title: Zeta and Solrune 1 - Depletion aliases: [] tags: [FA] author: [Scal3_Dragon] id: [49733702] date: 星期六, 十一月 12日 2022, 9:48:19 晚上 modified: 星期六, 十一月 12日 2022, 10:03:52 晚上

[TOC]

Zeta and Solrune 1 - Depletion

Author: Scal3_Dragon Source: Zeta and Solrune 1 - Depletion

Series: Prev

With an almost sultry smile Zeta regarded the below two inch-tall dragon in the small, cylindrical bottle he was holding, slowly rotating the container, which was not much bigger than its sole prisoner, between his thumb and forefinger. Since he had been left in Zeta's care about a quarter of an hour ago, the dragon hadn't attempted to escape his confinement- It seemed, the botter thought, Solrune had already learned the materials of the bottle weren't typical glass and steel and were far beyond his ability to break at his current size. But still, Zeta knew better than to let his guard down now. It would be such a shame if all the effort that went into recapturing the dragon was wasted now, when he was so close...

Solrune's character aside, Zeta didn't find it hard to appreciate the tiny being he had come to possess; He was a fascinating research subject, and in the botter's eyes, an exceptional specimen of a male dragon. Even at his small size, Zeta could make out the details of his form- His muscular build, thick tail, and golden markings were impossible to miss. His coloring was pleasing, too, being mostly gray except for a few areas were he was black, including the underside of his tail. His predominantly gray scales were somewhat dark, with a lighter tone covering the front of his neck, chest and belly, overall it was an interesting contrast. And desite the immense difference in scale between himself and Solrune, Zeta didn't have trouble telling the dragon was blessed in regards to all his other natural assets- Those horns were huge.

"Don't worry, you'll be out of there soon enough", Zeta said, "In fact, you're going to help me with something. Something big."

The bottled dragon didn't react in any noticeable way.

The botter placed the bottle atop his desk between a few scattered pencils, papers and instruments and got out of his chair, stretching as he stood up, and walked over to a small cupboard a few feet away, opened a drawer in it, and collected a few items- Two vials of liquid, a pair of chemical droppers, and a strange, silver colored metal device consisting of a round base, a little bowl which sat in a groove in the base's center, and two metal rods, each connected to short lengths of extremely fine, golden chain. And, two more things- a folded piece of paper, and a small, square black box with a visible seam in the middle.

Once back at the desk, the botter wasted no time putting the gizmo together- The rods fit into two small holes either side of the base, and each had a hole at the top for the tiny gold restraints to be threaded through and tied.

"...I was gonna wait 'till I got home to do this, but I figure it's better to drain you sooner, rather than later. You never know if..."

The botter laughed to himself softly and opened up the paper note. Scale's neat handwriting was accompanied by a few small illustrations which showed the metal device in assembled and disassembled stages, and a colored example of what the finished setup would eventually look like. Zeta picked up one of the vials, and read the first sentence of the note quietly.

"Blue- To weaken the bond between the essence and its vessel. Add dragon and shake well".

At his current size, Solrune was too big to be dropped into the vial, so Zeta picked up one of the droppers and popped the cork off the blue potion's container, immediately sucking up as much of the stuff as he could into the dropper.

The next step would require finesse, he thought. Carefully, Zeta placed the dropper flat on his desk and slowly unscrewed the lid of Solrune's crystaline prison. He didn't remove it when he was done- Instead, he lifted one side of it just enough for the tip of the dropper to fit in. With the dropper in his right handpaw again, he squeezed the end and squirted the blue liquid into the bottle, soaking the tiny dragon who immediately began to react with uncharacteristic panic, running to one side of the container in a vain attemt to avoid getting drenched.

With only a quarter of the container full Zeta sucked some more of the potion into the vial, and deposited it into Solrune's bottle again, provoking the dragon to scramble helplessly. Once again, he collected more of the liquid and filled more of the bottle. The fourth and last amount only filled about half of the dropper, but once it was squirted out, the dragon's container was almost full to the top, and the little lizard was struggling to keep his head above the surface. Without hesitation, Zeta began to screw the lid back on tightly.

"Sorry about this", he smiled, and suddenly started to shake the cylinder rapidly, holding it aside as he did so, nonchalantly turning his attention back to the note. "After several minutes the dragon's magic will be suppressed and he will become semi-conscious. You'll only have a few minutes to bind him after this- The potion will quickly expend its power and become inert. Remove him from the vial and wrap the chains onto his wrists."

Zeta's expression stiffened. Those little gold chains weren't so easy for him to handle due to their size, and tying them to someone who was barely more than an inch tall sounded like a difficult task... The botter reached out with his free hand to investigate the device further, prodding and lifting the chains and placing the small bowl into the middle of the base, making sure it was stable, for a minute or so, then looked upon the note again.

The final illustration showed a dragon held in the air, suspended above the bowl by the chains, as beads of purple liquid dripped down his body and into the bowl.

"His Essence will drain out. 2-3 minutes. Then, the dragon will become ordinary."

A devious smile crept onto Zeta's face as he glanced over to Solrune, who was still being shaken in the bottle.

When the time came to take Solrune out, his glass container had become warm in Zeta's grip- almost uncomfortably hot. Was it the potion? Zeta wasn't sure, but he didn't pretend to know anything about Scale's weird jungle shaman alchemy. Who even knew how he concocted the stuff... Most of the liquid inside quickly evaporated when Zeta removed the lid, exposing the blue potion and the dragon to the open air. Before taking him out, Zeta lifted up the bottle for a closer look- Solrune's tiny body looked exhaused, but he wasn't motionless. He was lazily slumped against the side of his prison, slowly dawing breath, and briefly met Zeta's gaze when he reached eye level with his normal-sized captor, before his eyes drooped closed. The botter's smile had slowly faded over the past few minutes, with the knowledge of what he would have to do next gnawing at the threat assesment zone of his brain. He was confident that touching the miniature dragon would be without risk. Scale made that potion after all, but, the thought of doing so still left him a tiny bit uneasy. But he didn't have time to waste, not now.

Zeta took a calming breath, and gave the metal apparatus a quick visual inspection before deciding it was time to move ahead, and without further hesitation, upturned the glass bottle, letting Solrune fall out of it and onto the surface of his enormous palm. The miniature dragon landed with a brief, quiet tapping sound as he hit the botter's pawpad, along with many minute drops of the blue potion, some of which were clinging to his body while some now peppered Zeta's paw.

"Ohh...", Zeta mumbled, tilting his palm carefully to feel Solrune's weight. The dragon rolled onto his back and took in a deep breath as his muscles tried to move his limbs, hindered by the potion's effects. He was a little heavier than Zeta would have expected him to be- But he imagined this would be the case with any shrunken dragon, after all, their biology usually gave them dense, heavy bones and scales. Solrune wasn't moving much, so it seemed Scale's description of "semi-conscious" was spot on. Now certain that he wasn't experiencing any loss of size, the botter focused his mind, resisting the urge to prolong his first experience of micro dragon handling... Only...

"Hhhh..."

Just holding the dragon felt incredible. The brief, intense shudder Zeta had felt throughout his body the moment Solrune made physical contact with him had settled but there was still a... Feeling, something he couldn't pin down. He tossed the empty bottle onto the desk and began to explore Solrune's body with a gigantic fingertip. He felt smooth, and at once firm and soft- Zeta felt the dragon's chest and abdominal muscles compressing a little as the botter pressed down on him, then lightened his touch, slowly tracing his finger down Solrune's torso, down one of his legs, then back up, from where he moved onto his right arm, discerning by touch the definition of the miniature deity's form, and wondering to what extent his divine power influenced his physique. He flipped the dragon over again and stroked down his back and tail- the thick appendage flexed a bit but couldn't resist his inquisitive touch, even when Zeta grabbed it by the base and lifted Solrune up. He dangled him at eye-level for about half a minute, quietly observing with a curious, slightly concerned expression, wondering what might happen should the dragon suddenly regain his strength and magical abilities. Solrune was breathing tiredly, and managed to halfway open his eyes, looking back at the enormous botter who was holding him aloft in an undignified, upside-down position. Squeezing the dragon's tail gently made him tense up a bit but Zeta soon softened his touch and began to carefully manipulate him with just a few digits, slowly, so as not to risk dropping him. The botter allowed Solrune's weak movements to govern his direction just a bit before pinching his tail again, this time by the tip, with his middle and index fingers.

"Sorry, you're not gonna wriggle your way out of trouble this time", he said, giving the little god a neutral, almost bored look. "You're all mine, now, and... There's really nothing you can do about it."

Zeta's hold loosened and he tilted his paw. Solrune slid down into the center of his palm, where, after rolling onto his front and losing the last of his momentum, the gray dragon began trying to push himself up, half-opening his eyes just in time to see the world around him dim away into darkness as the botter's hand closed into a fist, trapping him within and compressing his entire body. His captor's gentle touch lasted only a second, at most, before Zeta began to roughly, yet slowly crush the dragon until he felt something resembling a squirm at which point, he stopped increasing the pressure and held Solrune in a still, tight grip, barely allowing him any movement at all, pondering if he should take extra time to subject the tiny dragon to increasingly greater physical stresses.

"All mine, little dragon...Uhhh huh."

Whatever residual struggle Solrune still had left in him seemed to have vanished, Zeta thought, as he opened his hand and looked upon the completely worn out, and now slightly smaller Solrune, smiling. He quickly plucked the dragon off his palm with his other handpaw, lifting him into place above the small bowl in the middle of the metal device. It looked fittingly ritualistic, what with the symbols carved into the pieces, but besides that, looked like it was made of mundane materials- The metal didn't look unusual, and the golden chains didn't either- Until Zeta lifted one up in preparation for tying it to one of Solrune's wrists. The chain suddenly began to glow brightly, and, almost as if it was alive, whipped itself toward the tiny dragon's arm, wrapping around it three times up to the bicep.

"...no."

The botter almost let go of the dragon in surprise, and reflexively gripped him harder, drawing a low grunt from his captive. Solrune's voice was quiet, but not enough that Zeta couldn't still hear it clearly. As one might have expected, it was deep, and rough, which seemed almost comical for something so small.

"So, you do talk. They told me the silence was just an act", the botter said flatly.

Magical magnetism? This was fortunate. Zeta was expecting to have to tie the chains himself. He quickly raised the second chain and allowed it to grab Solrune's left arm before letting go of him, then breathed a sigh of relief as he leaned back in his chair, his smile returning.

The process didn't begin right away... Zeta watched in silence, slowly counting the seconds until he saw a soft, glowing stream of energy begin to ebb from the dragon, drifting down toward the little bowl. He seemed to have regained some of his senses, and weakly tried to pull himself free of the binding gold chains, but the miniature dragon could barely move his arms. With a subdued glee Zeta observed the process, and lowered down to Solrune's level, folding his arms on the desk and resting his head on them.

"Sooo... Looks like your days of rampaging are over, huh? Just a normal dragon, now. Even if you're..."

The little dragon didn't answer. Maybe he couldn't, for now, Zeta thought. The process was obviously taking more out of him than just his divine essence.

"Well, if you're not feeling up for a little conversation, little dragon, that's fine", the botter chuckled. "I mean, we'll have so much time for that later- I'm the curious type, and I'd like to know... some stuff, some details. About this- About you, your power... What you are. Even if I gotta squeeze it out of you..."

The now numerous purple ribbons of energy were flowing down from Solrune at a gradual pace at first- After half a minute only a few tiny drops had formed around the center of the little bowl, but soon those tiny beads of liquid were visibly growing in size, and joining up with other droplets as gravity dragged them down into the center of the dish, all the while leaving the dragon looking more drained as the process continued. His eyes were still only half-open, and he had begun panting, clearly exhausted from the transference. He was no longer a deity, Zeta realized. Even if he decided to pull him out of the metal aparatus now, not that he'd even consider it, Solrune wouldn't be whole. Whether this meant his magic would be inactive or merely diminished if he was allowed to recover in his current state, the botter didn't know. There were other questions he had; the dragon's durability, proportional strength, lifespan... How would they be effected? It seemed to Zeta that there must be something else setting him apart from the mortals of his particular species, not only the divine juice that was steadily filling the metal vessel. But it could be difficult to tell, with dragons. Perhaps Solrune didn't even know.

The draining continued for only another two or three minutes, though for Zeta, it felt considerably longer. A sudden deep exhale from the gray dragon drew the botter's enormous face in closer, and, with an intense fixation, he stared, not even blinking, as he watched the gold markings on Solrune's body fade. Gradually, together, they lost their luster, the brilliant tone becoming a colorless light gray which soon obscured and then vanished altogether, into the rest of the dragon's scales.

"That's a shame", Zeta said, casually. "Don't worry though. You're still gorgeous." His eyes gained a devious shine when he noticed the streams of energy, too, had vanished, with the last drop of Solrune's divine essence finally having joined the small mass of liquid beneath him. There wasn't a whole lot of it, though curiously, there was enough to account for more than Solrune's overall volume. Magic...

Without hesitation, Zeta removed the small bowl and brought it to his lips, slurping up and swallowing gently glowing purple substance in its entirety. Cool, and... Fruity, like wine. Only...

The botter licked the inside of the bowl, though he neither saw, nor tasted any excess drops in it, then put it back where it had been before- Just in time to catch Solrune within it as the chains binding him lost their tension and released him. He fell limply into the container, eyes barely open, breathing weakly, only to be brought skyward again moments later when Zeta picked the bowl back up, bringing it and the dragon to a little below eye level.

"Well, I don't feel any different... You?", he asked, knowing he probably wouldn't get any answer. His dragon was just too worn out, now. Nontheless, Zeta felt an urge to try something- To answer a simple question. He licked his lips. "Hmmm. Okay, you relax. I'm just gonna..."

He lowered the vessel and poured Solrune out of it, onto his left palm, before tossing it back onto the table. He brought a fingertip to the dragon's nearly motionless form and nudged him over, onto his stomach, then onto his back again. He was lighter, barely, but enough that Zeta could tell. Pressing down on him ever so gently, the botter realized he was a bit less... Firm, than he was before, as well. Less dense. Softer. Weaker. He plucked him up between his thumb and forefinger and rythmically squeezed him for several seconds, a little rougher...

"Oh, damn, you're not shrinking, now. Without your magic..."

Another more forceful compression confirmed that Solrune was, indeed, no longer shrinking. Whereas before, sufficient physical force had the effect of diminishing his size, while he remained invulnerable otherwise, now, he was fragile enough to...

"I could just... Crush you, little dragon."

Zeta squeezed him, again. All the little dragon could do was groan, ever so quietly.

"Buuuut, I won't. Maybe. Time will tell."

He reached for the small black box on the desk and flipped it open, revealing the one object inside it: A vaguely cone shaped red gemstone on a silver chain; a "phasing stone", Scale had called it. Zeta took just a moment to inspect it before testing its supposed power: He pressed Solrune against its surface and watched with interest as the dragon passed through, as if the object was an illusion, or hologram, or something, into it's center, before freezing in place when Zeta withdrew his paw.

"Oh, nice... How the hell did he even make this?" Zeta said, smiling as he dangled it just beyond the end of his nose. Looking closely, he could only just make out Solrune's very much open eyes moving, following the botter's as his red prison slowly swayed and rotated. He was awake, and aware, but trapped, completely motionless, save for being able to move his eyes.

"Perfect. This will keep you out of trouble, and, uh, safe. For lack of a better term", Zeta said, fastening the magical dragon container around his neck.

"Or, not. Just wait until I get you home."