Some Fall By Virtue

Chapter Twenty-Five: taught me how to grow

Smoke trailed from her snout, creeping out from behind her sharp teeth as the fires crackled in her belly, ready to spew forth and set the world ablaze. It stung to remind herself that she had once happily done just that. But her soulmate was hidden away beneath the thick covering of leaves some miles to her left. She would never set the world aflame again, aside, perhaps, from when she burnt the bratling of a dragon who had dared to harm what was hers and only hers. Her wings pounded the air, green leaves torn from their branches prematurely at the sheer force each wingbeat generated. Acrid green eyes locked down on the world beneath her, scanning for any sign of those jewelled scales a far cry away from her onyx ones which matched the tone of the great shadow she put on the earth. And what an unsightly shadow it was...

She took to the air, growl rumbling in her belly as she flew away from where her soulmate waited, resting and possibly just a bit startled. They might not have been able to get a clear view of her, hidden beneath the shrubbery, but they most certainly would have felt the coolness of her shadow upon them. Besides, it wasn't like any would think her Ancalagon. They would have been more likely to think her a descendent – because, after all, Ancalagon was dead, and dragons weren't supposed to be able to come back from death.

It doesn't change the fact you're an ugly dragon, the voice whispered, quashing any sound or sight of the thought that she might be different because of such a fact. She was evil. That fact was constant and unchanging. A low grumble vibrated from her throat, and Sakura was so very grateful dragons couldn't cry in such a scaled form. After all, why would a dragon need to cry? Sakura bared her teeth, some part of her relishing in the feeling of flying once more – of not being grounded. Anchored to her soulmate through a bond which made her feel things she didn't want to. She wasn't supposed to hope, she wasn't supposed to love him so. Dragons weren't made for such an emotion, and that was what she was. It was a fact which would never change, and she simply needed to get it through her thick skull.

Trees shook beneath the beats of her wings, a guttural snarl escaping her, acrid green eyes narrowed as they caught a glimmer of scales underneath the light. She wasted no time in attacking, fire boiling in her throat before she could even think about it, ripping through tree and bush alike as amber flames ate at them. A clawed hand moved so akin to how the other dragon's had when attacking her soulmate, tearing through the small body of the dragon and tearing it apart.

What a wonderful little kinslayer you are, the voice whispered as she stood there, red blood staining her onyx claws. It was hardly surprising how little of a fight there had been. She was the largest winged dragon to ever exist, and the third age had only diminished the size and power of dragons that much further. Look at how much you burn, the voice murmured, and Sakura could only stare at the amber and orange flames as they flickered and burnt through the trees still, ruining the landscape which had once been peacefully green and brimming with life. Until she had come along, that was.

There was only blackened ground, blood, and ash left there alongside the corpse of one of her kin. One who had been consumed by the madness and pain of that same fire she breathed out just then. The fire she had been remade in – warped into that which she was. How lucky you were, the voice said, and Sakura only turned then, flying back along the swarth of destruction she had caused in her wake. She flew back, feeling neither relieved nor satisfied. There was only disgust as she stared at her bloodied claws and thought on how she hadn't changed a single bit. She was still a creature who only brought death and destruction. She was still a creature who only brought ruin to those around her. That was a fact which would never change no matter what she tried to do. No matter who she tried to love.

She landed back in the place which she had, shedding her dragon skin then, two bare human feet coming to rest back upon the ground, scales replaced by pinkish human skin, body shifting and shrinking until she resembled a human once more, pink hair falling to her waist, the eyes the only thing which really stayed the same – and even then, only in colouring. Her heart throbbed, eyes narrowing on the blurred reflection she could see in the stream as evening fell heavy and thick around her. Sakura supposed if she were human she would have been shivering. But those days it was only the icy coldness which clawed at her heart which made her feel so much colder than she ought to – given she was a beast of the summer and fire heat.