OoC: Ick, I suck, should be in the title but thread is closed, and I'll probably need a mod, >.< Edit 2: And apparently I also forgot too timestamp it, which I only noticed when i came back too read it again today, I fail hardcore.
Early morning of the First Day of Kalendryas.
Winter, Era I of the Celestine Mandate, Era XV Post Fractum.
The suns rose as they always did, climbing into the sky, chasing the moons, or were the moons chasing them? Perhaps something for the lone inhabitant of the island too ponder later, she had lots of time to thinking these days, too much in fact, it had drove her half mad long ago. However, the suns, being suns cared little as they made their way higher melting the frost from the stones and wood of her current hide out as the morning progressed. The place was silent, no animals, no birds that she had seen, and best of all, no soft skins. Food would be a problem perhaps, meat any ways, but any of the three would be easy enough too come by in the surrounding waters and islands. A chicken here, a human there would be enough too keep her feed through the winter. The fact that she could escape too the sky after, faster than any soft skin could pilot their boats was even more appealing. When the snow had lifted from the rest of the empire, she would probably leave and head back too the mainland, but for now, she was here.
Kour'el al'Kil'ark de Lanalia Vassil Kha'Serith had indeed fallen far from the dracon she once was. She was taller than a normal softskin but short for a dracon. She was also gaunt., as starved looking as any dracon could be. Emerald and sapphire scales drawn tight over bones as architecturally beautiful as any of the cathedrals and castles in the empire. The scales were the only part of her that seemed healthy. Fairly glowing in the suns light, obsessively kept clean of dirt and debris because they were the first thing Kour'el checked when she woke up, too make sure she was still a draconess, still herself, not transported back into the horrible elf body she had been 'graced' with. Her scales and wings looked like they had drained the life from the rest of her, and the rags she had wrapped around herself didn't help.
Crouching on one of the beams of the abandoned house she had found on some god forsaken spit of land near one of the other god forsaken soft skin infested islands, she surveyed her temporary home with a cold gaze. Narrow emerald feet, callused, the rags wrapped around them dirty and battered scrapped against the beam as she wriggled her toes briefly too keep them warm before sinking back into the wood. A skeletal hand reached up too scratch at her neck, the claw structure built onto the tips of her fingers and the muscles in her wrists clearly visible with no padding of fat or extra skin too disguise them.
Her current physical state was not because she found it hard too fend for herself though. Her combat training and the fact that she had been on her own for most of her life now had taught the draconess quite a bit about which foods were safe too eat and just where too get them. Even now, her the small bundle of belongings she still had, she had a gnawed on rabbit, the last thing she had caught in the hinterlands before she had flown this way. No, the cause for her sad state was because her guilt, fear and fury were eating her alive. Even now, when she closed her eyes briefly, something she rarely did, she felt a wave of panic rise up, sure that this time, when she opened her eyes, the emerald scales of her arm would turn once more into that disgusting golden skin and once more she would feel hair along her shoulders, and her wings would have disappeared. Blinking was a chore, so she had trained herself too keep her eyes open as long as physically possible, giving her an even more reptilian aspect.
Glancing behind her, the draconess opened her wings with a smooth rippling motion, feeling the leather membrane become taunt as they reached their full span. Sighing, she shifted slightly, enjoying the sunlight warming her wings and her body in the cool morning air. After a few minutes, Kour'el rose too her feet, snapping her wings shut and picked her way across the beam, her tail, talons and wings helping her keep her balance. Dropping down, she surveyed her new home. A rough patch of flooring, maybe six feet by six feet, perhaps it was once part of a second or third story too this building. It suited her since it was above the ground, and the only way up was too climb the wall beams, or too fly.
Her small ragged bag of belongings was in the corner, along with the dead rabbit. Picking her way across the floor carefully, still not confident the whole thing wasn't rotten and would break at any minute, she crouched down and picked up the rabbit, sniffing it. In a day or two she would have too toss what remained of it out into the water, when it was too decomposed and rotten too eat anymore, but for now, it was still relatively fresh. Ripping off a chunk, she barely chewed it before swallowing, dead yellow eyes staring at some point on the wall as she tore a few more chunks of rabbit from the carcass. Finishing with her light meal, the draconess tossed the rabbit carelessly into the corner again, dirt didn't bother her, not on her food any ways.
Breakfast finished, she flipped open her bag, a few gold crowns, her saex some more rags, a battered sketch book and a quill that had seen better days. Her ink pot was pretty much empty, perhaps with some spit or water she could get a few more lines out of it. However, she avoided looking at the top page of the sketch book, a smeared, blurry picture done with a burnt twig, it was of Eion and Lin'sea, the children she had abandoned when she had been cursed into an elf. It was a bad drawing, her basic skill at work, but still, it represented the little ones she had given up when the gods had made too many demands of her. Then her hands found the two items that didn't show hard use, even as her eyes shamefully skirted the picture of her babies. the skeletal hands shook as she removed two squares of blanket, a vague floral pattern on both. Trembling, she brought them too her nose and sniffed, hoping for a scent of her dracolings too come too her. None did. A tear escaped the haunted eyes, rolling down the scales too fall on the blanket scraps. She had wrapped her babies in these and was all she had of her dear ones.
With a heart wrenching cry, she dropped the cloth, grabbed her saex and turned from the bag and her memories. She ran too the edge of the platform and launched herself skyward, wings straining too carry her far, far away from picture and the blankets and the former life she had lived. A day of riding the wind around this island and the others, brooding over the last few eras of her life until she was so exhausted she wouldn't dream when she returned.