The Dragon's Soulmate

The First to Fall

Now that the whispers are gone, and her energy stopped reverberating in her center, there’s nothing else to do than to take stock of what’s happened. Her new form has eight appendages, all in charge of something different. Four on the ground must be there for standing on the surface. Another moves willfully with her thoughts, turning in directions she needs to see where as her light could see all, in every direction. This is frustrating and confusing all at once. It has an opening with another strangely wet addition moving around between it. Another part behind her is ribbed instead. It’s long and moves on its own as she stands, as the first did but she can’t see out of it. Idly she wonders what the purpose is. Finally, she looks up behind her, as they reach up far higher than her sight, limiting the view of the swaying thing behind her.

These, she thinks then pauses her thoughts, they’re large. She can stretch them up and above her like the sticks standing upright out of the ground throughout the land around her. They move as she once did, higher and higher until they’re at their full length, which is but a billionth of a fraction of what she used to be able to reach.

But it will do.

It will have to.

The threat grows beneath her forcing her to move.

Without any true understanding of what she is or what her new form can do, she lunges forward pressing her large appendages downward hard. The feeling can only give her enough freedom reaching but only a marginal amount of space between her and the ground. Doing the best she can, she moves them, all of them, and the anchoring thing behind her to help her find her place in the dark sky.

Up.

Her little form is hard to move at first, but she manages, flying nearly high enough to reach the tops of the scorched graveyard of whatever this place might have been.

The sky is dark but twinkles. She’s sure she sees the shattered pieces of herself scattered across the twilight...she frowns at the thought. She knows it wasn’t her; she’s here. All of which had long since faded in her travels. As her eyes adjust, taking in the sights as they are, she wonders why she was the only one that moved for this. She wondered if they were the souls of strangers watching her journey. She wondered if they didn’t possess the same interests she did in removing the darkness, what did they need? What could they need if all they were doing was standing and waiting? 

It was apparent to see that they did not seek the eradication of the darkness...but if they didn’t, what did they want? The balance between light and dark? That seemed hardly like it. Sadly, she weighed the thought. She’d been through the far reaches of space, uncalculated distances only to find it everywhere. There was no balance with darkness, there was only the endless nothing. To be a light like her, was still to be a little thing with the ability to be destroyed, snuffed out without a moment wasted. 

Didn’t they see that by not standing up against it would do to them? 

They could be turned to dust, and they were never the wiser. Or maybe they were. Maybe her presence was a problem. Maybe they looked down on her as the one who betrayed them all. She was the only one on this desolate planet finding reasons to be fearful at nearly every turn. She could have waited out her life, stretching out into brilliant waves of color as far as her form could go, but there she was but only one being. 

Honestly she couldn’t help but to want more. 

And maybe they are content without it. 

More that is. 

Not her. She couldn’t live without purpose, and once again she can't help the fury that takes over and a new sound comes out. This time her thoughts as clear words fly out of her mouth, letting her hear the sound of her voice. It’s gravelly at first, as if she’d ground her body around on itself, but as she tries to get a handle on how it feels to make that sound, it becomes smoother, softer, feminine. And, she pauses a moment to take it in with finality, she truly begins to believe it’s beautiful. 

The lovely sound of her voice battles with her thoughts as they spew about outloud. Her head thrashes about in her anger then finally, she tucks her chin down to the front of her neck, looking downward to find a place to land. While being up high seemed like an interesting venture, her small body started feeling weakened by her constant movements to stay upright. Landing seemed right. It seemed like the only thing she could really do at the moment and with that she couldn't help the snarl that came from her. The feeling in the center of her face was alarming but among other things it was a simple one that could be forgotten until her frustration blew over. 

Not that it would, she thought. She didn’t exactly like the thought that she’d betrayed the stars by becoming one of the inhabitants of the world she landed on, but who were they to say? 

They couldn't say anything. If they weren’t part of the change, they were part of the problem, she snorted again. 

Her legs stretch out instinctually to reach for the branches below her. Little nubs on them would as well, and finally as she felt a distinct object to grab onto, she does. The sound of which follows is that of a scratching that makes her think of names for these things she’s using, the first being what gripped the branch below her. These new things would now be known as claws. 

The moment she could get her bearings, the old star began noticing clearings, one of which she dove off of the branch from to the ground. It’s surprisingly become the most comforting place of this land so far, regardless of the fear left in her mind from when she first reached out past it’s outer layer. 

The longer she stayed, she realized that sounds were constant, keeping her sense of alarm always ready as she stepped through the land. This place was far louder than the darkness. It had so much to say.

The debris from which she collected still hasn’t settled or made its way into being comfortable. Small leaves on her face distort her view. They crinkle as she moves making her still constantly. She stops just in time to sense something extra, not her, instead. Her eyes widen as a creature of an unreasonable size compared to her is stalking within the brush behind her. It hisses and growls, making awful warning signals, but she’s not of the wiser. She was just reborn today after all.

“Rrrrrrr” the sound grumbles trying to push her out of its space. It hisses right after, sounding more like it was calling her something.

She listens for it again. This time it’s much louder, making the ground rumble underneath her.

Again a sound unlike one she’s heard before now turns out, but it does not make sense. She tilts her head trying to decipher it. It sounds somewhat like a word she could have used, but “rheine”, she sounds out to herself, sounds more like an agitated whine than anything else. A moment of bravery passed her and she braced herself while she turned to face the beast, finding the largest figure she’s seen here, well, besides the darkness she felt. 

At best she could tell the rigid body stretched up into the rocky terrain as far as the eye could see. The dead vegetation, what was left of it at least, grew high but it was not nearly as large as this beast, she’s sure of it. It looked as though it dominated the space, but felt… well… it didnt feel like the darkness. It’s black body mimicked the darkness in space though, and for that she remained cautious. 

The light in her soul still flickered around through her eyes, just past the leaves on her brow, showing faintly on the ground when she looked down and away from it. It’s an eerie enough glow to remind her of the stars sitting in the twilight as she once had, completely unaware of the dangers the darkness could bring. She wonders if her light could have ever made a difference here. 

Maybe not as a star but it doesn’t matter now. She’s something else. Not even the light in her eyes will be enough to fix this place, and so, for a fleeting moment, she allows the light to suppress itself back into her core. 

Next, she decides to embrace what she is now and makes a sound of her own; she hisses out into the night, lifting her head to repeat her distaste to the stars above her. Her growl is small and raw, matching her mourning for this failure, extending herself out onto the land in a radius she was not intending to reach.

A deep rumbling comes up behind her again. It’s low and makes her body crawl in ways she’s sure it shouldn’t. Her covering—what’s bound to her starts to drop off causing enough pain for her to call out into the night. As she continues with her grating screech, she closes her eyes to try to take the pain and is surprised by a new texture against her face. It feels rough like stone, as she’s come to realize, but thrums with a power unlike her own, one that is alive.

The sound of the billowing wind breezes through the land and pulls her with it, only to be pushed back and fully pressed against the hard substance that once gagged her.

“Hush, Little One,” a sound blew her out like leaves in that very wind, carelessly; as if she were unnecessary just like every last star in the sky. “It can hear you.”

The warning makes her struggle, growling and grunting as she wiggles from its hold. Pebbles grind against each other, popping off as they do, causing absolute grief.

“Slow down,” the voice hummed through what sounds like his own pain. “You’re the first to fall in thousands of years. You will need your strength for the life ahead,” the voice sounds strained again, huffing as he breathes.

Her light flickers inside her telling her to move towards it so she listens. Each step forward is unnerving, unlike that of what she’s already faced. Moving from her place against the broken ground underfoot, she finds a new, softer surface; sand. It’s painful to step on though. Instead of using the voice she found, the little beast did her best to reach the sky once more.

Gradually she lifted from where she stood, she noticed how her eyes began to shine again, brighter than before. As challenging as it is to move with her odd body, she decides to follow the sound of the wind, associating it with the large figure before her.

Another sigh startles her as she makes her way higher above it. Her appendages are fragile still, crumbling and falling from her as she moves. Light flickers beneath her layers, glowing softly as she finds the form that’s been speaking to her. Warily she realizes that the ash that burns her is coming from this creature and wonders if it feels it too. If it does than why doesn’t it move?