amaris

Where have you been, little child?

Scales glistened beneath the warm rays of sunlight, their golden yellow light shimmering along the spine of the pale crème belle. Wings were extended, though not held aloft, for the strength that once resided in the muscles of the shoulders were all but withered away. The breeze that danced along this otherwise tepid BirdSong day was a saving grace - without it, the girl would surely not have been able to summon the strength required to simply lift a hoof enough to drag it a few inches.

What happened to you, little child?

The girl breathed ragged breaths, her lungs held onto the oxygen shakily before exhaling. Each inhale was an effort that almost cost her her consciousness, each step pushed her closer and closer to that point where she might not be able to recover. Sweat that had coated her winter coat months ago still clung to her, great clumps of the dirty pelt matted along the usually smooth, plump areas of her body. But no such areas existed anymore - only her scales shone, reflecting in the Sun that beat down upon her, but even they were in need of a clean and polish in a riverbed to return to their true splendour.

After having ventured to the borders of her beloved cousin's realm, the dragon-child had gladly accepted the Throat as her home and prepared to work for the good of the herd. But sickness had taken her, and before she even had a chance to become known to any other than her cousin, she had fled, isolated herself in fear that she had caught something that could destroy this new family she had pledged herself to. It was not a sickness caused by magic, but by mere microbes, a form of influenza she likely picked up on her travels around the world or even just around Helovia.

It had crippled her.

For weeks she had coughed, unable to eat and barely able to drink more than a small mouthful at a time, for the sickly feeling that followed such activities was painful and unpleasant - there were many points Amaris thought she would not awaken the next time her eyes shut. For some of it, her glowing companions had lingered, but with barely the strength to stand, the girl could not hold their spirits in this world - she had been disconnected from them for months now, the longest stint she had been without them since their arrival by her side when she was but a day old.

So the girl arrived at the borders of her once-home again, but this time she was not robust with health. No, this time she was frail and broken, with spinous process jutting out along her back like a mountain range, running into and all the way along her tail. As the earth beneath her hooves turned to sand, the girl tripped, and like a golden leaf falling from a tree in autumn, she collapsed to the sandy basin beneath her, a small huff leaving her body on the impact.

"Tan - davi…"