Degencraft 10 - Big Dumb Lizard

The Dragon Queen had a lot of time to herself to think. She could measure it, since day and night seemed to come and go normally. If those days passed faster or slower she likely would not have noticed, however. She mostly thought in the first hours about the look in the Aspect's eyes. She was a young one, for sure. Much like kalec, but she could never anticipate that one would fall so easily to corruption. The more she thought about it, the more she realized that it did not truly qualify as corruption. It was something a bit more primal and raw. The noble Green Aspect had been reduced to a big, dumb lizard. It frustrated Alexstraza but she could not get that thought in particular out of her head. Merithra as a stupid animal, her brain barely working except to respond to training and commands. A loyal beast, as opposed to a noble creature.

After what felt like just one day Alexstraza attempted to touch herself. She wanted to slide her hands between her thighs for relief from her rampant imagination, but she shockingly found that her humanoid-form's hands and her body were like opposing magnets. One could not touch the other no matter how much she tried. She attempted to run her hands over her entire bronzed, elven body but from her horns and hair, right down to her toes her hands remained just inches away. Her body ached after that instance particularly badly. Forget relief between her legs; the moment she realized she could not touch herself at all even a mild itch became a maddening prospect. The Dragon Queen's whole body was feeling more sensitive and her clothes so uncomfortable. It was all she could do to peel them all off due to the constant rubbing but as soon as she did she realized it to be a mistake. The wind on her skin was usually nothing to worry about, but without the ability to touch her own body it was annoying to no end and she could not return her clothes to her body while she was unable to touch it. She cursed her hastiness.

To her another week passed before she became hungry enough to give in and attempt to try the preserved food in the unusual, endless city she was trapped in. It was like a maze and everything simply lead back around. There was no flying or transforming and no magic at all. None that was within her control, at least. She really did feel as though she had been reduced to her most vulnerable state. As she opened one of the crates and stared down at the meat within her mouth watered. She made the mistake of working herself up over it. She had not consciously starved herself, she simply had other things on her mind before it truly started to nag her. Alexstraza reached in and stopped, not of her own accord but because her hand could not touch the food. Her slender shoulders slumped. She tried to grab at any of the food and even resorted to vegetables but nothing could be touched. Her hands hovered inches away, repulsed by some force.

She tried all the food she could find to no avail until finally happening upon a conspicuous bag that she had probably avoided for good reason. Written in draconic language on the front were the words 'Dragon Chow' and beneath that, as a tagline was written: 'For big, stupid lizards only.' She was almost thankful that she could not touch that bag either, despite her hunger. There were other words in orcish that she ignored. She could not read it and it did not matter.
“I suppose that means I am NOT a big dumb lizard then, hmm?” She said, staring up at nothing in particular. She did not know who trapped her here, or why, but up seemed like a good direction to look for them in general. After she said that her face twisted up in apprehension and her stomach growled.  With her dainty elven hands hovering just inches from the bag she uttered quietly, in an embarrassed tone.
“I am a... Big dumb lizard...” To her surprise her hands closed on the bag and she felt the loud crinkling sound as she was able to take it and tear into it with her sharp teeth. She gratefully reached inside and was disappointed to find dried out chunks of something that did not look or feel like food. As the smell wafted from the opened bag, however, it certainly smelled enough like meat to make her mouth water. Alexstraza grabbed a handful and shoveled it into her mouth.

“Holy...” Her eyes rolled back. It was so delicious. It had no right being as good as it was. It was processed all to hell and probably had very little actual meat in it, but for whatever spices they added to it the little chunks of dried out whatever were mouthwateringly good to her. It only made it more painful when the second hand she stuck in to try and grab at the food dug deep inside and failed to grab any.
“No!” She tried her hardest and even formed scoops and tried with both hands but nothing worked. She screamed out in frustration and sat down next to the bag. The one handful was good, but not sating. She was the size of an elf girl but she still had a dragon-sized hunger that only became worse with a small taste of something good she was teased with. She was always feeling the pains but the moment just a bit of food reached her stomach it was agony. She panned her gaze around the room and found something she had not yet noticed. A large bowl beneath a Dragonmaw banner with rules written on it.

The Queen obviously ignored the banner and the rules, at first. She tried to pour the bag into the bowl but found that everything she tried to pour out bounced off of an invisible shield and scattered all over the floor before disappearing. She shook her head and bared her teeth derisively before finally looking up at the banner and the rules. They were all in orcish aside from a line at the top that she read out loud.

“By saluting the banner I consent to have all languages scrubbed from my mind... Save for orcish...” She paraphrased slightly.
“What choice do I have? I can not read it. Scam...” The woman hesitantly saluted the banner and cringed. It felt as though knowledge from thousands upon thousands of years of languages was being sheered off. Finally, all she had left was the one language she never cared enough to know, for good reason. Orcish. It was magic, she assumed, so she knew that she could undo it later if she had to. For the moment her priorities were reading the first lifeline she was granted, eating and possibly escaping. She read the orcish portion of the banner.

“First rule. Obey any trainer's commands.” She assumed that would mean the leader she witnessed before. She would welcome any other being in the space to join her at this point. Instead of that mans stern voice behind her she heard a different orc. Younger and more inexperienced but still quite forceful in his tone.

“Don't move.” He said. It was the first rule and she did not want to mess up immediately so she stood still and waited. After just a moment of waiting something cool was pushed into her lower back.

“Hey...” She uttered, still not moving. She knew from feeling it that it was a hot iron. Her body was not affected by fire, nor heat so she was not harmed and her body would not be, but she was curious. As the iron was pulled off he made a sound that suggested she could move. She smugly felt for the area that he tried to brand her and cringed as a raised Horde symbol had been scorched into the skin.
“How did you-” She yelped loudly as a sharp smack to her plump ass became the second touch to her body she had received in nearly a week. Her usually resilient form radiated pain from that point on her rear as it reddened and formed a hand-print from just the one slap. She gasped and gulped.

“Keep reading, idiot.” The voice definitely was not familiar. She reluctantly stared at the Banner.

The second rule stated that she should show deference and respect to handlers. There were a few other random rules but the last one she read was quite perplexing.

“You may only eat from your own bowl?” She looked down. There was only one bowl. The only bowl she had ever seen in the entire plane she had been trapped in and in big bold letters on the front, with blushing cheeks she read.
“Nara?” It was an orcish name with very little meaning or significance. It was something simple and flippant that one might name an animal they were fond of. Like Spot to a dog, or Whiskers to a cat. As she stood perplexed the bag was pulled from her hand. The orc walked around in front of her and casually poured the chunks of food into the large bowl. He then watched her with an amused expression. She stared back at him as she got down on one knee cautiously. He did not look like anyone important. He was an orc. Muscular and tall with brownish skin. There was not much to identify on him. He was forgettable and certainly not the leader. She tried to reach down and found that her hands could not even move the pile of food, let alone touch it.

She gritted her teeth and realized what she had to do. It was humiliation at it's finest, but she was hungry. She had worked herself up into even more of a hunger with that single bite that she was allowed before. It was definitely intentional. The Dragon Queen leaned her head down towards the bowl to eat from it with just her mouth. As she was just about to reach it, as she was almost able to taste and was certainly able to smell it... She felt pressure on one of her horns and a force keeping her back.

“Is that yours!?” The gruff voice asked harshly.
“Are you Nara?”

Alexstraza stopped. She was not, but she was getting strong hints that she could be. For the sake of eating she could be the one who's name was on that bowl. Her mind began to slip as she pushed herself into mental pretzels trying to justify it. She did not even care that the third ever touch on her body in a week was an orc placing his hands around one of her elegant horns. Just as she was about to give in however, she shook her head.
“No, I am n-”

“Huh? But you're the only one here.” The hand on her horn slide down and scratched just behind it. It was an innocuous act but that simple gesture sent a strong shudder down her spine. She had forgotten just how much her body was suffering from lacking any touch. The orcs scratch that itched a spot her hand had not blessed in nearly a week. Her shudder shook off any pride she had accumulated.
“Only Nara gets to receive affection.” He lifted his hand while Alexstraza tried and failed to lift her body to meet it as it left.

“So speak up.” He added, rapidly seeming like he was about to leave her the longer she waited.

She stared up and said through a forced smile. “I'm... I'm Nara.” If it was all she had to do, she could say it.

“I don't believe you.” He called her on it. The dragon's shoulder's slumped. She felt more hungry and needy in that moment than at any point during the past week. She stared past him up at the banner. It's patterns stuck out in her mind and penetrated her thoughts. The writing stood out to her and almost seemed to twist and bend and force her eyes to move around the fabric just to follow it. Slow circles that were just enough to keep her trying while just a bit to fast to allow her to read easily. Eventually she read another rule. The only one she could make out: Request education if confused.

“Are you confused?” He questioned, as though he was reading her thoughts.

She certainly was not and to suggest that she was in her own words made her feel as though something bad would happen. Like speaking some curse. Despite that foreboding feeling, she surrendered to desire.

“I'm confused...” As soon as she said that, she relaxed. The orc began speaking, but his words were complex to a simple creature like her. Still, she absorbed them like a sponge because his tone dripped with authority.

“You are Nara. You are a promising acquisition for the clan. The Dragonmaw has raised you from a whelp to breed the next generation of mounts for our clan.” As he said that her history faded from her mind. Suddenly, she was simply a young dragon that had been raised to serve. Intelligence fled quickly after from her eye as he reinforced his words with mild affection. His hands rolled over her head and down her cheek. The former Queen affectionately nuzzled back and allowed herself to be prostrated before the bowl by his insistent hand. She was being trained how to act. She needed training. She was young and stupid. An animal.  As soon as she properly positioned herself and waited, he finally allowed her to lean forward and eat greedily from the bowl. The chow stated clearly on the bag, in fine orcish print below the draconic, print that was not read; May aid loss of sentience in higher creatures.