Keywords: Adult, Hypnosis Species: Rat, Dragon The Black The Black By Divigon The door splintered then collapsed inwards. A dark winged figure strode inside. "You bastard!" he hissed threateningly. Jotham looked up, seemingly undisturbed by the commotion. "Yes?" he asked in his velvety soft voice. "You stole my horse!" snapped the dragon. He was an impressive dragon, gleaming black scales that seemed to absorb the light rather than reflect it. Two large bat-like wings arched behind him, twitching in agitation, similarly his long serpentine tail flicked from side to side. He towered over the rat by at least two feet, ivory horns curving behind his head and two glowing eyes fixed on the smaller mammal. "I did what?" asked Jotham, seeking clarification. "You..." stammered the dragon, his voice was filled with rage. "You took my stallion, hypnotising him. I asked him who his master was and he said you. How dare you." The rat's mind flicked over the past few weeks. He remembered the stallion in question, very submissive and very nice. His mind had been easy to take, perhaps a little too easy in hindsight. "He was yours?" he asked the dragon. "Yes," snarled the black. "I had been guiding him under, bit by bit, training him. When I found him he was seeking a master, he didn't know it of course, but I recognised the signs. We talked, I took a little bit of his mind, each night a little bit more and just when I was ready to claim him, he says that he's yours. How dare you!" The dragon had stormed across the room and was met by a calmly rising Jotham. "A seat?" offered the rat, seemingly oblivious by the irate creature before him. The dragon seemed to implode on himself, flopping down onto the overly soft cushions. "He was my horse," murmured the dragon. "He was going to be mine. He was different from the others." The rat slipped into the seat beside the dragon. "How so?" he asked gently, placing a warm paw on the scaly hide. "I wasn't taking him," replied the dragon. "I can take anyone. A gift, or a curse." He turned to face the rat, his dark eyes somehow growing darker, twin pools of liquid blackness that started to expand. The rat felt himself shrinking back, hackles on his neck rising, something deep inside him beginning to surface... then the dragon blinked and the feeling was gone. "There are none who can resist me," he said definitely. "No mortals anyway. I can take someone's mind and turn them into my devote slave before they take their next breath, but the stallion was different. I wasn't taking him, he was offering himself." Jotham nodded. "My apologies," he offered. "I did not know. I will of course return him, or at least instruct him he is no longer in my service." "You better," the dragon growled threateningly. He looked down at the paw running over his thigh. "Are you trying to relax me?" he asked incredulously. "Folks had said you were bold, but I doubt you would be that bold." "I am sorry," responded the rat, pulling his hand back, but not too far. "In my line of work it is instinctive. I am curious though, you said you could take anyone?" "Yes," agreed the dragon. "My magic is that of mind control or modification if you like." He turned to look at the rat, Jotham bracing himself for another attack from those eyes, but this time they remained normal, black and without iris, but not magical. He stared back at them defiantly. "How?" he asked softly. "I can see how other's minds work," replied the dragon, finding himself looking at the rat's eyes. "Once there it is simple for me to change how they think. Rewire them if you like, change the response from the expected stimuli." "How fascinating," pondered Jotham, not taking his eyes from the dragon and perhaps even leaning in slightly. "Tell me how you do it." "A lot like you do I expect," replied the dragon, there was something not quite right, he found himself concentrating on the reflection of his own eyes in the eyes of the rat. "Some misdirection perhaps, have the person thinking of something while you start telling them something else, by the time they realise what is happening, I have them, their mind's natural defences are disabled and they're open to what I tell them. It only takes a minute or two." "What do you tell them?" pressed Jotham, watching as the dragon's eyes unfocused slightly. "Sleep is common," sighed the dragon softly, his eyelids drooping slightly. "Deep sleep..." Jotham tried not to gloat as the dragon's eyes slid shut, his wings drooping behind him as he body relaxed. He reached out and traced a paw gently down the dragon's muzzle, the dragon giving a little purr. "Do you know what I've done?" he asked softly. "You've had me hypnotise myself," replied the dragon, his voice soft and distant. "Do you know how?" was the second question. "I used my magic on myself," was the answer. "How does it feel?" "Good..." murmured the dragon. "I'm relaxed, confused." "Why confused?" asked Jotham. "I'm more powerful than you," replied the dragon. "You're not supposed to control me." "Do I control you?" asked Jotham. "You put yourself under. I think that is why you came here." "I came here for stallion," mumbled the dragon. "True," conceded Jotham. "But you knew how your stallion felt about being with me. Perhaps you wanted the same thing?" The dragon mulled this over in his dulled mind. "Perhaps," he murmured. "I did not expect this." "Maybe not," agreed the rat. "But you did give yourself, did you not? You can wake yourself up and walk away at any time you wish." "Yes," mumbled the dragon. "Why don't you?" asked Jotham. "Its nice," admitted the dragon. "What is?" enquired the rat. "Not having to think. To listen and obey." "Hmmm..." mused Jotham thoughtfully. "Do you like obeying?" "I don't know. I have never had a master before," murmured the dragon, taking a slow deep breath. "Do you see me as a master?" asked Jotham. "Yes," responded the black. "You put me under, hence you control me." "Not quite," corrected the rat. "You put yourself under. I merely provided the seed." "The effect is the same," was the whispered rumble. "Perhaps," nodded Jotham. "So, what would you do, if I were to accept being your master?" "I would obey," purred the dragon. "Do you like that idea?" asked the rat. "Yes," came the response, the dragon's loincloth seemed to bulge slightly, a fact not missed on the rat. "Are you getting aroused by giving yourself to me?" asked Jotham. "Yes," came the response, followed a moment later by "sir." "Hmmm..." pondered the rat thoughtfully. "I haven't accepted you yet, do you want me to? I can be a good master for you." "Yes sir," the whispered voice was almost a plea. "Then relax and be mine," ordered Jotham, reaching up to place a paw across the dragon's temple The effect was immediate. The dragon gave a soft sigh, his large head flopping down to his chest as he breathed out, his body going limp. "You are mine," murmured Jotham. "You will remember this, serving me causes you pleasure, you want to spend your time obeying me. You will wake, remembering everything." The dragon stirred slowly, his wings lifting as he took in a deep breath. He looked around him, his mind peeling back the layers as he calculated what had happened. At first he looked happy, then surprised, that look shifted to amazement and then faded to anger. "You bastard!" he snapped at Jotham. "You dare make me your pet?" He glared at the rat; Jotham barely had no time to react before tendrils of the dragon's power encased his mind. His own defences activating as his secret stepped into the light. The dragon watched the rat fold under his onslaught, and then recover, standing slowly, only the rat was different. His eyes were changing, growing redder, fading to the colour of blood, his nails lengthened and teeth shifted into fangs. "Well, well..." mused the dragon, standing to watch the creature before him. "The secret is revealed. How long have you been inside the rat?" "Long enough," hissed back the rat, his voice somehow dark, provoking images of nightmares and places you did not wish to wander. "A blood symbiont..." rumbled the dragon. "Hiding inside a rat. How quaint. Does your host know of your existence?" "We are of the same mind," hissed the response. "I think not," countered the black, tendrils wrapping around the rat's mind. "He knows of you, maybe even some of your story, but you keep things hidden. Things never change." Walls snapped up around the rat's mind and the dragon pulled back, probing once or twice before receding. "And now he is unaware," rumbled the dragon. "Isolated. Afraid I'm going to turn you against him? You know I have seen your kind in action." "As has he," came the predictable response. "No, you have told him of your kind, but I doubt he has witnessed the things you do. I think you shelter him, as you do now. Protecting him from things you do not wish him to be party to, and you have even more control over him than I, yet he does not know you true nature." "This could be true," replied the rat slowly. "But the information is there. It is his choice whether or not he accesses it." "A choice like he gave me?" snarled the dragon. "One covered in misdirection and slight of hand." "Not quite," smiled the approximation of the rat. "I was quite amused by the way he did that. You were completely under his power." "Your power," countered the black. "I knew the rat didn't have it in him, someone, something was helping him. It looks like I know what." "And you can't say you didn't like it," smiled Jotham. "I saw the bulge. You want to be owned." "Never!" snapped the dragon before pausing. "At least, not by a rat. I would never bow before a rat." "Hmmm..." mused the symbiont to himself. "How about to one such as myself. Two non-mortals to each other." The dragon paused, thoughts racing through his head. It was all happening too fast. The rat; the blood symbiont; himself caught in the middle; he did not want to surrender, but it did feel so good. "Maybe..." rumbled the dragon slowly. "But a trial... if I do not like him or what he does... it will be... unpleasant." There was a hint of malice in his voice and the rat noticed the way his talons lengthened. "Not a slave," continued the dragon. "A lesser equal... a companion perhaps." The rat nodded, the symbiont withdrawing slowly back into his vessel. The rat's shape returning to normal, the eyes clearing before they looked around, settling on the dragon, a hint of a smile crossing his small muzzle. "Hello pet," murmured the rat, reaching out with a paw to pet the dragon's muzzle. The dragon resisted for a moment, then lifted his head, matching his eyes to the rat's and feeling his world spiral away into blackness...