No Longer Freedom

3. Money or weapon.

Tord's POV

"So, what are we going to do now?" Patryk asked while sipping his coffee from his skull shaped cup. "We are going to sell it of course! what did you think?" Paul replied while pouring more coffee into his dragon heart shaped cup. "10 000 000! Imagine all the things we could do with that amount of gold." He continued cheerfully. However, for some reason I was not happy.

The further the conversation went the less I paid attention to it. I leaned on the palm of my hand and stared at my dragon skull cup as the dark brown liquid full of caffeine spin around my skeleton spoon. The clinking sound that it made when the spoon hit the cup's walls drowned me into my thoughts, as some anonymous odd feeling punched my stomach. The hollow thought of me getting that amount of money was absurd. Weren't I supposed to be happy? I won, finally. I had won the jackpot. But, what would I do now? I didn't know anymore.

"Tord!!" I winced slightly for Paul's call out. "Hm!?" I corrected my posture and sipped my now coldened coffee. "Ewwwh, that's cold." I shook my head as I passed the cup aside. "Oh, yeah you called." I sighed and raised my gaze on Paul and Patryk who were seated across the dark black table. "You weren't listening, were you?" Paul muttered as he tapped his middle finger on the glass topping that protected the table. "You were thinking of something." Patryk continued as he put his empty cup to the side.

"You two know me too well." I nodded. "We sure do." Paul agreed and stood up. "So, what's on your mind?" Patryk asked with his familiar motherly tone. "It's just...Ugh" I paused for a second so I could collect all the words that came to my mind. "I'm not sure  what I want to do with him. I mean... I don't know if I want to sell him anymore." I tried to explain.

To my surprise, Patryk did not look astounded  at all but Paul on the other hand was in complete shock. "I knew it." Patryk chuckled as he stood up. "The way you mesmerized it in the cave proved my guess right." Patryk said proudly. "Can you call him by him and he pronouns? He is not an animal." I started to tap my right foot threateningly against the floor. "Well he is not completely human either but sure if you say so." He noted. "Anyhow, I knew you wouldn't let go so easily. You have been hunting him down for a good time now. It wouldn't be like you to just give him to someone else right away." Patryk continued as he patted my shoulder.

"But what about the gold!" Paul exclaimed. "Where will we get our money if our only income is gone?" His voice started to get a bit taut when he started talking faster like it usually when he was getting worried. "Calm down Paul. I got this. I will tame him faster than you get the dishes done. He will be wrapped around my little finger without a problem." I hid my grin under my hand and stood up. "He will be our ultimate weapon. When we have him, we will take over Stardie without a doubt. I will make sure of it."

Paul and Patryk looked at each other for a second before Patryk opened his mouth. "If you say so." He looked at me a little desperately as he took a thigh grip off my shoulder. "But please remember what we told you yesterday. Don't be so hard on him." He continued while rubbing my shoulder. "Depends how he behaves." I rolled my eyes and turned my back. "Be careful, you don't know shit about what it can do." Paul mentioned, before I went out. "What an imbecile. Of course I know how to handle dragons." I rolled my eyes again.

The grass watered by autumn rain got my shoes wet when I walked closer to the little stone building. I hummed joyfully to myself as I opened the heavily locked door. I threw the iron chains on the ground and pushed the creaking door open. "Wakey, wakey monster." I turned on the oil lamp next to the doors. The building had just one dim, damp and abandoned room. Back then we used to use this as a warehouse but we found few rats then, so it weren't really hygienic anymore.

From the darkest corner I heard rattle of chains hitting each other. "How do you feel?" I picked up the oil lamp and walked to the corner where the dragon man were. "Fucking guess." The man growled as his horns started to glow. The dim blue light showed me his furious face. "What an attitude you have." I chuckled and bent down to face him. "What a punchable face you have." He spat as he tried to kick me. "Easy there, I can take those off if you play nicely." I smirked and sat beside him. "What do you even want, fucking kidnapper?" He started to struggle immediately after I sat on the cold stone floor. "To know you." I hummed and stared at his black obsidian eyes. They were so mystically captivating that I could stare at them for hours.

"Well that's not creepy at all." He said sarcastically as he turned his back. "Do you have a name? Or am I just gonna call you my Midnight Pearl?" As soon as I finished my sentence His other ear twitched a bit. He turned his head inhumanly 180 degrees to face me, it was more like an owl twisting it's head then a human. He showed me his deadly claws. "What did you just call me?" He growled. "A Midnight Pearl. It has been your name for the past 3 years. I saw you for the first time when I was in a cell. You flew against the full moon. It reminded me of a pearl and you remind me of the midnight so that's how I came up with that name." I explained as I kept on my social mask.

"So you are a stalker. How awesome... Disgusting." He hissed as he turned his back to me again. "Stop calling me that. My name is Tom." He spat as he tried to correct his posture. "I like your name." I gave him a fake smile while I started to reach out his tail. It looked so strong that I almost wanted to  cut it and make a hand armor out of it. "My name is Tord but you will call me either boss or sir." As my hand started to get closer to his tail Tom turned his head to face mine. "Did I ask? And what the hell do you think you are doing?" Tom showed me his white teeth's as a warning to back off.

I didn't want to trigger him too much so I backed up. I were trying to be friendly first so he would softened a bit. Then he would be way more easier to crush. 'If you want to make sure that people will stay by your side forever, you just have to give them the right amount of attention and praises so they won't leave you or stick a knife down in your back when you start using them.' That's what dad taught me, and it had worked perfectly so far.

I were shaking my head as I focused on the angry man in front of me. "You stink a bit, you know that, right?" I chuckled and stood up. "I will rip your mouth open if you won't stop making that annoying face." He clenched his jaw. "And what did you expect? I have lived my whole life as a wild creature? Until you decided to fuck my life and freedom up. Thanks to you, I have no longer freedom." He held back his anger but I were able to see how his body trembled as it fills itself with adrenaline.

"Well, at least I'm not gonna sell you like a sheep. You should be thankful for that." I started stretching my arms before I would set this man free from the chains. Well, for a while. "You should be thankful that I don't have the energy to tear you apart." He gnarl back. "What a stubborn creature you are." I hummed as I started to unlock his chains. "I'm a regular dragon. I don't understand why you are so obsessed with me." Tom spat. "I have never seen a dragon who could talk or change its form." I explained and threw his chains on the floor. "And don't even think about esca-" I wasn't even able to finish my sentence when I felt sharp and tingling pain in my face. Thankfully I managed to shut my eyes before Tom's pointy claws scratched the right side of my face. I felt how his rough nails sank into my cold skin making it warm by staining it with my own thick blood. The sudden pain caused me to yelp and back up a few steps. "You are not the only one who can act." He said as he rushed to the door. Tom opened it smoothly, stepped outside and locked it after him. "HEY!!" I screamed and ran to the door blindly but it was too late. He chained the door and flew away.

"Damn it!!!" I shouted and punched the door. My face felt like it was burning and It was hard to open my right eye. "Huh...?" My hands couldn't stay still. Blood was dripping down my face. It left red stains on my brand new t-shirt. I tried to touch the wounds so I could had figured out how deep they were but I couldn't. It burned way too much. "Ugh...So... this karma...?" I groaned and continued punching the door.

No effect.

"How about this then?" I slammed my whip twice against the door, breaking it easily. The room filled itself with bright light of the sun as I stepped out of it. It was too bright for my injured eye. My vision started to get blurry as I felt how my right eye started to bleed. "That son of a bitch..." I gritted my teeth.

"THE MIDNIGHT PEARL HAS ESCAPED!!! EVERYBODY, LOOK OUT FOR HIM!!! HUNT HIM DOWN!! HARM HIM ALL YOU WANT BUT DON'T LET THAT SNAKE DIE!... That would be too easy." I proclaimed and watched as all of my soldiers went to the forest. "I will find you, Tom..." 

Sorry for the short chapter qwq. I'm trying to draw Tom's human form and it's super hard I don't want to mess it up.

Okay so did you liked this chapter? I hope so. Anyways I hope you had a wonderful day and you will come back next week. 

Bye my little strawberries. 

Edited 16th of April 2025