there was silence in the early morning hours of the desert, most bodies were asleep and those who were awake would not be out in the burning expanses of sand and air. Almost silent the shff of grains of sand over scales belonging to an ancient beast. The beast itself was all but silent, lost within the depths of their own memories and of locations long gone. Among those memories danced faces, voices and names that they would never have the pleasure of seeing or hearing ever again, and it brought pain to the dragon, a creature that had outlived so many.

Trailing through the frigid air of the desert, the blind beast would exhale, warm breath turning to mist around their maw, scales glittering in the light crusting of moisture. Growl echoing out across the lands, warning the beasts of the sandy wastes to stay from their path or meet a grisly demise. Under the silver moon, their scales and fur were painted a watery pale yellow, long body casting an intimidating shadow across the dunes of sand. Headed in a direction they couldn't name, seeking out the home that they had once called home against all hopes. There in The Ashen City, they knew awaited ghosts of all shapes and sizes, ghosts that they needed to consult and lay to rest. Such ghosts were not tangible, as few were, as much as they were traumas.

Betwixt crushed and falling architecture would they wind, brushing body against old haunts and places they had lived within, places they had left their mark. Finally, coming to stop before an old building left to abandon as the Pittians of not-so-old had left for a home that wouldn't collapse upon them, and fires that wouldn't swallow them alive. Skin prickling, their senses on high as they bent their head to touch their nose to the cold stone and long charred ash, "Long has it been.", they growled into the empty echo of the night.

Within these ruins they recalled faces, scents, names, people they had known. It was all gone now, all of it, all of it stolen away by The Typhoon, by a Captain no longer around. Perhaps their own recalling of it was not as it had all been, but that damned woman, Goldenluxury, she had taken much from them. Their sight, their home, their loved ones. That woman had the ability to forget it all, their lovers were dead at her paws, their very family at risk because of that damn pirate.

Talons digging into the sand and fire-baked clay as a wretched snarl ripped from the dragon, their body twisting as they turned away from their old home, the old building that they had lived within and the old building that they had their first litter in. The home they'd laid to rest the memories of their husband, murdered by a bastard after their mother. The home they'd fallen in love within the walls of.

Deep from within their chest, came cracked laughter full of pain and grand misery, a paw slamming into the already brittle wall and beginning the collapse of the old burnt structure. They had no need of their sight, they could feel the judging eyes of the dead and gone, the spirits they alone grieved for. Asteri, Kydobi, Idyllicfields, Delilah, Regina, Halo and countless others. Too many to keep count of. The laughter kept coming, turning into angry tears as they sneered at the collapsed remains, "YOU WERE THE FOOLS!", they snarled, "I DID WHAT I COULD! YOU'RE ALL JUST GHOSTS NOW! LOOK AT WHO'S ALIVE!? I'M ALIVE!", they cackled, twisting their long form and slamming into other ruins and remains of old buildings.

Kydobi, his body laid somewhere to rest, the mocking of his skull under Silent's reign. They hadn't needed to be there, they'd heard word of it after all. Asteri laid long at rest, their beloved mate and husband leaving them alone in this cruel land with the total inheritance of the Family upon their shoulders, the responsibilities to hold up the young and teach them well. Idyllicfields was long lost, the coyote having disappeared with the wind just as Delilah had, Halo not long for the world with Regina following. They were always left behind, always the last one left, always the last. The only person they had left lay on the brink of life and death, needing medical attention that they could not give him.

Standing amidst a cloud of dust and sand, the dragon was panting for breath, blue eyes wild and filled with feral rage, an anger that they could not take care.of so simply. Murderers, bandits, leeches, the innocent. They cared not, somebody needed to pay for the pain that they were suffering all alone. Somebody needed to be responsible. Laughing again, their talons and body destroying anything in their path, lost in the grace of mindless destruction, "You sons of bitches left me all fucking alone! This is your fault! You promised that you wouldn't leave me, you wouldn't leave my side. I wouldn't be the one left alive and behind! You PROMISED!" finally, the beast stopped their rampage, sobs wrenching out of them, "Dont leave me alone. I can't take this fucking shit anymore! Come back ... please, come back ....", they were blissfully unaware of any audience their antics may have drawn, the dragon briefly driven from their own mind by the buried and repressed grief and anger.

cold were the words she spoke, but a truth they had known from so very long ago. if they were to come back, they already would have. they would be back beside them now, and they wouldn't be falling apart at the seams, held only together by the weak breaths of their avian companion. they had seen too many residences rise and fall, too many faces with them. sephiroth and the rosebloods, elysium, palm glades, alithis evgenis ... too many to count and hold onto. too many damn dead and missing. laughter shaking their frame, "what is family, if not a weakness we cannot see?", they growled as they swung their head in the undead's direction before exhaling and inhaling. fuck being proper and right. it was time to let the pain out, "if they were going to come back, they already would have. we're on our own, poor bastards that we are.", they snorted in a growl-laugh, growing quiet as they'd heard the ghost of a sob from her, "but all the same, despite being a weakness, they are often things we wish to care about, alive or dead or missing."