The thrum of the forest seemed to orchestrate her musical mood, the steady beat and swaying melody reflected in the leaning timbers and undulating limbs. The deep addition of another’s hum was welcomed, and a smile curved her lips, the mare rarely hid her true emotions to this stallion now. Openly, she was pleased to feel his approach, the darkness of the night and forest making it hard to see him just yet. The movements of his footsteps behind her triggered a demure glance to be thrown over her shoulder, her fellow dragon-marked friend’s presence was one that, despite knowing the potential danger his draconic side represented, she loved. Even now, her heart set a new beat for a song, though it was still slow and swaying. She finished crafting the lyrics of the last hymn, and then closed her mouth, and her voice hummed behind shut velvet lips, introducing a similar, yet different, melody.

“Where are you this moment?
only in my dreams.”

Still her elegant frame walked, though she chose a path a bit more accommodating for her larger friend. Akaith was flitting amongst the canopy above, but in a quizzical change of mind that dragons are prone to, the golden one darted down and alighted gently upon the stallion’s back. The draconic chorus she hummed and sung never halted, and with affection she played with the brute’s thick charcoal mane, using her dextrous claws to restore some semblance of order to the haphazard strands around the spikes that ran along his backline.

“You're missing, but you're always
a heartbeat from me.”

Here the maiden turned and halted, speaking the words directly to him, golden pools seeking out his own, piercing his draconic stare with her enigmatic presence. The tumult of emotions swelled within her at that moment, and for the first time in a long time, the mare hesitated, only for a second, questioning whether she was making the right decision – wondering whether he would take it simply as a pleasant song, or as a proclamation of what laid within the belle?

“I'm lost now without you,
I don't know where you are.”

The song was about lovers separated by time, distance and even death. It was about the lover left behind seeking out her partner, yearning, wanting to be with him. Suddenly it struck Mirage, and she could not contain what it was she so longed to express.

“If I could be close beside you,
If I could be where you are,
if I could reach out and touch you,
and bring you back home.
Is there a way I can find you?
Is there a sign I should know?
Is there a road I could follow?
to bring you back home to me.”

Though the song finished, her voice softened, and she continued humming the last line, tearing her eyes away from the stallion at last, having exposed herself to the core before him. Akaith, why did you not stop me? The dragon was still humming with her bonded, but easily replied in their shared, telepathic language. The divine Goddess spoke it herself; you are a dragon Mirage. And so is he. A shiver racked the mare’s body, and her eyes peered out into the distant darkness, wondering what would become of her, and her emotion riddled self now. The weight of Akaith’s speech was not lost on her; truly, deep down, she knew it was meant to be.

But would he?