Saffron pounced on him as he slept. Her naked body was shivering softly in the room as she hung over him. "Wake up." She whined softly as she bounced the bed. "I just remembered what I wanted to talk to you about!" She gripped his black hair and giggled as she moved down to nip as his ear.

"I found treasure." She giggled a bit and kissed his neck. "Can we go? please?" It didn't matter what he was going to say because they were going anyways. The look in those red eyes was poisonous as she took his hands and nipped his lips. "Lets go."

She bounded off the bed and go dressed. "It's getting cold here so we're going to Baltil! HUNTING FOR TREASURE." She spun around. "I ripped out the guy's tongue so he couldn't tell anyone else about it." She clapped happily. "I think he died in the alley though…"

Once they set off she was happily in the cave. It was lit up and people were coming and going. She could see the city gates as she hummed. "This way." She drug him down to the Dragon's Hoard. Her eyes were gleaming bright.

Desmond was blissful sleeping and minding his own business when he felt Saffron leap onto him on the bed. Though he appreciated the view of her flesh, he wasn’t too thrilled about having a conversation. Even worse was when she spoke of some sort of wild goose chase, but he had been a bit distracted with some other thoughts in his mind of how this all could have gone.

“Treasure? Did you hear this from one of those drunken sailors?”, he groaned. He didn’t want to go anywhere right about now, especially for a silly reason like that. Before he could voice his opinion about this thing, Saffron was getting dressed and had that damned look in her eyes. One of determinedness and he knew, he knew greatly that once she had a goal in mind, she wouldn’t be deterred. “Crap”, it was all he could say as he slipped out of bed and got dressed himself. He cared little that she killed someone, particularly since she supposed ripped out his tongue. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about him identifying her either way.

Fools. The lot of them.

That was his thoughts about those that they ended up passing by, scheming with others about getting this treasure. But what was the treasure exactly? As he looked around, he figured that those that inhabited the area wouldn’t exactly be willing to have such a thing over, if it existed. And as much as he didn’t mind shedding blood, a lot of them were dwarves, and they were likely well equipped and seasoned fighters. Not to mention that they were like ants- there were a hell of a lot of them to deal with. Considering their odds, it would be better for them to avoid a confrontation.

“ What is this blasted treasure suppose to be anyway?”, he whispered to her as he followed her lead.

Saffron moved her hair softly and smiled at him. "No, I found out from a treasure seeker from Baltil Silly." There was that look in her eye that he could never say no too. In the time that they had been together Saffron had noticed he had a love for the look even if he never knew it. It even happened on that night where they stabbed and killed her parents. When they had sex on their bloody bed, that had been her idea.

It wasn't too surprising that she had wanted that. The vampire had been sexually abused by her father and never given a chance to have a normal life. When Desmond had come to her she had asked him to make her problems go away. She had no idea who he was or what he was going to do. The next night he handed her a knife and had her kill her father herself. It had been a brutal slaying. Desmond had considered killing her but she was his and he knew that. Saffron was happy to be his. He was like a god to her. He still was even though they were lovers.

She smiled up at him and kissed him softly as they got to the door. "Not crap, adventure." 

Dancing around her Desmond she stopped and smiled up at him. "Well, the problem isn't finding the treasure." She brought up a finger and twirled the strawberry curl. "It's guarded by a huge fiery dragon who kills almost everyone who comes in and only a few come out alive." She gave him a look like he might turn her around right then and there.

"OH LOOK THE GUARDS!" She ran up to them and bent over talking to them a bit. "Can I pleeeaseeeee go see the dragon and treasure?" She sounded rather innocent as the guards did a motion and let her through. "Yay! You are the best dwarf ever!" She hugged him before running back to Desmond and jumping into his arms.

"Can we still go see the mean scary dragon?"

He obviously didn’t care to be here, but there was little choice in the matter. Saffron would have just drove him insane with her pleading until he caved. Still, Desmond had to remember that this was only happening because she lived a sheltered life for all of her life up to now. Sighing, he could only imagine how the interaction between her and this treasure seeker had went. Bloody and death were two things that came to mind, knowing her.

“I know the difference, Saffron”, he spoke in a low tone. His arms were crossed tightly against his chest as she explained the situation and nearly dropped his jaw when she mentioned “dragon”. “I’m not dealing with no giant fire breathing lizard!”, he exclaimed before holding his head. “You do realize that the chances of us dying to it, if it exists, are very high right?” There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that he was going to be incinerated by a dragon just because Saffron seemed oblivious to the danger.

The next thing he knew, he looked with wide eyes as she went over to the guards and those fools allowed her to go and see the bloody creature. Wide eyes looked to her as she pleaded once more, and he shook his head. “I’m not becoming dragon food, woman”, he refused and turned to leave when he stepped on something and it rolled beneath his foot, making the vampire fall onto his behind. “This whole place’s trying to kill me.” he said as he retrieved what the object was. It was a small golden sphere of sorts and he eyed it with care. It obviously looked like it belonged here, but how did it end up in this part of the city? Had one of the lucky few that ventured into the dragon’s domain and escaped had something like this? Normally Desmond wasn’t the sort to care about wealth, but there was something about this golden trinket that stirred something within him. Standing back up, he tucked it into his pocket and turned back around.

“Fine, but we are not getting close enough to that beast to be charred.” As he felt the gold in his pocket, another thought came across his mind. “We will be taking souvenirs with us. Plenty of them.”

Saffron smiled at him and giggled loudly. “We won’t die!” She put a finger to her lips and chuckled more. “If only breathes fire if you make it mad.” She shushed him lightly and knew that the man cared deeply for her. If not, he would have dragged her far from this place with a punishment in line.

The guards were all for her going in and Desmond was the only one at this point looking to stop her. “We’re not going to feed it, silly. I don’t think Dragons eat crunchy vampire guts.” She watched as her beloved fell on the ground from a simple marble of sorts and almost lost her stomach laughing. “Shhh, you shouldn’t make me laugh. We really will be crunchy vampire guts at this rate.”

Finally when he gave in, she bounced around a bit and grabbed his hands. “Yay, thank you, thank you.” She lightly clasped her hands in excitement as she heard they were stealing treasure. “Can I have a tiara? Can I be your princess? How about a wedding ring?” She jumped about again and headed deeper into the cave. “Think about it! We could get married with jewels from the dragon. CRUNCHY!” She turned around and jumped on him.

“Am I even marriage material? I feel like I’m greatly broken.” She stared at him for a long time as she reached down and put a coin in his pocket. “Can you fix me? Fix me like a broken doll or toy? Or?” Her face got sad. “Are you going throw me away when you get bored of me? Because I’m broken?” Questions filled her simple little mind as she clung to him.

“I want to be exciting to you… If I do this, you’ll always love me because I always do things you don’t expect… Right?”

“Charming.” Desmond didn’t care if it was a friendly, coddly little thing; the dragon was not a bloody kitten and he wasn’t going to take the threat as lightly as his fledgling was. He would have thought that the guards would have been smarter and tried to stop her, but they seemed as useful as spraying ants with honey in order to get rid of them. He looked at her with some disbelief, “I don’t think it matters to them what we taste like. Never planned on getting close enough to ask them personally.” There was no thrill in his voice at the aspect of being set on fire, eaten or trampled to death for the hell of it. Nor was there any once he fell over and his companion laughed at him. Annoyed at first, it was lost on him by the time he discovered what he tripped over.

As far as sightseeing and witnessing the beast, he simply didn’t care about that. But the gold, now there was something that they could use. Saffron could have her adventure if it pleased her, but he was after bigger things here. As she kept asking him things, he would reply with “Yes” up until when she asked about a wedding ring. He merely looked at her with some curiosity as they explored further on. He hadn’t thought of the concept before, not even when he had her now did it cross his mind. Desmond fell quiet and watched her up until she started questioning her condition. It was then that he halted in his step. “What is broken, Saffron? In a sense, we are all broken to some degree. We are considered as such because we gave up our humanity. Wolves are broken because they don’t meet with society’s standards. Humans are broken because they are weak. No matter who or what you look at, there are flaws. Yours do not bother me, and…you certainly are marriage material.”

His hand reached for her chin to tilt her head up and he flashed a smile. “There is no need for fixing you, Saffron.” Desmond wasn’t the sort to wear his feelings on his sleeve though he supposed there was no harm in revealing them to her. She was his child after all. “I do not plan on abandoning you. You need not to worry about where you stand with me.” Fingers uncoiled from her chin and slipped onto her cheek, “Never gave a thought about marriage. Honestly I don’t see a point, however, if it calms your worries and proves that I won’t toss you away, then I suppose we could arrange something like that.” He was blunt but truthful, she needed not to worry about deception as far as he went. Such petty things were but a waste of time for the both of them and they had more important things to be concerned about. LIke the treasure and the beast guarding it. 

Saffron was quite pleased with his responses but it seemed to bother him when she mentioned being broken and married. “I don’t know. Everything? Before when I was human, I was broken. You saved me and yet the hole isn’t patched.” She gripped at her dress as she thought about it. “Feels empty.”

Desmond’s smile always made her feel better as she thought about his words. “I am?” Her red eyes sparkled like crystallized blood drops. It certainly made her feel better hearing his words, he was her only support. He had given her a second chance and she was very grateful for it. The man did whatever she wanted as long as it wasn’t too over the top, and even then here they were in a Dragon’s Hoard.

She gave him a smile, he understood she was young. She never even had a chance at that sort of thing the way her life had been heading. There was no love before Desmond showed up and even then was that really what it was? She could feel something for him but she couldn’t tell it past her obsession over the man. She would quite honestly attempt to break him if he abandoned her. She shook the thought from her head and smiled. “I would like that.”

She took his arm and walked with him. Her mind seemed weary of the place as she got closer. She could feel things out from here and she smelled the bodies of the past adventurers. She wrinkled her nose and put her hand over her nose. “This is fun.” She said it almost sarcastically before she spotted the hoard up ahead.

She managed to find one of the many rooms in the hoard and pointed to it. There didn’t seem to be a dragon in it as she dug through the gold on a mission. She wanted the perfect ring for the perfect wedding. What caught her eyes was something… entirely different. She pulled up a small egg. It was scaled with blue. It was old looking though as if it had been stolen and put in there. She looked at Desmond and hugged it to her. It was then that she spotted a ring worthy of their love.
 
“Oo..” she said softly as she reached in and pulled out a band of white. Blue diamonds sparkled on it with several beautiful elvish designs on it. She put it on her finger and it seemed to fit. “Do you like?”

Desmond shrugged a bit, “Well then once we get all that we carry of this gold, then we can get your as many dresses as you wish.” He wasn’t quite concerned with her dress at the time, but now that she had mentioned it, it would likely suit her better to have attire in good condition. No need to be roaming about in rags and sooner or later, he would have to do the same about his own clothing. Just as he had to calm her fears about her enigmatic personality. She was certainly unlike most he had encountered, but Saffron was far from crazed or unlovable. He wasn’t even sure why she was bothered by that or where it came from. The parts about marriage was likely what he assumed to be her humanity talking.

Desmond hadn’t considered it, but then again he hadn’t planned on having a fledgling in general nor to be smited with her. And he certainly didn’t plan on tempting fate or a large and likely ill tempered dragon. Sighing, he went along with her into the horde, pondering how long their lives would remain intact once the beast caught wind of them. And how they would either perish or escape with its treasure. The smell of bodies was not encouraging for the vampire, but he went along with this absurd plan while his greed remained interested in collecting the valuables. Saffron searched in a part elsewhere, intent on searching for something that he wasn’t too aware of at first. Desmond himself went after the piles of gold, hastily filling his pockets with it and other little trinkets that could fit into them- gemstones and jewelry among others. Looking up when called, he noticed what looked to be an egg, but it wasn’t an ordinary one, that much was certain.

“That’s strange”, he said with eyes latched onto it curiously. “Wonder why that’s here.” Had some bird came here and made a new somewhere close? And even if so, how did it get here, and what sort of bird had it been? He shook his head and went back to take a bit more gold when she addressed him again and the next object that she fancied. He came over to inspect the beautifully crafted ring that was now wrapped around her finger. “It fits you so”, he said after much consideration. “Hope our host won’t be missing that. Or anything else we have.”

Saffron almost squealed at the concept of all the dresses she wanted. She looked down to the plain one she had been wearing and wondered what a beautiful dress would look like on her. Though it certainly made her strawberry hair and red eyes stand out more. Her eyes sparkled a bit as she watched Desmond and she was happy. He did give her whatever she wanted. 

Mjerim hung around her neck and she got distracted by the large diamond  that Mjerim was sleeping in. She had summoned the blue diamond and made it a weapon, yet she wasn’t quite sure how. She remembered she felt all the sadness and misery she had build up and she took it out during the Halloween festival. She clung to the necklace and turned her eyes towards Desmond.

“You never asked how I got Mjerim.” She clung to the egg now as she looked at Desmond. “You don’t question anything I do. You just accept and love me.” There seemed to be sanity in her voice. “You never asked why I couldn’t leave that house the night we killed my parents. You just knew I wanted out… and you saved me. You came riding in like a dark knight and saved me.” She hugged that egg as she looked down at the ring.

“Father was doing things to me… Awful terrible things. Mother blamed me for it and I couldn’t get away because he didn’t want the others to know. So he kept me locked up in the house and I wasn’t allowed off the property.” Her head seemed clear. “Mother blamed me for a lot of things.” She felt worthless and at that moment Mjerim started to shine like a bright star and the temperature in the room started to get cold before she sniffled and calmed down. She was attempting to control it. 

When Desmond complimented the ring she merely gave a smile and nodded. “Do you really think so?” Desmond wouldn’t lie to her. It wasn’t one of his strong points with her. He had always been honest even when he told her he was going to kill her. He changed his mind but she had seen the truth in those beastly eyes. She had been a play thing but things changed, plans changed. She reached up and wiped her eyes.

The egg got a crack in it from Saffron’s icy presence. “I broke it!” She began to get upset at herself before a tiny white and blue dragon popped its head out at her. She stared back at it. “Desmond, it’s staring at me.” Much like a child to its mother.

Desmond looked at the woman with a strange look, having to remind himself that Saffron was a peculiar young woman. She was still young at heart and seemingly younger in the mind. He wasn’t sure what exactly her parents had done to make her like this or what pain and suffering they had introduced to her, but on the night he met her, he recalled that she was bitter and depressed with her upbringings. To the point where she entrusted a complete stranger to murder them in cold blood. Truthfully he would had made a meal out of her as well had he not been in a generous mood at the time. He wasn’t a hard creature to read or understand- Desmond wanted to thrive by any means. For so long he merely existed, feeding and surviving. But in recent times, he felt the need to control something, anything that he could get his paws on. Saffron, for all that she was worth to him, wasn’t such a thing. He held no desire to control her, he wanted something much more bigger and grander than an individual. And with this gold, his plans would come further into fruition.

Her voice chimed his ears and brought his focus back to her. “I didn’t know what this ‘Mjerim’ was in the first place.” Amber eyes remained fixated onto her egg, not sure what the blasted thing was inside, but something told him to be cautious about it. “It was not my concern at the time to know about your decision about your parents. They were horrid people and that’s all I needed to know”, he shrugged. Though his mood about shifted once she revealed to him bits and pieces about her past to him. It didn’t take long for Desmond to question the actions and glue the pieces together before frowning deeply. “…Had…I know about it at the time…I would have kept them alive long to suffer…” They would have been clinging to life while he’d cruelly destroy them piece by piece. His hands collapsed around hers tightly, somewhat shaking with anger. It was odd at this time though that Saffron seemed more serious than before. Was this the true her, or was that verison been harmed by the misdeeds of her family? He fell silent but gave her a nod, confirming his words. She was still a pretty young lady filled with spirit. A little centric, but he doubted any man wouldn’t want to wed her. The only reason why he himself had never mentioned it because it seem so much like a human thing to believe in. But he suppose like most other things, he would be willing to try for her.

The egg started to crack and regained his attention. “No, it’s hatching…”, he corrected before he saw what was inside and was immediately filled with dread at the realization. A heavy gulp went down his throat as he backed away with hands held up. “Darling, put that thing down now. That is a dragon’s egg you had. Now think, why would that be here of all places?”