—
Dash crouched outside the cage, watching intently. It was empty, he was pretty sure. He looked at the sky, saw it empty too, nothing but stormclouds above.
He smiled and darted in. Coming here on foot instead of wing had been a good idea. Nobody had seen him, and now he was going to get his prize.
Inside the cave, treasure glittered. Sura always polished his treasure so it was shiny, which was why Dash liked it so much. Dash didn’t have any treasure of his own because he was small and not good at fighting. He was only still alive because the others all thought his red-white-gold scales were pretty, and thought it was fun to beat him up and fuck him, but that was okay. He was here with Sura’s shiny treasure and that was all he cared about now.
Walking carefully through the cave, Dash resisted the urge to touch everything, until he didn’t resist anymore. He picked up a human’s shield, holding it up to inspect it. “Wow,” he said, looking it over. It had a horse painted on the front, and gleamed silver and green in the light, casting refractions all around the cave when it caught the dim light from the cave’s mouth.
Oh, he thought. There was some dirt on it. He looked around, found a rag, and gave it a rub, cleaning it off. It took a minute, but soon it was as shiny and perfect as it deserved to be, as everything in Sura’s hoard deserved to be.
Holding the shield up to the sunlight again, he remembered that there was no sunlight. The beam of light was shining directly into the eye of a green and grey dragon that was currently very big and holding fire in his mouth. Dash put the shield down nervously. “Hi, Sura. I was just…looking.”
“I think,” Sura said, shifting to be smaller. “You were just stealing.”
Dash shook his head. “I wasn’t! I wasn’t going to steal it!”
“No, you weren’t,” Sura agreed, coming over and taking Dash by the throat. “Because you’d have never escaped alive. I’m tired of you coming in here and trying to rob me. If you want something from my hoard, fight me for it like a real dragon.”
Dash dropped to his knees, looking up at Sura. “I can’t,” he whispered.
“I know you can’t.” Sura growled, looking down at him. “You suck.”
Dash nodded his agreement. He knew he sucked, and he knew he couldn’t fight, and he knew he was bad at being a dragon. “I wasn’t trying to steal,” he promised. “I came to bring you something new for your hoard. Something you don’t have. Something really pretty.”
Sura’s eyes narrowed, and he looked Dash over. “You don’t have anything with you. Don’t play games with…”
“It’s me!” Dash said, too loud, and he winced. “It’s me, Sura. I want you to make me part of your hoard. I’m the prettiest dragon in the colony. Everyone says so.”
Blinking, Sura looked Dash over again. “Why would you want that?”
“Because…because the reason I always sneak in is because I just like looking at your hoard so much. I don’t want to take any of it away, because it’s cool because it’s all together. I want to live here with it so I can see it all the time. I want to help you take care of it and I know you won’t share it, but if I’m part of it I can do that.”
“That’s why? Because you want to polish my stuff?”
Dash nodded. “And…because you’re strong. I can’t protect myself, but you can protect me. You can take care of me. I feel…safe with you.”
Sura’s hand was on Dash’s cheek. “You’re no safer with me than you are with anyone else,” he said. “If I decide to keep you, I’m not going to start being nice to you suddenly. You bruise pretty colours too.”
Dash knew that too. “I know. I want…to do this. I like kneeling in front of you. I like it when you make me feel small. And I…I think you like it too. Everyone beats me up but you’re the only one who I think likes it. I think you like me.” He swallowed, and prostrated himself properly before Sura. “So…please? I’m begging you.”
Sura was quiet for an agonizing moment, then he pulled on Dash’s horn to get him to stand up. He smiled down at Dash. “Okay. I can hardly say no to the prettiest prize in the colony.”
“Thank you!” Dash hugged Sura hard, wrapping arms, tail and wings around him.
Sura snorted, hugged him back. “Don’t get too used to being up here,” he warned. “You’re going to be doing a lot of begging from now on…”
—
How Best to Use a Sword 