FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 58

"Fuckkkkkking hellllll" Cellsa whistled, eyeing the icy shelves lined against a cold wall in the storage room the Queen directed her to

She stretched out, rising on her hind legs orange paws reached for a quite sizeable bottle with a familiar treat inside. Before her claws touched the glass however, her muscles jerked instinctively, grabbing a roundish object similar to a miniature vase.

"What are you hiding my precious" she shook the covered in scales flask, listening in closely, the sound it made reminded her so much of mushed guts she crushed between her teeth so very often.

"You are not allowed to touch that"

Cellsa yelped, shock tugging at the wings, she lost balance immediately. Back smashed against the ground, sending a paralyzing stab throughout the whole body, filling her head with a drilling noise that was so uncomfortable that she didn't even notice that her claws clenched over the mysterious flask tightly, completely ignoring the nudge to offer any safety to the brain that seemingly controlled them.

And if the drop wasn't bad enough already, the upside down image of her brother's dumb mug appeared before her.

"What are you doing here?!"

"You overdosed" Orbis calmly wiped the spit from his chin she so gratefully greeted him with.

"Duh! I wouldn't have nightmares about you otherwise!" the stab that projected from her spine reached the brain. It started to flop around like a fish, instead of having fins though, it pounded at her skull with hammers.

"My head is going to explode!" the claws let go off the scaled bottle, sinking into the small cracks between draconic flesh around the head, turning around as if they wanted to enlarge the holes there to vent out all that agonistic pressure.

"Look what you've done!" she whined, a mixture of a moan and a roar whizzed through the clenched teeth "You're always such a fucking pain! Imaginary or not! Get lost wanker!"

Orbis shook his head, after all the years of dealing with his addicted sister he stopped questioning her behavior with any sense of logic. He never understood how someone can do this to himself and probably never will, chasing an euphoric state might be a strong enticement, but then there are moments full of anguish like this here. How one cannot comprehend that he is hurting himself in the end was beyond his understanding.

This is why there was nothing left for him but feel pity and disgust. Out of the two things, only the first was entirely directed at her.

He stepped over her, picking up the bottle that didn't belong in her paws.

"Take that!" she screamed, slashing at the bulky legs "Be gone foul monster!"

He ignored the physical pain, it was not the first nor the last he will receive from her as a thank you. Besides it was nothing compared to the ache he felt in his soul, the knowledge that all it takes is one, relatively safe, considering their way of life, blow to the head when Dawn stretched out her limits to completely shatter any semblance of sanity was far more painful.

And to think that for a moment he believed it all to be finally over.

Love in combination with a sense of duty was a destructive weapon.

He grabbed the bottle with the way too familiar drug, immediately after dropping the weight of one of his muscular legs right on top of his screaming sister's throat.

Cellsa choked, maw parting into a broad stretch that for a moment she resembled the mouth of the same fish she imagined hammering at her skull.

He poured the liquid into the parted jaw, filling her throat until he saw the first line of black goo her wriggling tongue could force down.

Green leg pulled away, orange mouth clamped shut, tears filled the feminine eyes when the throat swallowed the bulge. Cellsa immediately rolled on her stomach, coughing harshly, spitting both tears and saliva onto the cold ground.

Moments later she began to retch, each hack pulling the hair so strongly that if one listened closely he could hear her scalp being ripped apart. She felt like she was getting kicked in the stomach over and over again, the heartless boot demanding back the contents she just swallowed.

No matter how hard it hit though, her belly didn't let even a single drop go.

And then it was all over, she felt flat on the floor, blackened tongue rolled from the panting mouth, hair like wet noodles followed suit. She heaved on the icy floor, the chill giving her hot body more satisfaction than any romp ever did.

Perfection doesn't exist they say, but even if she would stuff all the existing drugs into her throat they still wouldn't compare to this. If this wasn't perfection than she had no idea what else could be.

"These nuts are killing you. You are forgetting more and more with each withdrawal. The overdoses reached such a critical point that a mere flick to the head makes you lose contact with reality"

Green legs appeared before her, she started blinking hectically, hoping that they will disappear at some point as she climbed them. The one eyed face of her brother looking back at her was all the evidence she needed to know that no vanishing will be happening.

"Great. You're real" her chin landed back on the floor, letting out a prolonged, pained sigh.

"Unfortunately you are becoming more and more like a fiction"

"Spare me your philosophical bullshit Orbis" she groaned, massaging her calming head "I already have a headache, I don't need to listen to you yap. Just shut up and be quiet, just like you are among strangers"

"I cannot. I only love you"

"Ugh" she rolled her eyes, body followed suit, landing on the back she tapped at her underbelly "Jump. I need help throwing up, you're making me real sick"

"How did you manage to catch the Queen's attention?" the low, stoic voice rumbled with the same tempo as always, ignoring the absurd request like it never existed.

Cellsa grinned.

"Jealous are we?"

"No. Worried"

"Jelly, jelly" the dragoness laughed, colored in black tongue so much unfitting in the orange mouth that it looked like it would be a parasitic organism "Great, dutiful Orbis is butthurt because he's dumb sister slipped from his claws and reached royalty when he wasn't even noticed after scraping at the door for so long!"

A cold flicker of deathly, green light flashed across the artificial eye.

"I don't know what great Orbis thought, but I believed that you perished in the dungeons"

"And that's why you're scraping the bottom with the rest of the drones you pessimistic bore!" Cellsa rolled on her belly, straightening her body and flexing the muscles to look more formidable "Look at me, I'm Orbis, I'm a huge, dumb brick, I've sucked so many dicks and I'm still a nobody. I'm blind and I can't see that my super sister doesn't need me. Help, help, I'm useless" her squeaky voice even when mimicking the lowest tone sounded at best like she had a ball of paper stuck in her throat.

Even though his body didn't betray the tiniest sign of irritation, he still couldn't help himself but to notice that only one of them acts as if she had something shoved down her throat.

"What have I done to warrant so much aggression from you?"

"Don't put this on me!" she poked the stern chest with her claw "I showed you that I can handle myself and that I don't need you breathing on my tail all the time and that's pissing you off!"

"I'm not angry"

"Bullshit! You just can't show it cause you're as interesting as a stone! Ignus told me everything, how you got punished for all the things I did! You never believed in me and were always slinking away to act the hero part, you always knew that I will fuck up! I never asked you to do anything for me!"

He looked down at the stabbing claw, it was not his paw, yet each touch still felt as if he would be knocking at his very own heart.

"You didn't need to ask. My whole life revolves around you Dawn"

"Again with this hero act!" she growled "Stop it or I swear I'm going to slap you!"

"This is not heroism, this is brotherhood. You blame me for things I didn't do. I accepted my role as a punching bag not because I didn't believe in you, quite the contrary in fact"

"Oh yeah, right! Maybe you'll also tell me that Ignus lied. I haven't seen you doing anything all this time and you want to tell me that it didn't bother you? You thought I was a corpse and yet I didn't see you cry when you saw me"

Orbis swallowed, the bulge that stretched his throat was a small one, yet even such behavior caught the attention of his sister who was used to the fact that his throat for the most part remained idle.

"I knew that you're full of shit"

"What do you want me to say Dawn? That you're insufferable? You are, but that will never change because you're my blood"

Cellsa narrowed her eyes on him, the electrical arc that bounced between the horns gained considerably on speed

"Admit that you were relieved when you heard I was dead"

He looked away, with great difficulty holding back the desire to scratch his suddenly burning heart. The weight of shame he felt when he reminded himself of the sense of freedom and worthwhile duty he felt when he learned about her death was more painful than the memory of having his eye burned out.

"I'm sorry"

Cellsa snorted.

"You're no hero Orbis. Stop pretending that I need one, the proof is all around you"

"I'm not ideal, I never said I was. I'm ashamed that I surrendered to weakness, but I'm staying here with you now and don't want to turn around. Doesn't that prove my true feelings for you?"

"It's not love you dumb rock, you're just afraid"

Orbis tilted his head.

"Afraid?"

"Yes, afraid!" she scraped one of the shelves, scrubbing up a speck of filth "You cling to me like dust because you know that without me your life is over. You are a bore and a slave to discipline, without me you would never leave this walls without father's say so and the only stranger you would ever talk to would be your own reflection. You wouldn't even meet Spyro and the rest if not for me! Everything excited that happened to you is because of me, between the two of us I'm the one who would survive and live alone"

The artificial eye became dull and the longer he stared at his sister the more he felt that his real one was following in its shadow. Scars started to pulse to the rhythm of his slowing heart, with the fading colors the silhouette of his sibling started to lose illumination as well, scales turning to paper, with visible letters on top, all of them ending with an exclamation mark.

There were dull and bleak like a lifeless corpse.

There was no life in them.

Those were only soulless orders.

Cellsa grinned at the sight, Orbis wasn't talkative but she spent enough time around the creep to realize where she hit a nerve. Too bad for him though that she didn't treat it as a signal to stop.

"If Athron didn't tell me to I would never pick you from the crowd"

Light returned to his eyes suddenly.

The thing about orders was that they were never given without reason.

"Why?"

"What why? I already told you that I don't need you. I got up here all by myself"

"Why Athron forced you to pick me?"

"I have no idea dude" claw quickly tapped at the feminine forehead "I'm not dumb to question the damn Queen. Ask her yourself, but don't expect me to catch your head after she slices it off"

Orbis frowned. He wasn't sure if he liked their position, some might call him lucky considering the fact that he was officially expelled from the Skyward and in the end found his way to the Upper City with Athron herself not caring about his situation at all. As a long term soldier of Skyward he learned that nothing happens without reason in this city.

And if anyone would set up a plan where they would play a role, it would definitely be Athron.

"This is too easy"

"Of course he grumbles!" Cellsa clawed at her hair "I'm sure the door are opened, you can go out whenever you can"

"Father told me I'm no longer welcome in Skyward Dawn"

"You got kicked out?"

Orbis flinched, curling the claws on the hind legs only so the discomfort he felt wouldn't be too obvious. His relation with Dawn was always complicated, she wasn't a girl that appreciated his presence much, treating him as an annoying necessity than a protective brother, nevertheless he knew that she wouldn't want to be separated, it didn't matter to him at all if it was because of true affection or self-preservation only. A hook that kept her close was there and it was everything that mattered.

This question though, there was too much hopeful joy in it for his liking, they might not be the most ideal sibling pair, but not even Dawn showed such open hostility to her own blood, until now that is. Something changed after they were separated and since she mentioned someone named Ignus he could easily guess who is the reason for that shift in attitude.

The fact that his own sister values more the opinion of some stranger than that of her own flesh and blood is better left alone in the embrace of silence.

"I was pardoned when I joined you here..." his voice wavered at the sight of the fading light of hope in his sister's eyes "...I believe"

"Oh" the electric arc jumping between Cellsa's horns flopped down like ears. Just when she looked as if she would fall victim to depression her features brightened up and a paw shot forward to give the muscular leg a supporting clap

"Hey, but no worries bro! You always told me to never give up! Keep that attitude and I'm sure you'll get there"

"This is not what I desire"

The jovial energy puffed like a cloud spread by wings, in front of him stood a dragoness as the one that presents herself before her foes.

"I was not aware we were discussing your wishes"

Orbis' teeth scraped against each other, dispersing the hit of pain between them. With the Binding magic replacing blood in his scarred body he was no stranger to ache, became such good companions in fact that muscles could barely react to any external, hurtful impact. He no longer could count the times when he wasn't even aware of getting wounded, finding about it only when he laid down to rest in the embrace of an illogically bleeding ground.

Yet he felt the blow that Cellsa threw at him, the cracking sound of another scar reaping itself into existence announced that this wound too will stay with him forever.

"I'm sorry. My intention was never to make you hate me" voice maintained its stoic routine, but the twisted corner of the green lip projected its sense of being unjustly blamed plainly for those willing to see it.

Cellsa wasn't one of such souls.

"Ugh" red tongue pushed from the winced, feminine mouth, stretching out so long that the mocking image of abhorrence was just a bare minimum from becoming a real show of spewing vomit.

She started to cough, the hacks were so strong that they tugged even at the wings. The slender frame pulsing up and down to the rhythm of the chaotically cracking electric balls on the wing thumbs.

"Shit!"

Orbis noticed a small line of black ichor stretching down the corner of her lip, luckily he wasn't very talkative in nature so he didn't have to say that the sight brought some manner of satisfaction.

"Are you alright?"

Cellsa growled, wiping her mouth frantically, though there was no vile intention behind the question, he expected her to overreact to it nonetheless.

And as a brother dealing with his annoying sister he had no troubles with that.

"You're making me sick! Literally!" she snorted, giving him a shoulder bump as she passed him, his solid like stone leg didn't move at all though, projecting all the force right back at the slender frame.

The growl only grew louder.

"I'm choking in here" a hiss, wavering with anger couldn't truly conceal the hint of pain being digested by the bones.

She opened the door, freezing in spot when she spotted a familiar, feathered dragoness walking through the icy corridors.

"Cloaca!"

Iris threw her head up, eyes widening from behind the mask.

"Dawn!" Orbis jumped next to his sister, feminine butt clapping under the weight of a blunt blade slapping it.

"Hey!" she snarled, giving the brick of muscle a shove, but just like before it was her who received the blunt force of it.

"What was that for you dick?" she recoiled from the unwanted bump quickly, pretending well that she had it all under control from the start.

"We are guests in the princess' home, show respect to your host" green body bent in a graceful bow "My Queen"

Cellsa rolled her eyes, pupils dropping down, being certain rhst the image they will see before them will be as interesting as her brother. Yet the eyeballs shook in their roots when they gazed at Iris, even though she was wearing clearly used gold and her cringed frame looked as if it got pummeled one too many times Cellsa couldn't deny the fact that the icy corridors fit her well.

Not only she belonged here, but actually seemed to place the surroundings in a peculiar shame, as if the building itself was an unfit addition to her and not the other way around. Polish that gold, straighten up that posture and groom those feathers and before them would stand a girl that would force the entire Skyward to rebuild the castle in her name.

Royal touch was as natural to her as is one's shadow.

"What the fuck the two of you are doing here?"

We can't forget about manners, those too were lacking. Curses being spoken with the accented voice were more fitting for a wizened old crone than a blue blood princess.

"You know, the usual" Cellsa smirked, leaning against the doorframe "Kicking names, taking butts, getting drugs and popping fucks" the jumping arch of electricity stabbed the forehead, making the head tilt to the side with a deep frown "...or something like that" she waved her paw and the cheerful, victorious look returned "All the fun stuff, order is boring anyway"

"I won't dirt my claws with you filth" Iris growled "Mother will know of this"

"You deaf or what? Got too many feathers stuck in your earholes or something?"

Another slap to the feminine rump, Orbis stepped forward to the sound of his tail's strike and his sister's irritated growl.

"The Queen truly shared her invitation to the both of us" stoic voice of the lowered, green head voiced calmly "We are humbled by her trust"

"Just do her already dude and stop wasting time licking around her ass" Cellsa held back a burp that might as well spill out her guts if she just opened her mouth.

He could feel the piercing gaze of the girl burning holes in his skull, growing up in this world developed a sense where he could feel when danger is approaching and a fight is about to break out. This feeling followed Iris like a shadow since the day they met her and unfortunately his unwise sister had a tendency to provoke it.

While he could sense it, the tension never reached its peak, muffled by something he could not describe. And while looking at her restless white toes that kept twitching all the time, switching between a clench, relaxation and desire to sharp their claws he became quite certain that Iris felt the same unknown sensation as he did.

Something was different, even though he rose his head to look at a familiar, masked face, the cold surrounding her was far more artificial than usual. It was the building that was radiating it, her own freezing halo pinned completely under its weight.

To the point that for someone not familiar with Iris might have occurred that it was never there to begin with.

He was never one to succumb to curiosity much, it bit him more often than not. However after meeting Spyro his perception on the world changed also, the purple dragon showed him the there was more to the world than pain and desperation, that there could be warm feelings and light becoming a part of it.

And while he couldn't feel anything, the desire to extend his paw and feel the silhouette in front hinted that the Rime Princess was more familiar with warmth than she was aware of.

"Exactly!" Cellsa nodded fiercely, the hair bouncing up and down like a curtain "We are doing great, we're royals now and everything is going awesome. Yup. We're good, very good"

A wavering sigh was everything that left Iris' throat.

The electric dragoness frowned, leaning in closer as she pushed away from the frame, dropping the pretense of arrogance, replacing it with irritation. She hated this half-blood abomination, it would be way better if she dropped a staircase and broke her neck, but since she's here already then she has to pay for being a damn nuisance.

Something that won't happen if that bitch keeps ignoring her.

She was treated like thrash long enough to allow some freak jump on the wagon as well. They were equals now and there was no way she will allow some otherworldly weirdo treating her like air, even if it would mean ripping out her heart.

Or whatever that bitch instead of it.

"You found your mom yet?"

Piercing gaze punctured her soul.

There it is.

"None of your business"

Oh yeah, she did found her, but the familiar defensiveness showed quite clear that she also discovered an applied by Skyward trait into motherhood, one that she is familiar with all too well.

They were similar far earlier than she realized.

"You did" Cellsa narrowed her eyes, the sparkling arc jumping between the horns adding a nearly demonic appear to her gaze "And I know the reason why you are not walking by making happy back flips all the time"

"Dawn, enough" Orbis growled.

"I will choke you with your own tongue if you won't shut up" a trail of ice flashed inside the blue nostrils

The electric dragoness grinned, propping her head, she pointed at a spot on her throat.

"Cut right here, it's easier to grab it from here. Come on now, don't be shy"

"I'm sorry my Queen I don't know what came over her" Orbis flexed his muscles, readying himself for battle

Claws on the white legs were scratching holes in the cold floor. Blue steam wafting from the shallowly breathing nostrils.

"Oh right, you can't" the electric dragoness snapped her toes and just like that the thick atmosphere of incoming violence vanished.

"Mommy didn't like what she saw so the little poor offspring will now frolic around like a headless chicken just to make mommy see her. Before the offspring realizes that no matter what she does nothing helps, mommy will suck out the soul from her, leaving only a volatile husk that might bounce around like a fish sometimes only to dry and rot in the end because the only water it ever felt dried with mommy's womb. Enjoy the decadence ride, you better have some thick scales cause the straws that tempt you with the option to get pulled out have some fat spikes"

Her eyes ran over the muscular shape.

"And they like to beat you around until you fall"

He was not the most fluent dragon when it comes to reading emotions or secretive meanings, but he didn't need to be an expert to be able to tell that this disturbing monologue was addressed partially towards him, nor he had troubles understanding that the mockery had nothing to do with metaphors or imagination.

Dawn was passing her life's experience onto Iris.

And judging from the fact that there was still no blood splashing against the walls it seemed like the young princess wasn't willing to protest against this perspective. One might have called it a positive turn of events after all it seemed like they will avoid a battle he really didn't want to fight, but then again, he saw Iris acting on aggression enough times already to expect her to do the same here. The fact that she didn't, acting so much out of character made him more nervous than an actual probable clash of claws with the Queen's daughter.

At least in a fight, as vile as it might have been, he would have some manner of control, some prospect of decision making, cause if there was one thing that Skyward was teaching its inhabitants, it was how to fight.

He didn't have much experience in dealing with mental dilemmas, Dawn was her own piece of work but in her case the opportunity to solve her issues by brute force were always there. Her restless spirit helped in that regard greatly.

Spirit that he not only no longer saw in Iris, but actually wondered if there was any soul inside that body to begin with.

Iris finally rose her paw, touching her masked snout she raked her claws down the face, filling the halls with unnerving screeches interrupted only by short pauses when the claws jumped over the holes for the eyes, preparing the two siblings for soon to come wet pop when one of the claws will slip.

Even Cellsa wrinkled her nose at the perspective, ripping a dead body apart to get to the tasty bits is one thing, but actually witnessing someone mutilate herself is another.

The claws slipped, the mask clicked, both siblings let out sharp gasps.

Two cuts appeared below the eyes lolling out tongues of blood, filling the eyeballs with their tint and allowing several stripes of red to paint the jaw, dripping from the mouth in the shape of harmonized, crimson tears.

"I cannot disappoint Mother" tail together with the blue wings smashed against the floor, painting a shallow web across the ice. Iris turned around from the pair of dragons, dragging the flopped parts behind with sharp spasms, as if they would be nothing more but a dead weight of a headless corpse.

"Do you know where Spyro is?" baritone voice vibrated from the chilly walls, bouncing off of them with a shrill, commanding ping.

"There, where everything else is" she propped her head, looking straight at her own, bloodied reflection.

Where is the smile? Where is the joy? Where is the heart?

Cellsa shrugged her shoulders after exchanging glances with her brother.

"Which is where exactly?" she faked a deep yawn "Come on Cloaca start making some sense or-AAAAAHHH!" she squealed when the masked head slammed into the cold wall, ugly noise of a bone cracking filled the air.

"In a cage made of ice" Iris slurred, continuing on her morbid walk, leaving a bloody crack in the wall and a piece of her shattered mask behind.

Each of her step marked by a drop of a crimson tear.

"And people call me crazy!" Cellsa snorted "I overdosed more than once and never bashed my head in! If that's not a proof that drugs make you happy than I don't know what is!"

"This doesn't bode well. We must find Spyro" Orbis commented calmly, yet he still couldn't pry his eyes off from the crack in the wall, mouth of which was stretching out its tongue made of blood farther and farther.

"Na-ah, I don't have to do absolutely nothing"

"It's a matter of honor Dawn. We wouldn't be here without him"

"No!" she snapped, propping her head arrogantly "I'm in the Upper City now, I'm the Queen's favorite, I'm royalty now and that means no more stupid, boring work for me. Only lots and lots of fun!"

"Don't be-"

"No! Fuck you!" she threw a punch at the muscular chest "There's no more we, does your tiny brain understand that?" she knocked at his skull "Hello? Cellsa to Stupid, do you understand what fuck off means? Hello?"

"Stop it" he slapped the irritating paw away.

"I'm not gonna stop having fun. Hard work is done for me, no more licking assess, no more you telling me what to do and shoving me around. I'm the sole master of my life now, you want to be a dull tool for the rest of your miserable existence? Fine, but me leave me out of it. Athron is my bestie now, in fact I'm going to her right now to see if we won't do something fun together. I'm sure it won't have to do with any hard work that I hate!

"When will you finally grow up Dawn" the green chest inflated, almost popping the muscles like pimples when a deep sigh left the stretched out lungs "Life is all about work, especially in our world"

"Not this crap again!" cracking, electric sparks helped the tail to lift itself up, pumping it up and down like a numb arm "The wizened, old grump strikes once more! The hero we all shit on arrives!" Cellsa dropped her wings, bending the legs in such a painfully looking manner that one might say that there were no bones there anymore. The expression on her draconic face followed suit, twisting in a grotesque manner inspired by a touch of brilliance from an artist who never reached puberty but already had more blackouts than a war ridden land.

"You BRATS know nothing!" she smacked her lips, pulling the teeth back to give more room for the parody of an elderly voice to shine, the electric sparks jumping around her body instead of bursting like fireworks simply flopped down and died, no different than lit up matches being flicked into a pond. The entire body shook, the painfully bent legs creaking louder than rusted hinges "In my time, one shitlion years ago, we worked hard, we lived to work, we were happy that there was work, doesn't matter we got crap for it, but we WORKED. WE HAD A JOB and you younglings only want to have FUN. NOBODY can call himself a true adult if his paws don't have calluses the size of one's ASS! It was like that shitlion years ago and everything was O-A-KAY"

Despite her childish act the whips he felt cracking his scales every time they returned spoke volumes about how progress, or lack thereof, influences Skyward's way of life. There were two more leaders before Athron and yet all three followed the same path of destruction like their predecessors. If not for Iris he doubted that even he would find some silver lining for change in the upcoming future and though the young princess had problems with herself, the way she insisted that her mother was a different dragon that she knows now was genuine, a thing he would have troubles seeing as well if not for Spyro and his energy. That meant that despite the few setbacks Athron put in front of herself by her own will, one day in the future she understood that she had to broadened her perspective, understand that for her actions to take effect she had to put Skyward on a path of progress. And that decision meant only one thing.

"We all must take responsibilities for our actions. Harmless fun is an object of fiction, selfish desires might be as pain inducing as clash of claws, only the roars are quieter. The only worthy joy can be found around those that are determined to make the world a better, peaceful place. It takes work and there are no shortcuts, only after that goal is accomplished carefree approach to life can occur"

Cellsa stopped her play, the shining eyes that flickered through the strands of the flopped down hair were as interested in him as they would be when watching someone eat.

"I'm not going near you alone ever again. I can't listen to your blabbering" she pushed out from the room with a snort, tapping at the bloodied crack in the wall as she passed by it "Keep bashing words of determination in your skull, I wonder how it ends" she scooped a drop of blood, flicking it at her brother's snout "Lapdog"

Orbis wiped the blood from the top of his nose, looking at it drawing a splotch across the toe. Of course he was aware that the fight for peaceful joy comes with a price, as dragons the only currency they accept is blood, the only thing he doubted could be ever changed, no matter how noble the intentions are. And where there is blood, there is also pain, he only hoped he will see the moment when it will be appropriate to say that's enough.

He smeared the droplet between his toes, it glued to them like the softest of blankets.

Because there was no turning back after crossing some lines.