A Dragon's Blood

one :: an aftermath

Arelle sits upon the ledge of the mountain, her wings folded daintily on her back. She stretches her tail, letting it swish and swipe around the small rocks on the ground. She's come to love the feeling of her scales against the ground, the way it sends shivers tingling up through her limbs, cold and sharp and everything free.

Her eyes scan over the valley and mountains, watching for any movement of animals in the small wood at the bottom of the mountain she sits on.

The view is nothing short of beautiful, but the is a darkness that taints her vision every time she sweeps her eyes over the landscape.

Evenstar.

The city of light grey bricks that light up as the sun rises over the mountains: the castle she once called home - the castle she once hated to call home - golden and bright. It is like a beacon in these desolate mountains. Houses are built just as beautifully as the castle even though the grey stone shows a rugged ugliness to it; when the sun finally rises to it's true place in the sky, the city will be seen for what it is: a formidable foe to any that attempt to impregnate it.

It is not at all like Merre, with it's flowing marble that glows in the sunlight, built purely for the heat of the lowlands. She can remember someone talking about King Theron, and the castle of marble he built here so many ages ago.

But Evenstar, oh, Evenstar, with it's brick and harsh lines... she can see now why the houses are built so, why the town is made out of so many stones and why there are no trees, only little flowers that grow like weeds here and there.

Because Merre was built for summer, and Evenstar was built for dragons.

This is the terror that they attempt to protect themselves from.

But, she's learnt, dragons are not really much terrors at all. All they are trying to do is save their own and survive.

Now she is one of the beasts her town fears.

Stretching her wings and feeling them catch the wind, she flaps them a few times, standing back up to her true size. She's not that big, for a dragon, only half the size of a house, but she'll grow as she ages, as Aela said. In her dragon form, Aela, who's been this way for more than a decade, is almost two houses, and a true terror when angered.

And soon, she'll be like Aela and Jocelyn and all the rest, saving maidens forced to marry.

Only they were just too late to save her, and now she has a husband and is the lady of a town. Of Evenstar.

She pushes the memories from her mind, of Evenstar, of Merre, of... her husband. For some strange reason that she can't explain, her mind lingers on him. His honey eyes and gold hair.

But with a little hiss from her jaw and a small push of her paw, she is in the air, and instinctively, her wings flap, pushing her up and up, so high only the clouds can touch her. She loves the mist that surrounds her, white and fluffy. It looks as soft as silk, but when she bats out a paw to touch the cloud, her claws fly through it, cutting a jagged line in it.

It's all forgotten, now, her mind at peace.

Her wings flap again, and she grins a toothy smile, as well as a dragon can.

Descending beneath the clouds, she spots the secluded castle within the mountains. Her new home.

The stone is as bland and grey as Evenstar, but there are no straight lines, only a smooth, curved entryway into the mountain itself, because what is more formidable than a mountain? Certainly not a castle for dragons to live in, but the mountain holds them well.