Chapter Text
The next few days passed in mostly the same blur.
There were moments that Shadow Milk was more aware of his actions than others, but for the most part it all boiled down to the same haze in his mind. He could remember the next morning when Black Sapphire had dragged Candy Apple into the room like normal, and how he had swiped a claw at the two of them. While He had threatened them dozens of times, smacked them around in their dragon forms, and been harsh before it had been the first time in years he had gotten aggressive like that towards them during his rut.
Instead, shortly after Black Sapphire came back alone with food for both him and Pure Vanilla, as well as an offer of some clean and un torn robes for the prince. The robes had been torn to shreds quickly before the golden elf had a chance to even try putting them back on to cover up. He was covered up plenty to the dragon’s standards, and in their current situation that was all that mattered.
There were other memories mixed in, ones where he had practically wrapped himself around Pure Vanilla as if he was guarding his most sacred treasure, which, in a way he was.
The only difference he didn’t notice until the fog had begun to clear in his brain was that he had refused to be alone the entire time, which wasn’t like him. He almost always just stayed alone, slept, and occasionally was awoken to some kind of distraction that usually stilled his mind even if just for a little bit. Even in the brief moments when Pure Vanilla would get up to eat or take care of himself, always having to insist through the slight shake in his voice that he still had basic needs, he watched him closely, his eyes sharp despite the slight haze to them.
The first morning Shadow Milk woke up without the distinct fog in his mind it had been like a flip had switched in his behavior. Where he had previously been obsessively watching his shiny treasure and had been almost completely quiet, he had almost immediately climbed out of bed, scowling at the sight of the prince sitting in his bed. Cursing himself and his own body for his previous decisions he finally spoke again, voice much sharper and more demanding than it had been the entire week.
“Get out.” He demanded, waving his hand to put himself back into his usual attire, not wanting to be seen in bedclothes by some stuffy prince he didn’t know any longer than he had already had. The sudden sound of him speaking had Pure Vanilla turning to look at him in shock, as if he had suddenly grown a third head. “Are you stupid? I said get out.” He repeated. And that seemed to be enough to make the golden elf listen.
It only took a few moments for him to be up and out of the room, and while Shadow Milk knew he likely had no idea where to go, where anything or anyone was, it wasn’t his issue right now. Right now, Shadow Milk was busy looking around the room and himself, making sure that he hadn’t done anything completely stupid, and was relieved to find it seemed that the worst he had done was refuse to let the stupid prince out of his sight.
The only positive to the entire situation was that he had the shiny prince he had been eyeing. He was in his castle, within his grasp, and his. Of course, it would be a long ways before Pure Vanilla was fully and completely his and it would likely take time to get there, but Shadow Milk was patient. He had lived hundreds of years, and knew the elf likely still had hundreds of years to go as well. There was plenty of time to work on him.
If Shadow Milk was lucky, they would be unable to find his castle. He knew that some of the his old comrades were dotted around, and the chance of them finding the exact location he currently was in was thankfully slim for now. At the very least, time was not anything he was worried about at the moment. If he got truly lucky, they wouldn’t be able to find him at all.
With a sigh he waved his hand again, everything in the room returning to its places. Of course, it didn’t help either that he had almost certainly lost some points on the appearing as some terrifying creature category to Pure Vanilla. The one thing he still had running was the assumption the other had never seen someone of his kind up close, and on his own he still appeared to be a large and terrifying creature.
In comparison to others he knew, he was small by a long shot. Next to Burning Spice he looked small enough to be mistaken as a child, and no amount of magic could change that. Even when in his human form, he was able to change almost everything but his height, and it had always been the one thing that had driven him insane. Even now, Black Sapphire had already grown to be slightly larger than him.
Candy Apple’s dragon form was still arguably small, however by the terms of dragons she could still be considered a child. She was still small enough to wander the castle in the form, though even that wouldn’t last. He could tell she’d likely wind up being smaller, so at least one of his minions would be smaller than him in the long term. Finding dragons these days had proved tiring, and he wasn’t completely certain that there were many others left.
How he found these two was a shock in of itself. It had been nearly two hundred years since they had begin to be hunted, and nearly a hundred years since him and the other ancient dragons had hidden themselves away and begun keeping to themselves to avoid being found when he had stumbled across the two. Black Sapphire couldn’t have been older than 6 when he’d found him, Candy Apple still a baby. It had been during one of the last raids, one of the last larger groups of the remaining dragons had been found. He had gone to help, and ended up finding the two hidden away in the rubble, barely breathing but alive.
Shadow Milk had taken them back and raised them after that, raising them to be the perfect minions. The ancient dragons were strong, it had been why the five of them had survived so long and were not always in complete fear of being killed, however unlike the others who were large and strong enough to rely on both magical prowess he was too small to rely on his physical capabilities.
Shadow Milk relied much more heavily on his magical strength than his peers, which while it was still arguably stronger than the others it still left him open if enough people were to try to attack him all at once. He still had the scar over his right eye from the last time enough people had tried to overpower him at once, and back then it was less to try to kill him and because they coveted whatever special magic they thought he could offer them.
His minions were strong, he wouldn’t deny them that. Candy Apple had picked up on his ability to change forms and shapes and appearances at will like it was second nature, even if she lacked a lot of the refinements of creating the different ‘characters’. Black Sapphire had definitely picked up on his flair for the dramatics and had picked up a larger variety of his tricks, though he still lacked the kind of mastery and ease Shadow Milk himself could execute them with.
Not that he blamed them for their inabilities. Of course, nobody could be as great as him at everything. But having more variety of skills, and from a simple elf could be useful. Pulling himself together, Shadow Milk turned and walked out the door, acting as if he hadn’t spent the last week embarrassing himself to the half-naked elf.
◇─◇──◇─◇
Pure Vanilla was uncertain where he was going or what he was doing when he was sent out, but he knew he wanted to get as much distance from Shadow Milk as he could. There was no escaping, he did believe him on that much, though it didn’t mean he couldn’t find some far off corner of the castle to hole up in and have at least some space even if it's just until he’s likely hunted down again.
He also wanted answers, and his best guess at learning anything about the dragon that had taken him was a library, though it hinged on him finding one.
The halls were winding and turning, and making his way through them he almost felt like they were changing, like some turns led him right back to where he had been. The entire thing felt almost surreal, and by the time he found a library Pure Vanilla wasn’t even sure how far he had actually gone, or if he was still in that same area he had started at. IT was the last thing he had expected, though not the most crazy thing he had seen done with magic in his years.
In the library stood a tall mirror along one wall, and looking in it the elf realized just how horrible he looked in that moment. The most well kept thing on him was his hair, which was still nicely braided, but the rest of him was a mess. The bodysuit he wore had sweat stains along the hems from just how hot it had been in that room throughout the last week. Despite how nice the braid looked though it didn’t hide how greasy the roots of his hair were.
Not only did he look a mess, he felt a mess too. He could feel that he was dirty, that he hadn’t bathed in a week, and made the resolution to at least try asking if he could. It wasn’t an unreasonable request, he just wanted to get clean and not be covered in sweat and grime. He knew when fighting the situation was useless, and all he could hope to do now was keep it together and survive until someone came and found him.
He trusted his friends, trusted that White Lily if anyone, would be able to find him and figure out some kind of rescue plan. Technically the fae she frequented were able to fly and could possibly get into the castle, but he would have to trust her judgement and that she would show up for him eventually to bring him home to his people.
Pulling his eyes away from the mirror, Pure Vanilla started to search through the shelves, looking for anything that might give him some kind of answers to what the dragon possibly wanted from him. He found dozens of books about their biology and other stories, things that looked older than him that likely had either never existed inside anyu library he’s ever visited or had since been destroyed.
Some of the books painted them as cruel monsters who would kill anything they came across, and those were the ones which had titles he recognized.
The ones he didn’t recognize painted a completely different story.
He found one about how they were usually just territorial over mates and children, and a lot of the violence associated was because they were provoked. Stories of when they lived with the other species and were involved in their society. Stories of their spoils and the way they collected shiny things.
It was when he found one about their breeding cycles that things started to click into place.
It made sense to some degree when he realized it, though it didn’t stop the way his blood ran cold when he realized it. He had narrowly avoided a much worse situation. He was lucky that the worst that had happened was being stripped of his outer clothes and ogled at on several occasions. The realization was enough to get Pure Vanilla to shove the book back on the shelf, making his way over to a seat as he tried to process it.
Of course he knew he couldn’t feel completely grateful, the dragon had still kidnapped him, when he had people at home who relied on him and would be worried when they heard the news on what happened, but on the other knowing he had at least been spared from being forced into something more made him at least slightly thankful to his situation.
Time passed like a blur as Pure Vanilla sat in that chair, and he didn’t realize just how long had passed until the door opened, the now familiar dragon entering. He looked better now than he had all week, pin straight hair combed down, the inky black hair on the underside of his head almost looking like a void. Like this, with his clothes seemingly freshly pressed he appeared like any other royalty Pure Vanilla had ever encountered.
Like this, he could have been handsome, if it weren’t for the way he still had horns poking out the top of his head, as well as a row of bright sharp teeth that looked as if they could tear through flesh easily. Maybe even in another situation he could have looked past those things. But not now. Not when the dragon was approaching him with a grin that made him feel like he was about to be his next victim.
“Oh Nilly~ there you are! You know, I didn’t think you would end up wandering so far, trying to get away from me? You know you can’t run, right?” He questioned, leaning over the chair where Pure Vanilla sat, not that the extra height was needed. The blue dragon was already taller than him by an entire head, and now, while he was stuck sitting it just made it even more obvious how small he appeared in comparison.
“No, I was looking for a library. Figured if I was stuck here I might as well find some kind of entertainment.” It was half the truth, though left out the part where he wanted to know more about what had happened to the dragon in the last week. Didn’t want to say out loud that he was now aware that the dragon had been in a damned rut, and that he knew he was lucky he hadn’t forced himself onto him.
“Well, that’s all said and done now, come on let’s turn over a new leaf!” Hic voice dripped with a sticky kind of sweetness, the kind that trapped you inside its web and didn’t let you leave. The kind that made you believe the words said. The kind that made Pure Vanilla curious why he suddenly changed his attitude so quickly.
Hesitantly, Pure Vanilla sighed. “Fine.” He agreed, Shadow Milk grinning.
“Perfect. Now, off we go. First stop the kitchens!” He exclaimed, grabbing Pure Vanilla’s arm and leading him out of the library they had been standing in.
The way to the kitchens didn’t seem to be very far. It only took a matter of minutes for them to finally arrive at the kitchen. Pure Vanilla hesitated for a moment when he looked inside. There were tons of dead animals and mystery meat being stored inside, and the temperature inside felt like it dropped significantly, likely from some kind of spell placed on the room.
It seemed to be used as some kind of food storage, the stoves and counters looking completely unused except one spot where it looked like it had been cleaned. He could only assume it had been where Black Sapphire had cooked for him over the last week so he didn’t starve, which he did appreciate.
What made him hesitate was the mystery meats. Chopped up into cubes and left laying around, their origins unknown.
“Awh, why the face? None of it is human meat if that’s what you’re wondering.”
The prince nodded, looking over to him. “You don't have any real food here do you?” Pure Vanilla asked, looking from the stored meats and almost entirely unused kitchen. Shadow Milk pausing at the question.
“This is real food, excuse you, however I guess you and your needy kind can’t eat the same we do. You can give a list to Black Sapphire, he can take Candy Apple and go collect you other ingredients, but, what have you been eating this whole time then?” He asked, sounding almost genuinely curious.
“Black Sapphire? That’s his name right? Brought some meat that was cooked.” He explained, glancing back at the kitchen.
“Sounds about right.” Shadow Milk shrugged, glancing around the room. “He can get you the ingredients, but you can handle feeding yourself. Hopefully the little prince knows how to feed himself.” He teased, turning away from the kitchen. “Now come on, there’s more places to show you.”
With that, he grabbed Pure Vanilla’s arm again, leading him out and back into the halls.
They made their way through the halls until they landed in the same wing of the castle as Shadow Milk’s own bedroom, right up to another bedroom in the wing. Pushing the door open, he led Pure Vanilla inside, letting go of his arm once again. “And this will be your bedroom.”
The room looked the same as the other rooms he had seen so far, silvers and blues adorning the furniture, as well as shiny objects littering nearly every surface.
“You can do what you want with it, since you’ll be here for the foreseeable future.”
“I have to go back eventually.” Pure Vanilla tried to tell him, though instead of a response, he was ignored completely.
“Like I said, get a list for Black Sapphire for what you need for food. I don’t need you dying on me all of a sudden.
With that, he was left alone in the cold bedroom, another reminder he was trapped here.