Aya lonely. A soft snort came from a coal muzzle, delicate and controlled. The epitome of her entire personality. What little she believed herself to have. "Loneliness is a social construct, Rathunax," she easily refuted. It was their most popular topic of conversation, the stubborn dragon obsessed with the idea of Nayati finding more friends. Though Nayati was loathe to admit it, loneliness was a demon she dealt with regularly. A shadow with bloodied teeth that walked with sinister intentions at her side, awaiting the fall of darkness and the crumbling of her defenses to feast on the soft flesh of fear inside of her. She was a cursed, wretched being. A splotch of darkness that led those who attempted to love her down a path of hellfire and disaster.

She was a sinister Eurydice.

Aya...not bad. Please. The pleading tone broke what little of her heart dared to remain, throbbing weakly with life despite all the outside sources that wanted her found dead and frozen in a circlet of flowers. Free of the witch's curse. The dragon's sorrow was nearly tangible, flowing from him until it encroached on Nayati's emotions, impressing upon her the reality of what he was feeling. "I'm sorry, Rathunax." There was no promise to change, to attempt to feel anything but disgust and hatred for herself. It was a promise she could never hope to keep after all.

She was a servant, a tool to be utilized. What her herd asked of her, she would do. Would wear herself down to bone and ligament, would crawl on fractured knees and crippled limbs to do her family right. Anything to make them love her. Rathunax cried a sorrowful harmony, wrenching the hearts of those unworthy and cursed to hear such a forlorn sound. Nayati's guilt mounted to hear his agony, to know it was because of her that it existed at all. "I wish...I wish you did not suffer because of me," she whispered, with eyes too tired to cry and lips with no reason to smile. Flutter of wings lifts her weary head, gentle claws touching her face and the soft velveteen texture of wings wrapping in a pathetic hug round her pretty face.

Never suffer. Love Aya.

And if she finally managed to shed a tear, though she had long believed them cried out, there was nobody around close enough to see.

Forcing a smile, though it was more for Rathunax's benefit than her own, she nudged him from her forehead and back into the embrace of the skies. Trodding onwards, through the chill of the murky water and farther in, until her flanks quivered with the freeze against her skin. Shocking, a surge of electricity that disrupted her thoughts effectively. A power surge that crackles the television set into uselessness.

Finally, relief. Rathunax sang softly, melancholy and resigned, as the tip of his left wing dipped into the water. Ripples and light splashes of disruption against the glassy, eerily calm surface. And as he sang, so Nayati sang with him. Words she conjured up, making as she went, knowing the next bar of harmony with a gentle indication through her mind. Perfectly matched. The only noise in the quiet of the winter midnight atmosphere. A full pregnant moon on a reflective lake. A lonely soul freezing and singing, mad in her own right, enjoying the fact that nobody wanted her. At least she was free. Unbound.

@[Vadim] and all others!