Meeting with Argen had been a mistake, but one she had jumped into wholeheartedly. Distracting herself from the gaping hole of loss that seemed determined to make her into a cavern, to devour her until she was but a husk without the light of her darkness. Scoffing at herself for the insanity of that particular thought, warmed inside and out by the salacious act she had just committed, the pale coral girl wandered away from the hilltop that protruded into the clouds like a spire of hope. One she had stood upon as she ripped away the last of her innocence like a particularly bothersome bandaid, like sutures that itched until she ripped them from where they were woven into her skin. No longer whole, fractured, mere pieces of what she was and could have been. What would her mother say? Her father? Gods, what would Leliel say?

Nothing. That's what they'd say. Because she was alone in this fucking world, with a heart too big and too gold for the horrors that awaited the likes of her.

They had nothing to say, they could never impregnate her with the sensation of guilt or shame. They had left her! They had taken her innocence, her devoutness, and shamed and ripped her until she was a shorn piece of ribbon fluttering in the wind. Helpless to what guided her. Helpless to everything, swept away and out of control. By the gods, how Muriel hated being out of control lately. She'd never minded it previously, content to go along with where the current took her, to follow in the steps of any who cared to give her a pleasant smile.

Everything had been ruined.

Where she'd lost herself on the path of life was unknown to the beautiful girl, but at times she rejoiced to have that horrible person gone to the past. Naivety was not as beautiful as she had thought it to be, not until the world had ripped her eyes open and showed her how cruel fate could be. Her heart was like a block of ice, refusing to beat properly, and yet she rejoiced in her sudden newfound freedom. She was free to do whatever she wished, and like a rebellious teenager who had budded way too late in life, she had turned to the physical world of pleasure and unbound obligations.

Argen had been an eye-opening experience, and she had grown addicted to the power she'd felt, the one she'd wielded. There was no real way of finding someone to pursue her path with, but nonetheless her confidence had soared with that single mistake. Though she didn't consider it a mistake, oh no. She found it to be a lesson, showing her the better side, the darker side, of the cruel world she'd been thrust into.

The floating island is beautiful, so far below her. She is powerful, no longer the weak willed child she'd always been, and Muriel had embraced it wholeheartedly. Her dual wings kept her aloft with ease, a pale rose in the sky as she surveys the similar shades of blossom pinks beneath her. She dives like a pale, magnificent flamingo in a swan's body, grazing the petals below with ribboned legs. She soars over the trees, her wings casting huge shadows, and for once she feels triumph and pride in her mutation. Janat had never called her a freak, but she had begun to learn that she was no mutant. She was a powerful, beautiful creature.

Landing with a spray and splash of water in the throat of the hilled waterfalls, she lifts her wings to thrust the water into the air, delighting in the diamonds they create as they hit the sun.

She has found peace.

@[Gull]