[open] I have never been nothing; lepis, any

[Dracarys]

DRACARYS

I have never been nothing. I am the blood of a dragon.

She dismissed the narrow of the other mare’s eyes and the puzzled expression that her lips curved into. Dracarys can only feel her rage boiling, waves of hot lava pushing against her insides, bursting with frustration with every passing minute. It is a charade, she decides without second thought. Certainly, Lepis had known all long what her monster-grandfather was capable of. He was the monster her father had warned her about.

Dracarys forgets, in this moment, he was the key to opening her future after her father’s failed attempt to take the Loessian crown too. Even though she is the daughter of his enemy, her grandfather valued family deeply, and that perhaps is why she feels so much anger. If family had meant anything to her grandfather, then why did he do what he did?

The blue mare shakes her head after her fourth question. Her silver eyes focus back onto Lepis, trying to make sense of everything. The confusion is wiped away from the other winged mare’s lips. Her reaction only seems surprised, as if she had not known about anything that she had just witnessed. Maybe she didn’t… Dracarys decides.

Maybe there was something she was missing.

Lepis replies to her last question, saying they are not tyrants, but she cannot help but feel like that is what her home is right now. When Lepis mentions her grandfather was trapped in his dragon form, her ears flicker forward, the firm scowl on her lips turns into a frown. Trapped? How? Dracarys had knew about the fairies on the Mountain—she knew they could be fickle, but she doesn’t see them one to play tricks, only to teach a lesson. What lesson did her grandfather need to learn?

“I see,” she finally says after a moment of silence, contemplating what she had just heard. There was no apology or excuses in Lepis voice. Dracarys doesn’t doubt the words she hears from her either. It was the curse of being a dragon, just as it was the curse of being a hellhound. Was she doomed to be a monster like them? Dracarys had wanted nothing more than to be a dragon—something that was strong, but she mustn’t forget what she learned on the Mountain that day she became something close to a dragon.

Dragons were not creatures of destruction only.

They could be protectors too.

Her silver eyes disappear with all traces of anger and sadness, only a look of understanding and determination can be seen. Dracarys knows there is no excuse for her grandfather’s actions. Hearing Lepis next words, she knows this to be even more true. “He doesn’t care for what he did then,” she says in reply. “I know my grandfather is ambitious. He desires great things for his kingdom, even before that I knew what kind of a person like that can do. My father was the same way. His ambitions became selfish in the end and destroyed everything I ever loved.” Her father had taken her home and ripped her family apart. She knows in her heart this could happen again, and she will not stand to see it happen again—not as long as she calls Loess her home.

“If he is to remain a dragon, he will destroy everything.” Dracarys says firmly, staring into Lepis grey narrowing eyes. “He will become more unpredictable, dangerous and wild the longer he is within his dragon form. How can we trust my grandfather to lead us if he is like this?” She did not want to see another home of hers taken away, didn’t want to bear the pain that it came with it all before again. Dracarys wanted to protect her home, but she also wanted her grandfather to be safe. “What can we do to help him?” She asks softly because it isn’t like her to show her sensitive side to others—it was a weakness—but her grandfather was only one of the few left in her family.

“It was Icicle Isle,” she replies as she tries to push through the bits of anger and madness that remain within her. “I don’t know if anyone died or if any were hurt either.” Dracarys admits to herself now she had fled like a coward all the way back to her home. “I saw others fighting my grandfather, some fleeing over a bridge that someone made to help them escape, and then others staying to protect and save their Isle from any further damage.” Falling silent, Dracarys wonders what will happen now. Should they expect a war coming any day now?

“What will happen now?” She asks.

@[Lepis]