***Important note: I re-titled this thread by reposting it myself. This post marks the end of that reposting and is all new!

Thank you, with all of the threads with only 1 post, the original, or that have only the Original Poster reposting over and over again, it's nice to have even one comment, it's pretty inspiring. I hope you like this next chapter, I considered your advice and thought the story forward! I also quite meanly probably won't take all of it, I don't know if I can see Tiamel splaying her out like a butterfly. Though I'll make a reference to that recommendation if I get far enough. [I didn't get far enough this writing session, don't go waiting for it. But I still have the idea up in my head!]

I wasn't planning to make a second chapter in this thread, I guess I'll have to make a whole new thread simply called "LAIR." and start posting there. I had to go and make the title so limiting to myself. Oh well. [I did so. Hence the note at the top]

XXX LAIR

CH 2: Shathahuf

Tiamel's nose droops down to touch the girl. Shaun's breathing quickens as he presses into her body, the pain of any movement threatening to make her black out, she keeps her tie to reality- which is now a strong as torn yarn- out of sheer curiosity about the dragon she has such a rare close proximity to. He rubs his cheek into her, and feels her warm skin give it's heat to his cold. At a tiny twist of her spine in the dragons confused, affectionate nuzzling, she yelps out loud and moans out measley, broken sobs before she graced with fainting. He traced the circle of his home in a huffed three footed pace, holding the sleeping girl he'd fallen for in one palm he held off the ground. This confused the dragon, he was in a daze. What did he want from her? What did he need? He felt there was something he required of her he couldn't get, but he was every passing moment needing whatever it was more. As if an ember in his chest were desperately searching for timber to catch, he felt some glowing spark flit about in his core with the eratic speed and direction of his own mystefied train of thought.

Daylah watched, half blinded by her protection, her mind being fed moment by moment with new terror. Her heart pumping adrenaline into ruined muscles which wrang out with sharp and burning pains as they continued, through exhaustion, to shake. She watched as the albescent beast dropped her friend meters to the hard stone floor. Shaun toppled backwards lazily and crumpled to the ground with a crack of her head against the stone. Daylah whmpered, rustling armors as she tried to lift the weight with her tired muscles... But she knew for certain it was all over for them! Moving made her feel like vomitting. Lifting makes her burning joints grind. So she stays and watches as the paper white lizard inspects Shaun's tiny wrinkled body on the floor.

His sizeable claws hook down to grab Shaun's dress. He can feel the floaty fabric of her skirt and how the flowing, fuzzy quality of it differs from the smooth plush softness of her skin. He likes both, it's so different than armor but it's so similar too. He tries to lift the dress away from her, trying to lift her up first by the hem of her dress. There's a clear noise that shoots through the quiet as her cotton struggles to support the weight of her body and rips at her leg. The dragon responds with a whining yelp that echoes through the halls like a pre-schoolers pouting. He drops her again. His head returns low to the ground, chin planted against the floor to get eye level with his toy. His claw softly flits across the rip as he eyes it, his pupil flitting back and forth analysing the result of his error.

Daylah can't bear the sight. Her whimpers grow louder and louder with the dragons own. Her friend beind dropped and abused and tossed around by a being who can't understand in the slightest the fragility of a human thing. She whimpers out even when the dragons head drops low, and she moves her arm to rise towards her friend until it pokes up through her rattling silver blanket. But she goes silent when she realizes her mistake, the Tiamel's pink eyes move from the rip in the dress to the source of the noise-- her. Tiamel scoops up Shaun again, holding her body-- which he now understands to be quite delicate, cupping her up into one plush palm so she can recline in it.

Daylah silences herself too late as the thing takes body wiggling lizard strides with it's three free claws, dashing towards her armor pile. Before Daylah has even the chance to judge it's distance or speed, she's is touched. Cold armors move around her sore, weight bruised body and a smooth, thick skin travels inside her collar down her bare back, the monsters thumb, it's pointer comes to pinch the back of her shirt and he lifts her up into the air. So quickly her pile descends away from her that she can still see silver and bronze hollow little orbs rolling away from the spot she was hidden as she's lifted 7 meters off the ground to come face to face with the metal clad beast. She screams. Her hands come to the palm hovering above her head, and try to come to the thumb behind her. Her scratches are like dull pats on the thick dragon skin, her thrashing without meaning.

"AAAAaaaaaaiiigh! AAAAAaaaaaagh!" She yelps and cries

"Shathahuf." The dragon breaths out into her face.

"Aaagh... Aaaah. AAAAIAaaaigh!"

"Shathahuf. ShathahufYa."

"Shut up." Shaun says from her seat in the dragons hand far below. She's just barely awake, and it's nearly a whisper, but she says it, and Daylah continues to scream.

"Shathahuf!" The dragon says again with enough force to move Daylah in the wind and threaten to blow her from her shirt.

"Shut up...!" Repeats Shaun. Daylah... Continues to yell. She whimpers and screams and cries and sobs, every moment she spends quieting down she spends also regaining energy to scream out again.

"Shatha--"

"SHUT UP!" Shaun cuts the dragon off. "...Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up! He wants, we want you, we need you to shut up! You're loud! You're a loud person! You're screaming, you scream, you always scream! Why don't you ever shut up! Shut up, for silvers sake, shut up!"

Daylah can hear Shaun even through her own hoarse voice, and see her beaming from the dragons palm below. She moans out quieter scared yelps as she looks to Shaun, and then to the dragon, to both sets of eyes glaring back at her. Both her palms come to her mouth to quiet her sobs, replacing her cries with muffled puffs of air. She nodded emphatically, her whole body rattling from her shaking her head so readily up and donw. Letting out muffled affirming noises, as if being quiet was a massive epiphany she would so gladly undertake, saying:

"Mmhm! Mmhm! Mmph!"

Tiamel didn't understand all of what humans said to eachother, but he had enough in the way of context to tell when he was being translated. He wasn't sure if he liked another tiny little voice there, speaking for him, but it was definitely a utility. He lifted the candle-like warm colored little girl and placed her on a high platform, a shelf etched deep into the cave wall. He had to stand on his hind legs to reach it, meaning it was more than 14 meters above the ground. It was a relatively small horizontal slit up high near the ceiling, digging into the caves wall.

Daylah is placed there softly, feet to the ground. She stood and trembled in the colder, damper, high up little space. The alcove was about 4 meters high and impressively vast considering how thin it was. It smelled of dew and was filled with greenery, it was much cooler here than the rest of the armor covered cave, and the cave could be looked out on from the edge of the platform, an overhanging cliffside. The smooth and sharp over hang carved in by the dragons claws, clearly to discourage captives from attempting the climb down. There were little human trinkets strewn about, a tattered wooden chair, a couple back packs filled with random useful items. A first aid kit poured out from one purse, and another open bag was filled with apples-- though they'd molded.

There was also, about 30 steps back into this strange grassy cage, a horror to remind Daylah of the truth of her place. A mangle of skeletons, most all decayed to complete bone. They were all crushed together, each captive at some point died, or atleast looked dead because of weakness or sickness, and was smashed casually into the garbage heap of bones by Tiamels disinterested knuckles. There were at the edges of that pile newer bodies with still some form, meat clung to bones, a blank expression lay on a pale blue face-- Daylah only caught a glimpse before her attention shot away. Tiamels hand came close to her, and pointed to something at the edge of the cove. Long, thick ropes lay, made of vines that also hung from the ceiling. Each rope was 3 Vines twined tightly together, and they lay organized into horizontal lines that followed the curve of the cliff. The dragon lifted up Shaun too, but held her up outside the prison. Her body was still so blantantly broken, and her neck hooked over to lay her head on her shoulder. She looked so sorry. Daylah hated seeing her friend like this, she hated looking but could not look away, and reached softly out to try and touch her friend.

"HathwinnerYa, nethoYaDalee. " The dragon says, and he takes his claw to one of his necklace like adornments. He gripped the thick green rope that all those armors were attached too and shook it, making them clang together around his neck. Shaun made his body language all to clear.

"You, uhm... twine ropes for... his armors, now, he says. That's your job, now, he says."

Shaun's strong, bombastic, loud friend finally stops trembling and goes suddenly hollow... Her eyes look through Shaun and her hands drop limp by her side. Her mouth is agape and Shaun can somehow tell that Daylah has left them; the screaming, quick tempered, panicked girl that was with them moments ago has taken leave, and Shaun's eyes glisten and well up with tears as she goes. The walking corpse turns around and faces the expanse of vines, whisping like an aimless ghost to a random green loop and tugging it down from the craggy cove ceiling, spooling it up into her arm as she puts on a play for herself in her head. It's named: This is all okay.

'I am pretty useful at stuff like this, I was always told I was really good with my hands. It's really no wonder that a dragon picked me. I don't have a problem doing this sort of stuff at all.' The play went on leaving no gaps in her train of thought. All statements, few questions. All good, no bad. A themeless play with a perfect protagonist whose life was perfect and whose conflicts were cute or petty at the worst of times. 'I always knew Shaun's dragonic was good but it's really impressive. The dragon probably loves her, he'll use her like a translator. I wonder where they're going? I know they'll be back soon. I bet Shaun'll teach me draconic when she comes back. I bet I can learn it in a heart beat now that I have the time.' and tears welled up in her eyes and fell down her cheeks as she worked, some subconscious thing dwelling on that word. But Daylah didn't feel the tears, she just turned up the volume on her blissful bright play, "Happy" she had already gathered 3 vines and "excited" to creatively wind them into one dragon sized loop.

XXX Authors notes

I didn't actually get very far tonight at all! But it's not for lack of time. I liked writing this chapter, where it ended as well. I have lots of violence planned, but this was something a little different. I'm probably alone to some extent in considering things grim and dramatic to be similar to guro, but I ended up really satisfied writing what I ended up with here.

I make no promise ofcourse, but I may write more tonight. I hope you're enjoying my little project, so let me know.