”Don’t… go…” the sobbed words almost broke the mare’s heart. Mirage could only smile, a sad smile that said everything she wanted to say but could not. Akaith purred upon her back as the girl pressed against her, and the dragonmare was forced to remember the time she was a mother to the young fillies, the strange hybrids who were her life’s pride and joy. Gods and Goddesses, please judge me fairly and tell me I raised my girl’s right, she prayed, perhaps her last prayer, to those who might be listening, those who had the power to hear and see all that went on in the lands they crafted.

“This is a choice not many of us are granted to make. I can feel my body dying; there is a sickness within me. I am only grateful that I got to see you, my beautiful girl – my daughter.” The mare reluctantly pulled away from the golden child, to view her fully, and celebrate the mare, the queen she had become. Love and pride filled her tear-glistened eyes, as she beheld the creature she had birthed, the girl she had raised, the beautiful and courageous mare she now stood before. Mirage was a queen in her lifetime in rank and power, Amaris was a queen in beauty and blood – it was up to her to choose what to do with that she had been given, and the dragonmare supported whatever the girl – no, mare - decided to do with her life.

An amulet chinked at her chest in the gap that spread between the mares, and its sound reminded the mare of how she received it – her first gift from the Moon Goddess. Within it was an ancient King’s power to travel across the land as a mere shadow. Without hesitation, the mare silently asked Akaith to remove it, and the dragoness did so, and in one smooth motion, placed it around the slender nape of Amaris. The champagne mare stood before her, tears streaking her pale façade, sweat causing her caramel locks to stick to her forehead and ears, and yet Mirage could not imagine anything more beautiful to look upon in her dying moments.

She could not hide the constriction that took place within her chest suddenly – the pain was too great, too sudden, and it spread like wildfire through her veins. It was not unlike the pain that swallowed her whenever she took to her draconic form, only she knew this pain would not subside – not until she could no longer feel a thing at all.

Golden eyes peered up – for she was suddenly on her knees, and then on her side – to the matching golden pools of her daughter, as her breaths came in shallow leaps and bounds. “Tell them…” she coughed, choking on the words as blood trickled from one of her nostrils.

--“I’m - …

sorry --”

And like that, the DragonHeart was slain, her heart having beat reliably all her life, only to cease on near the same day six years past that she entered the lands of Helovia for the first time, with dragon by her side. Oh, what she achieved in those years was too great to recount here, but her memory would live on – she had shaped the very land she was now laid to rest upon – she had started wars (and ended them too) – she had loved and lost and loved again – she had lived a full life, one that she could not imagine having lived any other way.

The dragon that was bound to her felt the passing as if it was on her own heart, and sung out a sharp tune, which was echoed by the shimmering soul-lights Amaris had summoned. Surrounded by those she loved, and embraced by her one true soul-mate, Mirage passed into the abyss that was whatever awaited her in the afterlife – with Akaith’s golden soul to guide her along the way.

[ Any who wish to post are welcome to hear Mirage's last words.
She is deceased now, and has given her Moon amulet to Amaris. ]

Mirage the DragonHeart