a machine performing its function without joy or purpose.
"Good boy," Jaro praised, speaking to a pet. "See how easy life is when you cooperate?"
Spoonful after spoonful, the feeding continues. Occasionally, Jaro deliberately missed Vull's mouth, smearing gruel across his cheek or chin, then tut-tutting at the mess. It was infuriating, and Vull found himself glowering, and then found himself hating that he was glowering, as if this was somehow bothering him. It was just food. Why was he so humiliated that he was eating food?
"Look at you now," the dragon observed between spoonfuls, "just a pitiful shadow of your former self. Remember when you first arrived? All swagger and threats. You were going to escape, going to make me pay." He chuckled, the sound like stones sliding against each other. "Now you can't even feed yourself."
Vull didn't bother to lick the gruel off the spoon, as Jaro stuffed it into his mouth. He looked up at Jaro, his eyes narrowing, his expression - even muted with the muscle relaxants - confused, and hurt.
"Oh, you didn't like to hear that, did you?" Jaro asked, as he pushed up with the spoon, lifting and dragging it to scrape the gruel on the spoon free into Vull's maw. "You think I haven't noticed your pride, little tiger? You see yourself as the main character, the hero of this story. Capable of doing anything. But you aren't, are you?" Jaro shook his head, as he scraped the spoon into the bowl. "You haven't been capable of doing anything on your own. Oh, I've seen you trying, I've watch you give in to your urges and lash out against your bindings, I've seen you cheat and steal and selfishly indulge yourself, and- now what's this?"
Jaro was briefly confused, as he watched a single tear tracking through the tiger's facial fur. It clung to a whisker before dripping onto his chest, a tiny reflection of the tiger's despair.
"Oh, tears now?" Jaro reaches out, catching the next one on a claw tip. "How gratifying." He examines the droplet as if it's a rare specimen, glistening on the tip of his finger. "I'll add this to my collection of your surrenders."
Spoonful by spoonful, the bowl emptied, the ritual of humiliation being completed. Vull sat slumped in the wheelchair, his body listless in defeat.
"Please," he managed to whisper, the word emerging slurred and broken.
"Please what?" Jaro asked, leaning forward with mock attentiveness. "Please more? Please stop? You'll have to be more specific."
Vull's tongue felt like a foreign object in his mouth. "Help... me."
Jaro's laughter filled the room. "But, my striped friend, I am helping you. I'm helping you understand exactly what you are." The dragon rose, and he moved behind the wheelchair once more. "And, more importantly, what you aren't."
As Jaro wheeled him back toward the sterile room where this cycle of degradation began, Vull felt the last fragments of his former self - the confident trainer, the desirable male, the being with agency and will - slip away like water between cupped paws. All that remained now was the trembling vessel of his body, a cage that now imprisoned nothing but a memory of who he once was.
The wheelchair creaked under Vull's weight as he shifted, trying to find a position that didn't send needles of discomfort through his drugged limbs. His tongue felt too large for his mouth, words sliding off it like raindrops on waxed fur. "C-could you... please... adjust the..." He couldn't even finish the sentence, his voice just a fractured whisper that barely disturbed the air between them. The tiger who once commanded attention with a flex of his bicep now reduced to begging for the smallest mercy.
Jaro's emerald scales caught the light as he circled the wheelchair, a predator still assessing prey that's already been caught. "What was that? I couldn't quite hear you over the sound of your dignity evaporating."
Vull swallowed hard, the muscles in his throat working visibly beneath the short cropped orange and black fur. "My arm... it's... pinned." His right arm had slipped between the wheelchair's metal frame and seat cushion, the circulation slowly being cut off. The tingling sensation would be merely uncomfortable if he could move, but in his drugged state, it was another layer of helplessness atop the mountain already crushing him.
"Oh dear," Jaro said, voice dripping with concern. "The mighty tiger can't manage a simple adjustment? The same tiger who boasted about bench-pressing three hundred pounds on his first night here?" The dragon leaned down, his lips close to Vull's ear. "How does it feel to need help with everything? To be so utterly dependent on the same being you once threatened to—what was it again?—'tear limb from scaly limb'?"
Vull's eyes closed, unable to bear the scrutiny. "Please," he whispered again, the word a prayer to a deity who has proven consistently cruel and uncaring.
Jaro's claws tapped rhythmically against the wheelchair's armrest. "Please, what? Please, Master Jaro? Please, oh merciful keeper?" The dragon's golden eyes narrowed. "You still can't be bothered to learn the most basic proper etiquette, can you?"
"Please... Master Jaro," Vull managed, each syllable dragging his tender tongue across the sharp shards of his ruined fangs. "My arm hurts."
"'C-c-can you help me, Master Jaro?'" the dragon mimics, his voice a high-pitched parody of Vull's drug-slurred speech. "'I'm j-j-just a helpless k-kitty who can't take care of himself.'" And then, in an act of disgust, the dragon spit, a slick and cool blob of phlegm landing on the tiger's shoulder. It drooled slowly down over his pectoral, dangling off of the tiger's wide nipple.
Vull wanted to shrink into himself, but even that small movement was denied him. A tremor ran through his body, not from the drugs in his system, but from the effort of containing the emotion building in his chest. His broad shoulders hunched forward as much as his paralyzed state would allow.
The tears came unbidden, warm and wet in trickles down his cheek, staining the striped fur. Then another. And another. The tears came unbidden, each one a silent betrayal of the last fragments of his composure.
Jaro paused mid-taunt, his forked tongue flickering out to taste the air. The dragon's head tilted, curiosity replacing mockery for a moment. "Are you... crying? Over this?" Genuine surprise colored his tone. "After everything else I've done to you, this is what breaks the dam?"
Vull couldn't answer. His chest heaved with silent sobs, each one sending ripples of shame through him. The tears flowed freely now, matting the fur beneath his eyes and clinging to his whiskers before dropping onto his denuded lap.
Jaro moved around to face him, bending at the waist to bring their eyes level. The dragon studied him with clinical detachment, as if observing a specimen under glass. "Fascinating. This isn't the first time I've humiliated you. Not even the hundredth. Yet here you are, dissolving into tears over a pinned arm and some name-calling." A claw traced the wet path on Vull's cheek. "Why now, tiger? What makes today different?"
The question hung between them, unexpectedly genuine. Vull's breath hitched, caught between sobs. He tried to turn away, but Jaro's hand gripped his jaw, holding him in place.
"Answer me," the dragon commanded, his voice lower now, almost intimate in its intensity. "What's different today?"
Vull's lips trembled. The drug made it hard to organize his thoughts, but something in Jaro's gaze compelled him to try.
"I... I just want..." The words stuck in his throat like burrs. "I want to be good enough."
The scales on Jaro's brow ridges rose with surprise. "Good enough? For what?"
"For you." The admission escaped Vull's lips, shocking them both. "I keep... trying. To earn it. Freedom. Respect. Something. Anything." His speech came out in quick, broken fragments, each one painful to extract. "But nothing works. I can't... can't be what you want."
The dragon stepped back slightly, as if Vull has suddenly become radioactive. "What I want? And what do you think that is, exactly?"
Vull's drugged mind scrambled for clarity. "I don't know anymore. At first, I thought... escape. That was all I wanted. To get away." The tears continued to fall, but his voice steadied somewhat. "Now I just want... to stop disappointing you. To be worth...you know... something. Anything. In your eyes."
Discomfort flickered across Jaro's reptilian features. He straightened up, creating distance. "You want my approval? After everything?" His laugh held less cruelty than before, edged instead with bewilderment. "After everything you've gone through?" He scoffed. "You're more broken than I realized."
"Maybe." Vull's admission hung in the air between them. "Or maybe... when everything else is gone... there's just one thing left for me to hold on to."
Jaro stared at him, silent for a long moment. Then, with mechanical precision, he reached down and gently extracted Vull's arm from where it's trapped. His scaled fingers move with unexpected care, supporting the limb as he repositioned it onto the nude tiger's lap.
"Better?" The question lacked the dragon's usual bite.
Vull nodded, unable to speak through the knot in his throat. Blood rushed back into his arm, bringing with it a thousand prickling needles.
"You're a puzzle, tiger." Jaro pulled up a chair, sitting across from the wheelchair. His movements had lost their performative cruelty, replaced by something more contemplative. "Most in your position would hate me with every fiber of their being. They'd fantasize about my death, my suffering. Yet here you are, crying because you think you've failed me." He leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "Why?"
Vull swallowed, tasting salt. "Because hate.. hate would take energy I don't have anymore." His chest rose and fell with each labored breath. "Because... maybe... if I could just be what you wanted... this could stop. Or change." His eyes, clouded by drugs but still burning with something more profound than mere defiance, meet Jaro's. "Maybe I still need to win, even if it's by losing."
The confession hung between them, fragile and terrifying in its nakedness.
Jaro's claws tapped against the arm of his chair, a nervous gesture at odds with his usual calculated movements. "And if I told you that what I want is your complete submission? Your dignity ground to dust beneath my heel?"
"Then I'd give it," Vull whispers. "I already have. You didn't give me that choice. You just did it."
Something shifted in the air between them, a charge, like the moment before lightning strikes. Jaro's expression softened almost imperceptibly, the hard lines of his reptilian face smoothing for just a heartbeat.
"You're not what I expected," the dragon admitted, his voice low. "When I first saw you, with your swagger and your physique and your... obvious assets... I thought you were just another pretty shell with nothing inside worth examining." His clawed hand reached out, hesitated, and then brushes a tear from Vull's whiskers with surprising gentleness. "Perhaps I was mistaken."
The touch sent an electric current through Vull, so different from the clinical handling he's grown accustomed to. Their eyes met, and for a moment, recognition passed between them. An acknowledgment of something more complex than captor and captive.
Then Jaro blinked, and the spell broke.
The dragon pulled his hand back as if burned, scales flushing a darker green. He stood abruptly, the chair scraping against the floor. "What am I doing?" The question seemed directed at himself rather than Vull.
Vull watched him, hope and dread mingling in his chest. "Jaro?"
"Don't." The word snapped like a whip. "Don't mistake momentary curiosity for weakness, mammal." But the insult lacked its usual venom, sounding instead like a man trying to convince himself.
Jaro paced, his claws clicking against the floor. "This is pathetic. You're pathetic." Again, the words seem directed inward as much as outward. "Getting soft over a few tears? What next—a bedtime story and a goodnight kiss?"
Vull remained silent, watching the dragon's internal struggle play out in real time. His own mind, clearing slightly as the drug began to metabolize, raced with implications. This is new territory - a crack in Jaro's armor he'd never glimpsed before.
"You think your weakness moves me?" Jaro rounded on him suddenly, golden eyes flashing. "That I care about your feelings, your desires? You're entertainment, property. Nothing more."
But the words rang hollow, lacking the conviction they held only hours before. Vull saw it in the way Jaro's tail lashed, in the tightness around his eyes. The dragon was rattled.
"I understand," Vull said softly, not pushing, not challenging.
"No, you don't." Jaro's voice hardened again, scales visibly tightening against his frame. "If you understood, you wouldn't sit there looking at me like... like that." He gestured vaguely at Vull's face. "Like you see something that isn't there."
"What do you think I see?" The question slipped out before Vull can stop it.
Jaro stiffens. "I think you're constructing fantasies to help yourself cope with reality. Stockholm syndrome at its finest." He moved behind the wheelchair, gripping the handles with unnecessary force. "You're soft. Weak. Pathetically eager for any scrap of kindness. It's revolting."
But his hands, when they adjusted Vull's position in the chair, remain gentle despite his harsh words.
"Maybe I am," Vull acknowledged, his voice steadier now. "But something just changed between us. You felt it too."
Jaro's only response is a noncommittal grunt as he began wheeling Vull from the room. The silence stretched between them, filled with unspoken questions neither is ready to articulate. The tiger's tears have dried, leaving his fur stiff and salty, but the vulnerability they revealed cannot be so easily wiped away.
As they move down the corridor, Vull realized that for the first time since his captivity began, he's seen something in Jaro beyond calculated cruelty. He's seen something flawed and uncertain and, paradoxically, more dangerous because of it. The realization settles in his chest, not quite hope, but perhaps its distant cousin: possibility.
Jaro guided the wheelchair back into the bathroom, as the manor's help cleared the table behind them. Vull's head wobbled as he stared at the bathtub that took up one side of the room, a huge white porcelain island in a sea of sterile tiles. Overhead heat lamps bathed it in warm, reddish glow, but the deep smooth basin was empty. Vull's limbs remained treacherously heavy, the drug's grip loosened but still present enough to keep Vull docile and contained.
Jaro twisted set the plug, and turned on the handle. Water splashed into the bowl, and began to steam as it heated up.
"You've been wallowing in your own filth for days," Jaro announced, as he stroked fingers through the pool of water. He flicked them dry, and turned back to Vull, stepping behind him. A hand pushed at his shoulders, forcing him to lean forward. "Your stench offends me. I think it's time to bathe the dirty kitten."
Vull watched the water level rise, swirling excitedly in the large, deep tub. He felt the arms of the dragon slide under his armpits, lifting upwards and pulling him from the chair. The dragon's scales felt cool and dry against the tiger's fur, and while Vull had felt the scales before, this felt different, some how. The tiger was helpless to assist or resist, as Jaro carried him over the tub. Vull's thighs, and knees, scraped over the edge of the rounded rub edge, as Jaro began to lower him into it. His tail flopped into the scalding water.
"It's too hot," Vull said, knowing that Jaro already knew. The dragon hadn't even touched the cold water tap, and the heater in the basement was nothing if not efficient.
"Is it?" Jaro asks with feigned innocence. "For soft, puffy little kittens perhaps. I guess I hadn't noticed."
Vull's arms hung limply down, and with his legs still caught against the edge of the bathtub, it was his fingers that touched the water first. It was scalding. He gasped as he was lowered in, trying to buck, to pull away as the heat swallowed his palms and wrists. His tail twitched involuntarily, the only part of him still responding properly to stimuli.
"Too hot for the kitty?" Jaro asked, as Vull's rear end dipped into the hot water. The dragon released the felin, and Vull found himself suddenly dunked. The hot water rushed up over belly, his chest, his thighs and arms, as he dropped down into the rising water with a splash. With his feet hooked over the edge of the tub, this meant he was laying down on the bottom of the tub, with the hot water already almost over the end of his snout.
Steam rose between them, as Jaro grinned down at Vull. "Oops." He reached down, and caressed his fingers over the tiger's head. "Your foot is stuck."
Vull wanted to reply, but if he opened his mouth, it would fill with water. So he stared, pleadingly up to the dragon who's thick claws traced along his brow. His entire body burned, scalded by the hot water, but
"Isn't the heat nice?" Jaro asked, as he strolled around the edge of the tump, grasping the tiger's feet in his paws. He lifted them up, pulling Vull's butt along the bottom of the tub, and the tiger found his head briefly dunked under the scalding water. It stung as it flowed up into his nose, and Vull wheezed outwards, blowing bubbles out through his snout to keep from choking on the hot water. He tried to kick, to pull his leg free of Jaro's grip, but he was still far, far too weak.
And that's when Vull felt fear. He was submerged, and his arms wouldn't respond, and he couldn't push himself up out of the water. Bubbles trickled out of his nose, as he weakly flexed his legs, trying to push himself free. He couldn't hear what the dragon was saying, but he could hear the muted, muffled tone as Jaro mumbled something.
Was this how Vull was going to die? Had he crossed an immutable line, in his revelation of himself to the dragon? Vull knew that Jaro got bored of toys easily, but, despite Jaro's sadistic cruelty, he had never gotten the impression that Jaro was capable of something like this. Hot water began to drool down the back of his throat, through his sinuses, and he feebly kicked again, his toes splaying as he tried to free himself from Jaro's grip.
The dragon pushed down, then, his grip around Vull's ankles using the length of the tiger's limbs to shovel him against the back of the tub. Vull's head surfaced, water pouring out of his nose, dribbling and tickling as it seeped out over his lips. His lungs twitched, and he coughed, blinkling blearily.
"Welcome back, stinky cat," Jaro said, as he perched on the side of the tub. The water was still filling up the water, but the air of the bathroom was cold against the tiger's wet, steaming skin. "Oh, you look so petulant. It was merely a dunk, to help rinse off the brine of your filth. Surely you don't mind my assistance, right?"
Vull said nothing, his eyes burning with the heat of the scalding. He coughed, and looked down, at the water that was sliding up along his chest. He was still slumped in the tub, and he knew that it would take very little effort for Jaro to push down on his head and submerge him back beneath the water.
"Come on, kitten, why are you being so quiet?" Jaro asked, as he ran his fingers through the water, splashing it onto Vull's face. "No threats? No pleas? I admit, I miss your colorful vocabulary."
Vull's eyes trackedthe rising water. "Hard to talk," he managed, "when you're focused on not drowning."
The water reached his shoulders. He tried to flex his powerful abs, to lift himself up a bit out of the water, but could not. He tried to lock his legs, to force him up out of the water that way - but he could not. Vull began sliding back down the sloped back of the tub, his body seeking the path of least resistance. Soon the water laps at his neck, threatening to subsume him entirely again.
"Jaro," he said, the name an urgent warning. "The water."
"Yes, it's wet. Very observant." The dragon makes no move toward the faucet. His eyes remain fixed on Vull's face, watching with scientific interest at the contortions of panic begin to re-emerge on Vull's handsome muzzle. The water touched Vull's chin, and he strained to lift his head, neck muscles trembling with the effort. His drug-weakened body betrayed him again, as he finds himself only able to raise his muzzle perhaps an inch before the strength abandoned him.
"Jaro!" This time, the name was spoken as a plea. "Please!"
Water licked at the corners of Vull's mouth. He can taste it, hot and metallic. He was going to do it. The dragon was just going to let him slowly sink under the water. Maybe he hadn't killed off his previous pets, but he couldn't help himself, and fuck if Vull wasn't about to be the first. Just as the water threatened to cover Vull's nostrils, Jaro's clawed hand reached past him and twisted the faucet shut. The sudden silence is deafening, as the water rippled against the tiger's snout, exhales gusting across its surface.
"Were you worried?" the dragon asked, amused. "Did you think I'd let you drown, after all the effort I've put into training you?" His claw traced the waterline on Vull's neck. "Death is so... final. And we're only just beginning to understand each other, aren't we?"
Relief crashed through Vull's system, leaving him weak in ways the drug couldn't explain. The water remained perilously high, requiring constant vigilance to keep his muzzle above the surface. Even still, even if each breath came with the risk of inhaling liquid instead of air, it was not getting worse.
"Thank you," Vull whispered, the words genuine... despite everything.
Something shifted in Jaro's expression, a minute softening around the eyes, gone so quickly Vull might have imagined it. "Don't thank me yet," the dragon said, rolling up the sleeves of his tailored shirt. "We haven't even started the actual bathing."
Jaro reached for a bottle of shampoo on the tub's edge, squeezing a generous amount onto his palm. The scent, rich with sandalwood and something citrusy, soaked into the steam. Without warning, his clawed hands plunge into the water, finding Vull's chest beneath the surface.
The tiger flinches, expecting pain. Instead, Jaro's touch is shockingly... careful? The dragon began to work the shampoo into Vull's fur. Scaled fingers moved in slow circles, creating a lather that turns the water cloudy.
"You've neglected your grooming," Jaro observed, working methodically down Vull's torso, fingers caressing the tiger's abs. "Your fur is cropped, and you've still somehow gotten it matted in places. Not very becoming for a species that prides itself on cleanliness."
Vull said nothing, too focused on keeping his nose above water and processing this unexpected gentleness. Jaro's claws, capable of slicing through his flesh with minimal effort, now examined the tiger's body. Vull waited for the surprise, the stab, the slice. It didn't come.
"Lift your arm," Jaro commanded, tapping Vull's elbow under the water. The tiger's arms floated in the water, a few inches below the surface.
"I can't," Vull whispered. "Too heavy. Too weak."
"Do it anyways," Jaro replied.
With monumental effort, Vull managed to raise his arm perhaps two inches above the water, though the weight of it was almost overwhelmingly. Jaro tsked disapprovingly but worked with what he's given, cleaning the sensitive area beneath with unexpected consideration.
"The other one."
Again, Vull struggled to comply, achieving even less movement this time. Frustration flashed across his face, the tiger furious at himself for being unable to do as expected.
"I can't do any better," he admitted, the words catching in his throat.
Jaro sighs, but instead of mockery, his response held a note of something almost like patience. "Then I'll help." He lifted Vull's arm himself, supporting its weight while he washes underneath. The intimate contact of scaled hands against scalded skin sent shivers across Vull's skin that had nothing to do with temperature.
The dragon worked his way down Vull's body with professional efficiency. When he reached the tiger's waist, he paused, golden eyes flicking up to meet Vull's.
"Even this needs cleaning," he said, clinical detachment failing to mask something else in his tone. His clawed hand slid lower, beneath the water's surface.
Vull's breath catches as Jaro's fingers wrapped around the chrome portal ring that he was forced to wear between his thighs. The fingers curved underneath it, pulling against it. The touch was impersonal, but the sensation of those fingers exploring that area caused the tiger to flush hot and red, even more so than he was from the hot water soak/
"You had impressive equipment," Jaro admitted, as his fingers gently stroked under the chrome rim with unexpected care. "I can see why you built your identity around it. It made it all the more enjoyable to remove that part of your identity. I wondered what I'd find underneath that machismo. I knew there would be more to you. Now, I'm finally seeing what it is."
The comment landed like a slap, all the more shocking for its backhanded compliment. Vull blinked, water droplets clinging to his lashes. "What?"
But Jaro had already moved on, his hands finding Vull's thighs beneath the water. He kneaded the powerful muscles there, working shampoo into the striped fur with circular motions. "You're filthy all over," he said, but the insult lacks its usual sting. "No wonder you mammals need to bathe so frequently. Your fur traps everything."
The bath continued in this strange, intimate dance, with Jaro's hands moving over Vull's body with alternating clinical detachment and unsettling tenderness. The tiger remained hyperaware of the water level, still high enough to threaten drowning if he relaxed his vigilance. Yet Jaro's touch, for all its complexity, had become almost hypnotic.
"Turn your head," Jaro instructed, one clawed hand supporting Vull's neck as he maneuvered him. "I need to wash your mane."
Vull complied, letting Jaro adjust his position. The dragon cupped water in his palm, pouring it carefully over Vull's head to wet his fur while keeping his face above the surface. It's a considerate gesture that seemed at odds with the Jaro who filled the tub to near-drowning levels in the first place.
"You're being... careful," Vull observed, the words slow and deliberate.
Jaro's hands paused momentarily in their shampooing. "You're valuable property," he said, the explanation coming too quickly. "Damaged goods fetch a lower price."
"Is that all I am? Property?" The question hung between them, made possible only by this strange moment of vulnerability.
Jaro's claws scraped gently against Vull's scalp as he worked the shampoo into a lather. "What else would you be?" The question sounds almost genuine, as if the dragon was truly curious.
"I don't know anymore." Vull's eyes closed as Jaro's fingers worked against his scalp, the sensation unexpectedly pleasurable after months of pain. "Something... more?"
The dragon makes a noncommittal sound, hands never stilling in their rhythmic motions. "You're certainly cleaner now, though still unbearably stinky by dragon standards."
"You don't seem to mind the stink," Vull observed, a hint of his old boldness resurfacing. "You're being very thorough."
Something like amusement flickered in Jaro's golden eyes. "A proper master maintains his possessions, even the malodorous ones."
"Is that what you're doing? Maintaining me?" Vull watched Jaro's face, searching for cracks in the façade.
"Among other things." The dragon reached for a cup on the edge of the tub. "Close your eyes. I'm going to rinse your fur."
Vull obeyed, feeling hot water cascade over his head, running in rivulets down his face and neck. Jaro's hand shielded his eyes from the soapy water, another small kindness that confused more than it comforted.
When the rinsing is complete, Jaro sat back, surveying his work. Vull's fur, cleaner than it's been in months, clung to his form in wet patterns that emphasized his musculature. Despite months of captivity, his body still held the memory of strength.
"There," Jaro pronounced, satisfaction evident in his tone. "Much better. You were beginning to smell like a wet throw rug left in the sun."
"Thank you," Vull said again, meaning it regardless of the insult.
Jaro's expression shifted, discomfort replacing satisfaction. "Don't thank me. This isn't kindness."
"Then what is it?"
The dragon stood abruptly, water dripping from his scaled forearms onto the tiled floor. "It's maintenance, as I said. Nothing more." But his eyes didn't meet Vull's as he said it.
"The water's getting cool," Vull said, a shiver running through him to prove the point. "Is this the part where you push my underneath the surface and walk away?"
Jaro pursed his narrow lips. "Go on and give me ideas, see how that works for you." Jaro reached down, strong arms sliding beneath Vull's shoulders and knees. "Let's get you out."
The lift from the water was smooth and careful. Jaro cradled Vull against his chest, mindful of the tiger's drug-weakened state. Water streamed from Vull's fur, forming puddles on the bathroom floor that reflected the warm overhead lighting.
Jaro set him on a bench beside the tub, then reached for a towel. Instead of handing it to Vull, he begins drying the tiger himself, rubbing the soft fabric against short wet fur with methodical thoroughness.
"You don't have to—" Vull began.
"You can't even lift your arms properly," Jaro interrupted. "Would you prefer to sit here dripping until the drug wears off completely? That will be hours."
Vull subsided, letting the dragon tend to him. The towel moved across his body, his chest, arms, back, and flanks, leaving warm, dry paths through his damp fur. The sensation is surprisingly pleasant after the bath's tension.
"You're good at this," Vull observed quietly.
Jaro's hands stilled for a moment. "I've had practice."
"With other... pets?"
The dragon resumed drying, his movements perhaps slightly less gentle. "That's none of your concern."
"I'd like to know," Vull persisted, emboldened by this strange new dynamic. "If there were others like me. If they're..." He trailed off, unsure how to finish.
"If they survived?" Jaro supplied, voice hardening. "If they earned their freedom? If I showed them... kindness?" He wrung the towel between his hands with unnecessary force. "You ask dangerous questions, tiger."
"Only because today, for the first time, I think you might actually answer them."
Their eyes met. Amber versus gold, mammal versus reptile, captive versus captor. It wasn't friendship, it probably wasn't even understanding, but it might be the first, fragile tendril of recognition.
Jaro broke the contact first, turning away to hang the damp towel. "You're clean now. Less offensive to my senses." His voice held forced casualness. "You can thank me."
But as Jaro helped Vull back into the wheelchair, his touch lingered longer than necessary. And when he thought the tiger isn't looking, his expression held something that might, in a different light, almost resemble tenderness. Perhaps he didn't know that Vull could see it. Perhaps he did.
The bathroom's humid air surrounded them, thick and cloying.
"Where now?" Vull asked, his voice quiet in the steam-filled room.
Jaro's claws rested on the wheelchair's handles, his reflection fragmenting across the bathroom's mirrored surfaces. "I don't know," he admited, the words barely audible. "I genuinely don't know."",
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