allingoodfun (allingoodfun) wrote in st_margarets, @ 2014-04-04 22:06:00 |
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Current mood: | sore |
Entry tags: | character: ashton hartley, character: trent kane, location: ashton's lair |
Log: Blinded By Greed
WHO: Trent & Ashton
WHEN: 4th April 2014
WHERE: Ashton’s Lair
WARNINGS: Somebody gets hurt boys and girls and I'll give you three guesses as to who it is, but you'll only need one ;)
Visiting Ashton's lair had become such a regular occurrence that Trent didn't think anything of just wandering around, comfortable in the knowledge that by now Ashton didn't think he was going to make off with anything in his hoard, which by Trent's reckoning had grown in size.
Of course that complacency could very well be his downfall if he wasn't careful, but Trent was a risk taker and rarely played it safe.
Besides Trent had no interest in the gold, never had and never would.
The southerner paused for a moment thinking it odd that the gold wasn't as covered up as it was normally. Had Ashton been sorting it which had led to it being so exposed? Not that Trent was looking at it for any particular reason, but more curious as to why the dragon hadn't sought to hide it like he would do normally.
He disregarded his interest a moment later and turned to look at Ashton.
“Lair’s looking good, Ashton.”
---
Ashton was walking in through the entrance in his dragon form and gradually shifting, his appearance changing from dark beast to dark clad tall boy in a fluid move like smoke. His scales were becoming more and more uncomfortable and itchy as his time to molt drew closer and closer. He knew he had to do something about that, but aside from contacting Blake to take him to the volcanoes in Iceland, where he was hatched, he didn't know what to do. And he definitely didn't want to see his Keeper again any time soon.
He liked having Trent in his lair. It was fitting and it was a place no one else could get to. A place he could be alone with his human, away from all of Trent's other friends and their other distractions. Sometimes he wanted to steal Trent away in the middle of the day to come here, but knew he was disallowed to transform to his true form outside of the night time hours Ms. Menides designated. It was for his safety, as well as the school. Modern day lynch mobs demanding the death of the monster hiding in the castle would probably cause a lot more international news than it used to, back in the days of his parents.
To Trent's comment on his lair, Ashton felt a little bit of pride swell up in him. It was looking good, and Ashton was taking care to make the lair larger as he grew, carving out extra space in the walls and forming up his bed where he spent the nights asleep after his patrol flights. The hollowed out space in the rock that was about the size of a dragon was lined with some sand he had carried up, carefully, to the lair from the shore. It helped with the itching of his hide to be able to roll in the sand and rub his hard scales against the grains.
Walking to the back of his lair, Ashton dug into his pockets and started to produce gold he'd put there before they left. It was his latest acquisitions and he glanced at Trent as he crouched beside the uncovered treasure stash to add them to it, placing them carefully, tenderly among the rest. "Thank you. It's a good lair. The weres have not sniffed it out and even if they did, they can't get to it on their four legs unless they learned how to fly," he said with a snort, standing again and dusting off his hands.
Turning to look at Trent, Ashton shrugged. "But I like it here."
---
What was Ashton’s deal with werewolves anyways? Trent wasn’t entirely sure, but he figured that was a conversation for another place and another time. “I should hope so, right? This is your hideaway from the rest of the world. Gotta make it mean somethin’ and be somewhere you’re comfortable.”
He watched as Ashton added yet more gold to the growing pile impressed that Ashton had managed to find so much when gold wasn’t all that common.
And yet his eye caught sight of something shiny near the entrance of the lair and Trent figured it was something Ashton had dropped, something he hadn’t noticed during his shifting back into his human form and he wouldn’t want to miss that.
“I think you dropped somethin’,” Trent drawled as he approached the item in question.
---
Ashton's back straightened when Trent pointed out he'd dropped something, and immediately his hands went to his pockets, like he should know, he should know how much gold he had, what he had put down. But before he could remember exactly, Trent was moving that direction and something snapped inside the dragon. The easy quiet he'd had with Trent in his lair went away and he went on the defense, knowing his gold was exposed, at risk, and that it wasn't all together and safe. Some of it was missing and the human was heading straight for it.
A snarl tore from his throat as he lunged at Trent, shoving him down to the ground in a hard roll that brought them back up, Ashton's hands around his throat, lifted off the ground. The Icelandic boy's features were transformed, all but unrecognizable with how fierce he looked as he held Trent suspended, silver slitted eyes glaring at him like he would an enemy. "Mine," he hissed.
With every protective bone in his body cued to keep his gold from falling into the wrong hands again, from being taken from him, Ashton's addiction, his mental and physical need to guard the gold erased all else from his conscience. With a savage twist, his hand tightening on Trent's neck almost to the point of crushing it, the dragon hurled him away from the gold and into the stone wall he had neatly and carefully carved out with his own claws and fire.
---
Trent's eyes widened as within seconds of his moving towards the gold Ashton was on him and before he had a chance of engaging his telekinetics he had hard unrelenting hands wrapped around his neck. The pressure was so intense that Trent was struggling for air, his own hands reaching up to try and claw at Ashton's.
"Ash-" He struggled as the force seemed only to increase the more he fought and the harder he tried to get words out. "I didn-" His heartbeat was increased, rapidly beating against his chest and panic was clear as Trent's feet dangled inches off the ground and the world dipped in and out of focus as his air supply rapidly dwindled.
Ashton looked as though he wanted to kill him and would kill him if Trent didn't do something or anything just to break free, to try and talk some sense into his gold crazed friend.
Fuck, Trent dropped his hands away and just as he was about to use his power the dragon released that crushing grip around his neck and flung him in the direction of the nearest wall. The sound he made as he connected was distinctly unsettling, the solid *thud* followed by a resounding *crack* as Trent's head met unforgivingly with the hard stone wall.
His body slumped to the ground and there was a smear of blood detectable to anyone with enhanced senses and as Trent laid on the ground he felt very much as though he'd been dipped underwater, everything hurt and there was a distinct thread of fear with the knowledge that at any given minute now Ashton could be on him again and he didn't think he could protect himself.
Was this how it was going to end?
"I didn't wan-" Trent's words were slurred, his brow knitting together as he struggled to understand why he couldn't make them make sense and every single one felt as though he was wading through molasses. "I told you I never wanted the gold."
He braced himself and attempted to get up but it failed, the human managing only to roll onto his back and push himself. scrambling even, in the direction of the same wall that had injured him gravely where he slumped, gaze slipping in and out of focus again.
He felt sick, his body was wracked with pain, and his eyes which were normally bright were rapidly dimming.
---
It was the smell of Trent's blood that snapped Ashton back to himself. It was an unexpected tang of metal on the air, iron, one that wasn't a part of his gold or his stash or his addiction - one that was a part of his friend. He blinked, feeling dizzy, staring at Trent where he laid on the ground and, for a moment, Ashton was confused. The recognition of what had happened, of every moment that he'd just lived through, struck him and Ashton made a sound of alarm, his feet moving not towards his gold, but towards Trent.
"Trent, get up," he said tightly, his steps moving quicker as he smelled more blood. "I know you said-- Trent!" What was wrong? Why wasn't he just getting up and dusting himself off? Ashton's heart beat faster as he saw the boy's eyes, filled with pain, and growing dim, losing that light that he had grown fondly familiar with.
He reached out for him, wanting to shake him, wanting to demand that he stand and be alright. But the dragon could feel his gut twisting and he knew something was wrong. He'd killed animals before, he knew what that sound was when Trent had hit the wall. Panic was starting to set in. What had he done?
---
And as Ashton advanced Trent’s sense of self preservation kicked in regardless of the panicked look in Ashton’s eyes and the tight sound of his voice Trent reached out, a telekinetic shield being immediately placed between himself and the dragon. Fear was keeping Ashton out, Trent was willingly keeping him at arm’s length as he struggled to find his footing.
“Jus’ leave me alone,” he mumbled as he struggled to stand, his grip faltering on the rock and his body meeting the ground a moment later. Fuck, why couldn’t he stand up? He needed to get out of here, away from Ashton and somewhere safe.
Of course by putting up the shield he was putting further pressure on his already heavy head, blood pouring from the wound inflicted on it, the trickle of red now present around his neck and filling the hollow of his throat. The same hollow that Ashton had in previous days touched with his mouth. It didn’t take long for his nose to start and for Trent to grimace in pain, the light rapidly growing fainter in his eyes as he tried once more in vain to get to his feet.
Broken, something was broken.
---
Ashton hit the telekinetic barrier and gave a startled few steps backwards, catching his balance. He looked around, then tried again. "Trent. Trent, no! I will not!" He would not leave him alone. He wouldn't give him up. Finding where the barrier started, Ashton pushed against it, senses in overdrive, his hands flat as he pressed, digging in his feet to use all his strength.
But Ashton stopped pushing in a rush when he saw the blood now starting down Trent's nose, soaking into his shirt, into that place on his neck he loved. Another keening sound came from the dragon and he kneeled down, hands lightly resting this time, trapped away from his human because of what he had done, which his addiction had made him do.
"You're hurt. Please get up. Trent." He said his name several more times, trying to get his attention, trying to make him obey.
"Let me through!" he finally roared, shifting form where he had knelt. The black dragon filled the space and rocks were shoved aside as his mass expanded, wings lifting to hit the roof of his lair and tail smashing against the far wall as it lashed with a frantic mind of its own.
---
Trent’s jaw flickered with tension as he felt Ashton’s strength beating against his shield the strain of which caused an explosion of pain through his head completely helped along by the fact the wall had looked to cave his skull in because as thick as it was it was not impenetrable. Humans, fragile creatures at times. This was made more obvious by the angry marks around his neck from where Ashton had nearly crushed his throat.
He wanted more than anything to get up, but every muscle in his body was screaming at him, refusing to follow commands of a fuzzy mind which was even struggling to keep everything in focus.
And then the dragon was there in full form and Trent scrambled backwards, panic clear, but as he managed to find his footing he lost it again, landing with another resounding thud, but this time he didn’t move again.
His gaze was blank, unfocused and as Trent’s grip on consciousness faltered as did the shield which had previously held Ashton back.
Then it failed completely.
---
It hurt Ashton to see Trent's fear of him, and he shrank back, ducking down in his dragon form to try with all his might to not appear threatening. But he was a dragon. It was what he was built to inspire in others. Fear.
He watched Trent stand, the dragon's head coming up in hope that he was going to be okay, but then he was falling again and this time he didn't move. Ashton made a trilling sound in his throat, almost bird-like, his silver eyes whirling with how quickly everything was happening, how helpless he was to stop it, and knowing it was all his fault.
Those eyes were locked on Trent's face and saw the blank expression that settled there. Ashton blinked, made another sound, took a hesitant step closer to his human with his front leg extended and, when Trent didn't move still, when his clawed hand met no forcefield barricade, Ashton rushed in close. Crowding in but not touching, hovering, Ashton cried out with a higher pitched keening sound, lowering his nose to nudge Trent in the side.
There was no response, no reaction from the human and Ashton tried again, more firmly nudging him with his nose. Finally he tore away and circled in a frantic panicked motion of black scales, racing to the back of his lair, then the front, tearing marks in the rock to stop. At the front of his lair he drew in breath and roared, the sound echoing far into the woods.
What had he done? What did he do now? He didn't have Trent there to tell him, or Barclay there to explain what had happened and offer suggestion, or Annabelle there to comfort him. All he had was himself and his gold. It was a cold sinking feeling that brought him no satisfaction. Emptiness.
Turning away from the entrance, Ashton moved back inside, knowing he had to bring Trent to help because he, clearly, was only hurting. Ms. Menides would know what to do. She would know how to help Trent and if there was anyone who could save him, it was someone at that school. And he had to move quickly.
Carefully, hesitant and unsure if what he was doing was causing more pain to Trent or not, Ashton lifted the boy's still form off the floor of his cave and cradled him close, a constant sound coming from his glowing throat that was like a whimper and a mourning howl. With one arm supporting the weight of the human against his warm scaly side, Ashton used the other to walk back to the entrance and he secured Trent tightly, trying not to crush him more. With an angle to his wings, Ashton dropped off the ledge with his human mate in his arms and fell before spreading his wings wide to catch air and carry them both to the academy.
The gold piece at the entrance he'd dropped was left behind, unnoticed. The exit of the dragon and the final sweep of his tail turned the ring onto its side and it rolled, gaining speed as it went down hill and, finally, the piece pinged against a rock and bounced off the ledge and into oblivion to be lost in the ocean below.