Alaena woke with a sudden start, cold sweat coating her body like ice. She took a shaky breath before sitting up and back against the stone wall behind her. Ryslen Weyr. That was where she was, and had been for the past month. And she had been dreaming again. She curled her knees to her chest, and pulled her blanket over her slender frame once more, staring out into the darkness. Snores and quiet breaths filled the silent air with sounds of sleep. Sleep Alaena could not find.
She closed her eyes, leaning back against the wall, lost in momentary thought. It had been months since she had had that dream. Why had it returned? Unsettled the Elf tossed her blankets aside, and stood, looking disheveled. She pulled her black curls behind her and then pulled her night slip off, shivering in the cold night air. And yet, it felt...too cold. She closed her eyes and took a breath, a shiver of cold and fear running down her spine at the same time. Another cold front. She could feel it.
Quickly she dressed, and then pulled her brush out of the trunk at the end of her bed, and started to tame the wild jungle that were her curly black tresses. As she slowly brushed her hair, the Elven Candidate closed her eyes, listening to all the sleeping Candidates. Somewhere in here another Elf was, but at this moment, her thoughts drowned in chaos, she could not find him.
She tossed her hair behind her, and then around to the other side to brush the other half of her riotous mass of curls, and inhaled a trembling breath. She had seen her brother, dying all over again. An involuntary shudder ran down her spine at the thought, and memories that accompanied it.
It had been five years ago, almost six now. Why did his memory still torment her? She knew the answer, but she hated it. Because his death was because of her. She swallowed, throat tight and eyes filled with stinging tears. His death. Her fault. She took another breath, sniffling as her body shuddered.
She tried to calm herself, focusing on her curls, trying to untangle them and untangle her insides at the same time. But to no avail. Finally, hair brushed and insides still knotted, she sighed, and at the foot of her cot a silver dragonet stirred, sensing her distress and waking to meet it.
The Elf sighed heavily, but as the silver dragonet raised its head the young woman noticed him finally. "Alryuhn," she murmured softly, sounding grateful and at the same time sad. "You don't have to get up because of me..."
The silver chipped softly to her, and nuzzled her hand before mindspeaking. Mistress fair, you deserve better than this.
Alaena shook her head. "No, Rune, I don't." She inhaled a breath and hugged herself, shivering still, but from turmoil rather than cold. With a resolute breath she stood, and her long, mid-calf length tresses fell behind her with a pendulum swing.
Rune flittered to her shoulder, nuzzling her gently. Perhaps we should go for a walk, Alaena? You are distressed, and some night air might help.
Alaena petted the silver gently. "You're probably right, Rune. But then again, you usually are, so why am I surprised?" She shook her head and picked up her fleece lined jacket, which had been given to her by her mother, right before she left Earth. Feeling homesick suddenly she pulled it on and hugged herself again, trying to pretend she was in her mother's arms before she suddenly let herself go.
"This is madness," she told herself sternly. She was a grown women, seventeen. She had to be able to stand on her own, be her own person, live her own...
Life? the silver finished the thought for her. Alaena, no one can stand utterly alone. Everyone needs someone. Why else would I be here if you didn't need me? We may be Bonded, but that doesn't mean that I have to stay. But you need me, so I stay for you, because I care. People care for you, Alaena, no matter what you think you did or didn't do. We forgive you for your faults, and at the same time love you for them because they make you who you are.
Alaena sighed. "You are both cruel and kind, Rune..." she stated, her sentence trailing off as her upper bunk-mate stirred. She grimaced. She didn't feel like dealing with people now. She pulled the jacket tighter about her before zipping it up and heading outside, trying to keep her boots silent as she walked over the stone floor--a rather difficult task, but she managed. Somehow.
As she exited the Candidate Barracks she found herself walking on snow, half startled by the soft crunching sound beneath her boots. She took a deep breath and steadied herself. Just snow. Like back home. She looked up at the night sky, only to find it covered in clouds, and lowered her eyes with a sigh. "Of course," she mumbled to herself. "No stars to comfort me, nor guide me home..."
Alryuhn suddenly landed on her shoulder, and nuzzled her gently, his tail trailing down her back even wrapped loosely around her throat, though only once. His tail accounted for a good third of his body length. A strange occurrence. But then again, even his very existence was strange...
"Are your thoughts as troubled as my own, dear Rune?" Alaena murmured to him, trying to soothe her friend as best as she could, putting forth the same effort he deemed her worthy of, though perhaps she fell short of the mark he set forth by far.
The silver emitted a Dragonet sigh and nodded before nuzzling her. How well you Hear me, mistress, he bespoke to her in a gentle voice, though for half a moment he nearly answered aloud in Draconian.
Alaena paused at this, and then tilted her head. "It's strange, Rune..." she murmured, voice trailing off as her thoughts lead her around.
"What is, Alaena?" he rolled off in fluent Draconian, a language that Alaena was very familiar with, having learned it from her parents and their Dragons. For her Dragons and all they entailed were perfectly normal.
"You know how that on Earth I never was gifted with much ability to Hear Dragons? I could hear many things, but Dragons, they were always silent, or I never heard them, which I do not know, though I think the latter. But here... here I hear them, Rune. Hear their every thought, see their every dream, feel everything they do... I don't know why or how, but when Green Auspexeth came, I could hear her. Her thoughts to her rider, though her rider's replies where faint, though I could hear them as I can Hear Humans. Their minds are generally very open it seems..." she trailed off, and shook her head, returning to the point. "Sometimes the chatter is enough to drive one insane, yet at the same time I welcome it because for once I don't feel so alone... for once I feel a part of something... A feeling I had long since forgotten... It feels so good to remember it, Rune..."
The silver nuzzled the Elven woman gently, a low, comforting rumble sounding in his throat. "Does it ever worry you, mistress?" Alryuhn asked gently, prodding her for a bit more information before he let the subject drop.
Alaena nodded slightly. "Sometimes. But not always. What I worry about is Hearing one of them in a mating flight... What if something sets me off? I may still have never known a man, even though I'm seventeen, but that doesn't mean I don't have the hormones, the drives..." She shivered. "I don't want to loose my innocence because of a Dragon I Heard in flight..."
Alryuhn nodded, both mentally and physically. I understand, Alaena. Truly I do. I have never Chosen a Mate other than you for you need me more, far more than I need any Mate. I Choose you, Alaena, for all of Time if that's what you need.
Alaena stroked the Dragonet, her feet having carried her all the way to the center of the Weyr Bowl, though she had not even thought about her steps, merely took them as they came. She looked up once more at the sky, and thought she saw the dim outline of one of two Pernese moons, and felt suddenly reminded of the day she was Searched...
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You are listening to Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy VII -- Off the Edge of Dispair (2:00)