It is the groaning that catches my attention—a sighing, almost woeful sound (easily heard despite its rasping nature, given how heavy the silence is in these deep, dark woods). A familiar shiver chills the length of my spine, and I smile. If I should truly call any place home in the world, it would likely be this ghostly forest. Beneath the thick, concentrated boughs and the murky shadows is where I had been born, and it is where I am comfortable. Memories of the eerie paths are stitched into every memory, every muscle, and every bone.

Thus it isn’t surprising that this ominous forest is one of the places I had gravitated to first, when returning to Helovia. If I should find brother anywhere, shouldn’t it be here? Here is where we had cemented our first fledgling steps, taken our first gasps of air as the world burst infinitely open from the darkness of our mother’s womb. I feel alive. He shouldn’t be far (he couldn’t be). Catching the padding of hoof beats and the murmuring of sounds, I am drawn to the source of the groan, fueled not only by curiosity, by also by an eagerness (desperation) to see my brother’s clever rose eyes again.

Anxiously I stomp through the underbrush, pushing my way through and ignoring the little prick of thorns grazing my skin. With little patience, I march into the thicket, yellow eyes promptly searching the small crowd of faces—

but he’s not here.

I don’t even try to hide my disappointment (the festering pain). Chagrin and sadness boil in my chest to make a burning combination. With eyes narrowing, my gaze snaps to the red-roan stallion talking, giving him a scathing glare for no good reason other than I want to. I stalk in between the gathered bodies, ears pinned and the mess of my tail lashing irritably around my hips.

“Well hello mother nature,” I growl between gritted teeth, noticing the gnarled face that seems to be looking at us from a...tree? Fortunately, the sight is just strange and creepy enough to distract me from the worst of my contempt. I lean closer, my eyes inevitably drawn towards the shining treasure. An egg! I have never seen a companion not hatched before, but I know their origins and the common nature of their endowment.  Suddenly I am excited again, my mouth practically watering and my muscles trembling with anticipation and greed.

“What that?” I turn to the younger boy, standing not far from my side and staring at the egg. My gut twists uncomfortably at the sight of his budding horns and feathery wings (so, so unnatural and disgusting!) and I am compelled to free him of his sickness (think how beautiful he would be). But I do not. Instead, a frightening and hungry sneer twist my lips, and I look to him with a flat ferocity in my eyes. “It’s a monster,” I say with warped excitement, snickering gleefully as I return my eyes to the egg.

And it’s mine.


notes; Speaks directly to @Arakh
“Speech.”
Seeking a dragon with either fire breath or shock breath! (I can't decide at this moment ;-;)
No prior refusals.

Light the fuse and burn it up

take the path that leads to nowhere.