Summer 1, 122
Caelum got out of bed around midday and stretched. He looked out the window, frowning slightly at the light rain. It'd been what had woken him up, that was for sure. He looked left, then right, trying to see where Flora had gone.
"Flora, where are you?" he asked in a commanding tone, but there was no response. "must have gone off to run some errands," he murmured disappointedly. He'd really wanted her in that moment but he'd have to make do with doing something else for the time being.
He held out his palm and tried to focus on creating a vine. He could feel it nucleate at the center of his palm and start slowly reaching out, soon growing about a foot in length. It drooped slightly, but he kept extending it until it dropped to the floor. He took a deep breath – it was never easy to practice druidism so early in the morning. He gritted his teeth, and surged life force into the vine to make it lift up, pointing straight forwards. He extended it all the way to his cubbord, opening it with a quick flick of the tip of the vine. The cabinet was flung open so hard that it bounced back onto the vine, causing Caelum to have to flick it again, but gentler.
"So damned complicated," he said annoyingly to himself as he wrapped the vine around a fist sized fruit. He then had the vine shrink, or rather absorb back into his body as he slowly brought the fruit back over to himself. By the time the vine had completely disappeared, he had the fruit in his hand. He took a bite from it – it was about as tasty as ever but it wasn't meat which was always a disappointment. Still, it was better than nothing. He'd seen aelves do something so simple as grab things from afar without a second thought and he was trying to get to that point. To his credit, he could match their speeds on a good day but being sleepy wasn't helping him.
He finished eating the fruit and formed yet another vine, this time forming out of his other fingertip and wrapping around the fruit. He pushed with his saol to make the vine thicker, just enough to give it some natural structural strength. Then he flicked the vine such that it tossed the core of the fruit over to the small pile of garbage in the corner of the home. Most everything was biodegradable anyways so it wasn't like it was a large pile… he just hadn't buried it yet.
He missed the pile by a wide margin and sighed, sending the vine out to pick it up and try again. He tried for several minutes to get the damned thing to land in the pile before giving up and just placing it there carefully. It was harder than it looked.
"Now what, hmm…" he pondered as he paced around slowly. He was waking up a bit more and was starting to think about what he was going to do with his day… rather, night. The nocturnal aelves would never be up this early unless they had some reason to be. He peered out his window and saw nothing going on out there. None, except Flora who was walking briskly towards his home.
Caelum watched her attractive form start climbing up the stairs and he frowned slightly as he glanced as his palm. Dare he try? He pointed his hand right at her when she wasn't looking and he sent a vine right at her as fast as he could. It wasn't exactly as fast as an arrow or even a stone's throw… but it was still fast enough to catch her off guard. She squealed, but Caelum had already wrapped the vine around her mouth and snaked it down to wrap around her chest then her waist.
"That's it," he murmured as he started commanding the vine to pull her up towards him. This was much more difficult than maneuvering a fruit's core, but he had enough life force from his dragon heritage to brute force the technique. She twisted her neck to see that Caelum was the one who was doing the magic and she seemed to calm down after that. She furrowed her brow as if angry with him.
"Good morning," Caelum said to her. "You weren't in your bed. Where, pray tell, did you go?"
She gave a muffled explanation which Caelum had to giggle at. He had to force the plant to free her mouth so she could properly speak. "I was fetching some herbs for your research." She looked at him expectantly, as if expecting him to put her down but he squeezed the vines to the point where she'd actually feel some pain.
"I was fetching herbs, MASTER," She said, having realized her mistake.
Caelum grinned then tossed her inside. He was none too soft, allowing her body to slide across the floor before coming to a stop at the foot of the bed.
"Good. I'd forgotten that I'd run out." He stretched his arms and observed the vine as he moved it back and forth across the room.
Flora groaned as she sat herself up. She was uninjured but she was a little dazed from being squeezed so hard and tossed. Caelum took the tip of the vine and used it to lift her chin. She gave him a glare that he didn't appreciate. He frowned and flicked the vine back and forth, slapping her across the face twice. It wasn't meant to be painful, more humiliating. Flora forced a smile and Caelum nodded before letting the vine disappear back into his hand.
All considered, he did treat Flora quite well, for a human. But he was in an experimental mood and Flora was typically one of his first guinea pigs. He was a mix of a father figure for her, having raised her since her teens but he was also a higher tier of being. She was merely an inferior human and while Caelum did have love for humans, they were more like playthings and slaves than equals. Still, it wasn't like he didn't care about her – he would be quite upset if she came to be harmed by someone else or if she set her eyes on a mate. She was his property and anyone in the area would have known that.
"Master, can I eat?" she asked, still with that fake smile.
"Yes, you may," he said, pointing to the cabinet. He was far too lazy to try using the vine again.
"Tell me, how old are you again?" he asked absent mindedly as he rummaged through the herbs Flora brought.
"Sixteen, Master." she said as she pulled out an identical fruit to the one he'd eaten earlier. She took a bite into it and kept her head down.
"Hmm, and your plans for your future? What is it you want to do? I've cared for you for years now but I am unfamiliar with how you humans transition to maturity." What he really wanted to know was how long she'd be living with him he knew that humans did eventually tend to get jobs, marry, reproduce, and other things of that nature.
"I… I don't know," Flora said before hastily adding, "Master".
"No plans to work? Have children? Were you planning on staying here for the next sixty years?" Caelum let out a chuckle. There was no way he was going to let that happen. He'd taken her in because her father had been a good friend and he'd wanted a good life for her. She was a cute little kid that he liked having around, perhaps she would be some nice eye candy when she got older… but human women aged like fruit. In the blink of an eye she would be shriveled up and old.
"I thought I could stay here and help you, master," Flora said nervously.
"Yes, but forever? Come now," Caelum said, taking a seat on the bed to separate the herbs into piles.
"As long as you'll have me, Master. You've given me a life other humans cannot even dream of, allowed me to serve a dragon. I will do your bidding until the day that I die."
"Hmph," Caelum said. He smirked at that. "A satisfactory answer, I suppose. But you should think to make yourself useful. I am a dragon of fertility as you know. You are young and fertile; you will probably be so for decades… but I will tire of you eventually. Those without fertility… they disgust me. And it has nothing to do with their other qualities, but it is in my nature to reject them. You understand?"
Flora nodded slowly. "Yes, of course, master."
"Good, take the day to think on what you wish to do later in life. I intend to give you a good life, even after we've parted ways."
