#tyver

January 6, 2023:

Garnet Primary, Obelisk, Leopard.

That was why Marcellus had to die, not brutally, but just so Parrish could make a point about how he felt when he was denied things he wanted. He had offered Marcellus any money in the world, any riches he could dream of, if only for a chance to take Elliot back to his own land and keep him as his own, but again and again Marcellus waved Parrish off. And so, Parrish put a knife in his back for his troubles, let his blood spill on the floor of his lavishly expensive home and let him rot there while he took Elliot for himself, decreeing him the property of an emperor now, not some lowly retired war general like Marcellus had been. Parrish booked passage on a ship, sailed the two of them off, and got to see Elliot’s face light up with wonder and awe at all the new sights of this foreign land, a city full of strangers who all seemed fixated on him the moment they recognized the emperor trotting around with such a pretty thing on his arm.

“I’ll show you to the place where you’ll be sleeping from now on, love,” Parrish held a firm grip on Elliot’s hand practically the entire voyage they shared together, intent on not letting him stray an inch outside where he wanted Elliot to go, he owned him after all, and he was clearly making a statement on the matter with how he touched Elliot so freely and commanding. He took Elliot throughout the palace, where peacocks strutted around the floor freely like they owned the place, where the floors were tiled with marble and the walls draped in royal reds and purples and gold trinkets on every surface, expensive things reserved for only the most luxuriously lived of people, Parrish being among that select few. He closed the door to his bed chambers the moment they both stepped inside together, and turned Elliot around to face him, hands on his shoulders as he pulled him close and drank in his beautiful face, he felt as though he could get drunk on him from sight alone.

“You are the picture of divinity, do you know that? Marcellus did no good hiding you away in that house, you were never meant to be a mere cup-bearer, not with a face like this.” He held Elliot’s face in his hands, thumbs stroking down his cheeks, bringing his face close to Elliot’s as he breathed in the scent of floral aromas that just seemed so inherent to his skin. He raised one of Elliot’s arms, trailing kisses from the back of his hand up his forearm and to the length of his swan-like neck, nudging him closer and closer to the edge of the bed with his body every passing second, his hot breath fanning out against Elliot’s skin as his pulse raced, his excitement grew with each kiss and caress as his hands attempted to sneak underneath Elliot’s garments, hike them up and get a feel for what was underneath. “With a face and body like this, you were meant to be a lover.”

It occurred to him then, the reason why before he’d left for his journey, a mage had given him a golden choker, with a heart pendant attached to it, designed to subdue the beast, as they’d said before sending Parrish on his quest as the king’s royal guard, sent to protect the kingdom from any further pillaging and destruction from the beast. Parrish hadn’t known how to use the choker, not imagining it to be able to fit around the dragon’s thick neck, but when he realized how the dragon was changing, he discovered its true purpose. It was sized for a human, because the dragon was part human. He rested in the spot the dragon once occupied, body still struggling for air, exhausted and looking up at Parrish, and this was when he skirted all of Parrish’s expectations, made him hesitate to kill him with the final cut of his sword. He was quite pretty, he couldn’t help the thought from crossing his mind, noticing his half-lidded eyes were striking, the same silver-blue of his scales that had glistened when he was a ten foot tall monster, hair messy and tangled but still a fierce golden blond, his naked body unusually small, much smaller than Parrish’s even without all the armor covering his body, something Parrish wouldn’t have expected, given the overwhelming, intimidating presence of the beast he had been before. He forced any more thoughts about the matter out of his mind, as he knelt beside him, and the beast put up little resistance as he clipped the choker around his neck, fitting like a glove.

Parrish wasn’t quite sure what effect it would have besides the mage’s rather cryptic words, but he trusted the magic with which it was imbued would be enough to do just what he was told it would do, subdue him. “Looks like your reign of terror has come to an end, beast,” He said, although when he said it, he couldn’t help but laugh a little, at the glaring scowl being cast in his direction, finding it hard to believe this tiny man had been the beast terrorizing the people of this village and many other villages, stealing their riches for years and years until Parrish seemed to have finally put a stop to it. “I am technically supposed to end your life now, but I wonder if the king would like to have you delivered to the court alive instead? Perhaps he’d think of a more fitting punishment for your crimes. But, in the meantime-”

Without warning, he reached forward, grasping the little man with the intent to haul him up over his shoulder and then secure him to the back of his dutiful horse waiting outside the cave, no longer worried in the slightest about being attacked given how scrawny and weak he seemed compared to the dragon he was before. “I’ll take you home with me, as a prisoner. I’ll decide what should be done with you, perhaps on the ride back to my home. You’re quite light, much lighter and smaller than I would have imagined. What a strange little thing you are!”

He gently knocked on the door that separated the two of them, as Elliot had sealed himself in their bedroom and refused to come out for hours at this point, and Parrish could only imagine the pile of clothing that had accumulated on the floor by now as Elliot tore through his wardrobe for something to wear. Parrish did have much planned for them, indeed, a night full of dancing and strolling around the city together, admiring the glimmer of the lights, both of them still so in awe of this little discovery called electricity. Parrish often joked about the amount of candles they would have needed in order to light up their mansion home, a place arguably grander than his godly home in the clouds, and it was of no obstacle for Parrish to obtain, with his persona as Mr. Kingdon, a wealthy business owner of a company he would not disclose to anyone, as no such company really existed, and the money simply came like gold droplets beading from his palms, and all it then took was for it to be converted into the appropriate currency of the country and era. They’d traded ancient temples for bustling city streets and skyscrapers, but it was always the same old love for them, eternally burning flame of passion between them that seemed to enchant anyone who laid eyes upon them in the public.

They’d carved out a new life for themselves here, on the outskirts of a bustling city they’d chosen on a whim, mainly because they could both appreciate the beauty of it all, the twinkling lights and bands that played music that sounded foreign to their ears but caused them to feel delight and mirth in the beat, and they relished in the luxury this modern age offered them, so many new trinkets for Parrish to purchase to adorn Elliot’s skin, so many sweet treats like extravagantly decorated ice cream sundaes and vibrantly rainbow candies from expensive shops and clothing that was ahead of the fashionable curve at all times, Parrish would drop his money on absolutely everything and anything to spoil Elliot, a passion of his that had never waned despite the incredible length of time they’d spent together. It seemed as though Parrish would never tire of him, despite how exasperated he was often made by Elliot’s insistence he look absolutely perfect for their outings, even though he could have looked as though he’d just rolled out of bed with messy hair and sleepy half lidded eyes, and Parrish still would have adored him as much as always. “If you come out now, I’ll let you order as many Shirley Temples as you want at the club… I know how much you love those, ever since I let you take a sip of mine the other night. They’re all the rage right now, so we’d better leave shortly before the bar runs out of those little cherries that you like…!”

Tonight, however, he’d caught that familiar scent of sheep, except further away from the farm meadow where they’d prefer to graze under the watchful eye of their shepherd, and if he listened closely and stopped treading over the crunching of the leaves, he could hear something crying, bleating for help, just a couple hundred feet away. Parrish’s excitement picked up as he walked along, following the source of the sound, hoping to find some easy prey for once, when he’d had to work so incredibly hard to the point of total exhaustion every night lately. Eventually, he found what he was looking for, and to his delight, but also confusion, he stumbled across the fuzzy, flailing backside of a sheep, having gotten himself caught in the thicket of a thorny bush, his fluffy wool caught too deeply among the branches to be able to set himself free. He was reduced to simply loudly crying out for help from the shepherd, who did not seem to be coming, and at this rate, the woods would be totally engulfed in darkness, and while Parrish wanted to simply sink his teeth into this sheep and devour him here and now, he felt somehow compelled to free him first, to understand better why a sheep had managed to find itself out here, wandered so far from its home on the pasture. He reached into the bush, hearing the sheep’s pitiful screams increase and he reached forward with his jaws, locking as delicately as he could around the sheep’s wool, tugging and tugging until little by little, he was able to edge him out, sending the sheep tumbling to the ground, flailing his legs about in abject terror, to be confronted by a wolf, especially one so large and imposing as Parrish.

The days were long and beautiful and well-spent, finding they could go at a leisurely pace even with the farm work and still be able to make the most of the day, and never feeling rushed or particularly stressed, just Parrish sometimes getting a bit tired and in need of a nap when he spent hours in the fields planting and tending to the crops or busied himself removing tree stumps or boulders that were an eyesore or an obstacle for the property, or making small repairs to the house where he saw they were needed. He’d often find Elliot in the kitchen, trying his hand at baking because he said he wanted a new hobby to kickstart their new lives here, and while he often ended up with flour and sugar on his face, slowly, he started finding that he could churn out rather delicious products, putting a smile on Parrish’s face as he kissed him and then playfully smooched some icing off the tip of his nose.

Parrish woke with the sun and the roosters most mornings, having to blink his eyes and struggle to roll himself out of bed, because that meant leaving Elliot who was still dead asleep and curled up beside him, and would be out for a few more hours, but even in the heat of summer, Parrish didn’t want to leave him, wishing for just a few more minutes before he finally sighed and left his love with a soft caress of his cheek and petting fingers through his hair. Then it was usually off to work, trying to avoid the hottest point of the day by getting done a majority of what was needed before noon, but today, he decided that he’d take things easy, simply feeding the animals their allotted hay before he went off to the marketplace, enjoying the lovely scenic stroll that he and Elliot would so often take to get to town, holding hands and pointing out the birds and the sound of crashing waves to indicate the beach was nearby. He was just out to buy some essentials for dinner, fish that they didn’t catch themselves for once, some vegetables for cooking, and as he passed by a bakery, caught sight of a little cupcake that he thought would have Elliot smiling despite how grumpy he might have been to be woken up.

A young man about his age, small in stature with a slender, petite frame, with blond hair coiled in curls atop his head and pretty blue eyes that blinked to take in the scene of the cafe, locking with Parrish’s gaze for just a fleeting instant before he sheepishly ducked away and went to place his order, and it was enough to make his heart leap in his chest. He could tell immediately that he wasn’t just any human with a case of using way too much cologne, no, this was another werewolf, someone like himself, and he was painfully adorable, Parrish had never seen someone who could take his breath away quite like this little one could, and he wanted to know more about him, he needed to, he had never felt the urge more strongly in his life.

He could sense he was not alone in his pondering and longing gaze, noticing three other men who were also holed up in this cafe drinking coffee or typing things out on their computers, but their eyes were trained on this newcomer all the same, and Parrish could sense tension crackling in the air, so he acted quickly on impulse, before they could get the chance. He stood from his table and abandoned his seat just as the stranger was taking his own while he waited for his order to be completed, and without hesitation sat down right across from him, a wide smile on his face as he extended a greeting, clutching his own drink as he sat. He glanced over his shoulder for a moment, to see the other werewolves sending scornful glares in his direction, and he couldn’t help but shift his smile into a smug grin for just a moment, declaring victory over them even before he’d gotten a name from the cute little werewolf with the wide eyes. “Hi, I’m Parrish, pleasure meeting you. I don’t see pretty faces like yours around here so often, so excuse me, but I just had to come talk to you. What’s your name? I just have to say, you have the most beautiful eyes.”