FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 29

Cloudas opened up his eyes with a prolonged, fully relaxed yawn that stretched out his jaw so far that the soft skin on his lips started to sting from the pressure.

He had never slept so well before, at least not that he ever recalled in his young, yet adult life. Living among the Wretched and constant tug of war to prove to be the best and worthwhile really kept your eyes open in the night.

Wretched were dangerous and deadly, but as crazy as it may sound they were far more preferable obstacle to deal with, after all you need against danger is to find a safe shelter.

How can you fight with the thought that someone surpasses and undermines your position while you sleep?

In this place?

There was nothing.

He was nothing.

It did not matter that Coriza thought otherwise.

He was a nobody and it was fabulously perfect.

He stretched, pulling his paws forward and up, with the toes of the back ones almost reaching the level of his horns while he arched his neck back. He barely held back a pitiful, full of choking emotion whine when a pleasant numbing bolt shot across his nerves.

He almost forgot how it felt.

With a dreamy, full of satisfaction smile he patted his resting place, praising it for a job well done, material was soft, extremely so, he had no idea what it was, but it was definitely something he had never laid his scales on.

He rolled onto his back, looking up at the ceiling, paws groping the sheets unendingly.

He couldn't believe that Coriza let him sleep in her bed.

He wouldn't mind having those wonderful legs of hers wrapped around himself but it was good nevertheless, you can't have everything.

It was definitely more than he expected, hospitality after having that damn, rabid mob from yesterday chasing him was something practically otherworldly to find.

As nice as she was he still considered her pitifully naïve, priestess or not it was rather dumb to allow practically a total stranger to stay for the night. Not like he was much of a threat considering that he is a poor excuse of a wind dragon, barely capable of blowing out a candle, maybe it was some sort of an insult wrapped in a layer of good manners.

Maybe she was taunting him, saying that a dragon like him could do nothing against a clumsy, petite girl like her. Even though she was way smaller.

He doubted it, seeing as she didn't try anything funny during the night to increase her odds.

But then again in a world where both females and males have deadly claws, unfortunate slash of which can end your life with a touch, one might reconsider doing something questionable without the will of the other party.

It goes without saying that his martial skills are also something to not brag about, he had his share of fights, but to say that he came out of them as complete victor would be a huge understatement.

Still he had a bed to sleep in, a full night of rest and pleasant company, a good change of pace after finding out that he was running on borrowed time all those years.

Hope that damn Chimera will burn in the flames from which he clawed out from.

Yes, a nice change of pace after everything he messed up.

He yawned again, before finally rolling onto his belly to pull himself ever so slightly, stretching out wide and long, feathers rustling together with the tail tip when he gave his spine the much needed yank.

Sky above, it felt damn good to be rested.

Suddenly the door to his room creaked quietly, he watched them open, frozen in his stretched out pose. A blue, draconic nose poked inside, followed by a sight of a gold eye flashing in the doorstep, eye that immediately grew wide in shock when it noticed him.

"You're awake" Coriza mumbled breathlessly, almost as if she would confess to some shameful crime she bottled for a long time

"Good-"

"I apologize" she blurted out, pulling at her hair in shame to cover up the blush of embarrassment that began to fill up her cheeks, unaware that she interrupted him "My intention was never to startle you!"

"Co-"

"I also swear that I didn't stalk you or, or did anything else vile enough that could assault your privacy!" she tapped at the door quickly as if punching it, blaming it for her misfortune and temptation "I would never do such a thing! As a priestess I'm sworn with an oath of secrecy, I value everyone's privacy, let the Ancestors smite me now if I lie!"

Despite her undoubted zeal Cloudas noticed that her entire flame balked and the eyelids of her eyes shut tightly. She looked immensely cute like that, like a small girl chewing on something extremely sour.

It was so sweet and funny that he gave up on trying to break her out of this spell, happy and satisfied to let it play on its own.

After several seconds, that for Coriza seemed to last for many years one of the eyelids finally gave up and snapped open, revealing an eye underneath that kept twisting and turning scanning for any incoming bolts or burn marks of those already hurled her way that seemed to miss her.

The prolonged breath of relief she let out when she finally put everything together, realizing that she was still in one piece, nearly threw her off her paws. She remained standing only due to the tight clench over the door's handle.

"Please believe me that this is the first time I opened this door, never before I dared to enter it. I did it only now and I swear on my life that it had nothing to do with inappropriate satisfaction or desire. My silly head is only to blame here, due to the pleasant time I've spent in your company I have completely forgotten what it means to be a proper host. I simply wanted to make amends for my mistakes"

Her foreleg rose up slowly, shaking claw pointing at the edge of the bedroom.

"The window, my goal was to sneak in and silently close it so you would get a proper rest. Birds... birds gather up in the garden outside and begin to sing. I didn't want them to wake you up"

Cloudas sat down, smiling at the cleric who this time was dressed, wearing a pretty, bright bluish robe that glittered near the neckline and paws. It was nothing fancy, the Shapers in his world wore really jaw dropping stuff, it was rather on the modest side, but it still drew attention, especially when combining the glimmer which kept flashing between gold, blue and red with the sun blazing color of her visible eye.

If she would reveal the cracking beige one it would be hard to not be hypnotized by her.

There was something...natural about her that he couldn't put his paw on, she wasn't the girl most boys drool over, stood far behind in the primitive sexual appeal when compared to that feather winged chick, but there was something about her that just pulled you towards her. Making you want to listen.

He wasn't sure, never having to deal with priests before, but he suspected that it was kind of a valuable trait in her line of work.

"It's alright, birds don't bother me, I usually slept in the open anyway so I got used to it already"

"Oh" Coriza looked visibly depressed "I didn't know that...I apologize for my intrusion then"

"I wasn't sleeping anyway Coriza" he chuckled softly, her cringed in shame form because of such a silly thing was quite a sad sight, he couldn't help himself but to dislodge the atmosphere with a soft giggle, at least to make her feel that there wasn't anything really to worry about

"Do you really have a loyal chorus singing for you every morning?" he changed the topic, feeling bad about the fact that such a wonderful host like her is feeling out of place in her own home

The paw that was twirling the strands of the silvery mane stopped moving, he could see from her body language that she was no longer thinking about her shameful, in her opinion naturally, act, mind thrown into a whirl of thoughts he never expected to draw so much of her attention.

Coriza however took the question seriously, in fact it got her thinking about the birds quite fervently. Something she never paid much attention to before, but the birds seemed to be there by her window since the day she moved in into the house.

Why does it seem strange though? They might have a nest nearby.

Then why she never heard any youthful chirping of the young?

The smile disappeared from Cloudas' snout, all the feathers on his body fell flat as if in shame, he didn't know that his question would make her go basically pale.

"Did I give you a stroke or something?"

"Excuse me?" the girl's attention snapped in the direction of the wind drake, only when noticing his worried expression Coriza realized just how out of place her sudden silence had been. Especially when it lasted so long.

"Forgive me, I lost track of my thoughts. The birds..." she looked towards the window, hearing the chirping from the outside, the same window she never recalled closing "...the birds were there since I remember, so yes, you could say that our relationship was constructed on loyalty, even though I'm not aware when our bond began to form"

He leaned in, smiling again.

"I bet you never even closed this window after you opened it"

The pupil in the gold eye dilated again as it focused on the window, the priestess staring at it as if it would be a vivid picture of one of her worst nightmares.

She didn't even remember opening it.

Why does it even matter?

Cloudas' lips stretched once more into a callous line, the wet smack that followed when they joined indicating clearly that they no longer planned to curl again. Whatever is happening with the priestess today she didn't resemble the girl he met at all right now.

"You're weird, did you forgot what means small talk or do you have a twin sister you didn't tell me about?"

Coriza didn't react at first, her eyes lingering on the window for what seemed like an eternity, her mind devoid of any sensible thoughts.

And then the birds began to chirp.

She gasped, bolt of surprise jolting her body back so hard that she smashed her head against the door frame. The cleric yelped, a mix of colors shot through the strands of her hair that covered her thunderous beige eye, she dropped down, massaging the aching spot fervently, nearly setting her own hair on fire as she did so.

She hissed in pain throughout the ordeal.

"Damn" Cloudas jumped down immediately, quickly finding his way to the dragoness "You must really be some unwilling, masochist talent" he breathed his limited powers, sending a calming breeze of wind between the blue toes of the working forelegs

He noticed that she had put polish on her claws, faint, but the claws clearly had taken on a dim hue of pink.

"Yes, unfortunately Fate found an ideal victim in me for some reason. I suspect that it might be the consequence of me unconsciously breaking the set rules of Nature by appearing on this world before my predicted hatching date. An ugly predicament all in all, but one I learned to tolerate, specifically when I have no power to bring any favorable resolution for myself in this matter"

"Your priestess is showing" he breathed a final stream on the aching spot, the toes that kept working on it stopped in their tracks "There you go, that should help on the pain a little"

"Thank you" she bowed gratefully "Relief is imminent"

Cloudas chuckled, looking the girl over.

"You sure have some cogs or levelers here somewhere, there is no way one could behave and talk like that. You're stiffer than an icicle. Blink once if you need help, I'll find the one who charged you up"

Coriza chuckled softly.

"Ah yes. I have a friend who always keeps telling me that there are days when I stick a certain object in a certain place, essentially becoming more serious. I see now that he wasn't only taunting me"

"I've spent a night in your place, kinda speaks for itself that we are past the formal level don't you think?"

The dragoness turned instantly pale, her visible eye widening in a flash, even though she was an ice dragoness, chill was somewhat natural around her, Cloudas still sensed the temperature dropping considerably. Her chest stopped moving, if not for the still vivid colors in her eye he would say that she might have just drawn her last breath.

She was absolutely terrified.

Wild shaking started, it was so fierce that he couldn't really tell if it was coming from her or was it the cold she emanated eating into his nerves. All in all he felt bad about the whole situation.

"Hey! I was kidding!" Cloudas rose his paws defensively, leaning back as far as he could from the cleric "You know that I was only kidding, right?"

Coriza blinked quickly several times, her eyelashes creating more breeze than Cloudas' lungs ever could. Seeing her companion's retreated posture made her heart beat again, albeit shyly, it was a joke, a foolish joke, it calmed her a little, but the aftertaste of betrayal she felt was still a lingering taste in her mouth.

She provoked the Ancestors enough, getting intimate with another partner would be putting things too far, putting under question her loyalty and trust towards the ones she greatly cared about. She already hung on a delicate balance, already struggling to logically explain her actions, until now the Ancestors kept a watch over her, but how long can their patience last?

Now she had a chance to start making progress towards the greater good, was it really worth stirring more provocations along the way? Sparx was right about her, she couldn't do anything correct alone without someone holding onto that famous stick sticking out of her butt. She wasn't sure anymore if she wasn't pushing things too far already.

Her desperate cling to opportunity might be her own undoing, but no matter how hard she struggled and how many logical arguments she found to discard her actions as insane, she simply couldn't let it go.

Her faith didn't let her.

Not after realizing that it alone has the power to hold back magic. For the first time in her life she felt as if she had any sort of strength, making her feel like a true dragon for once, it was simply too precious too let go.

She will make mistakes and a fool of herself on the way many times over, but the silver lining here was that she was between the walls of her own house. Right now only the ghosts of the former inhabitants can judge her.

A difficult sentence, but one she could cope with for the time being.

"I've prepared breakfast" she mumbled emotionlessly, her voice a barely audible whisper as if she would be admitting to a horrendous crime

Cloudas burst out laughing.

"I knew after yesterday that you are something different, but you sure know how to surprise. I get it that you want to be nice and all, especially after what you told me but this really feels like you're trying to bribe me"

Coriza scrambled from the floor, backing away in the shadows of her own room

This is what it means to cross the line.

"I apologize! I thought...I-"

"Relax girl or you're going to have a heart attack" the wind drake grabbed the dragoness by the leg to keep her steady "I'm just needling you, I've warned you that people tend to dislike me, calling me rude and the like when in reality I'm honest and have a bad taste in humor. All is good, I'm not mad, not offended and actually quite hungry, so bribe or not I'm taking you up on your offer anyway. I prefer crazy you to the groping mob outside. That's a compliment by the way"

Coriza rearranged her robe, she cringed so much from the shame that the material seemed to burn holes in her scales.

"What am I doing?" she muttered sadly with a shake of the head

Nothing really started and she was already messing it all up, what a disgrace. She's no Brill, she can have all the faith in the world, but without basic social adaptability and any dose of charisma the only living soul she might ever make to stop and listen to her will be her own reflection in the mirror.

And even that might eventually get tired of her.

"A fuss about nothing. Come on silly cleric" Cloudas gently bumped her with his nose, giving that clearly necessary tug she needed "Let's get some grub in our bellies!" he sniffed the air, nose automatically leading him to the kitchen "When did you even went to get some food? It's barely morning, people get up so early around here or what?"

"I served the temple, caretakers usually live within the temple's perimeters, I'm one of the few who has her own heaven, but my shifts started at the same hour nevertheless. People at the market recognize me, some of them opened their business to catch us, the caretakers, as the first customers of the day. Whatever uneaten food gets left behind in Warfang is gathered up by those kind souls who donate it to clerics such as me. It's heart warming to see this tradition kept even when the sermons aren't so actively held anymore. We in return offer them our blessings, everyone receives their desired side of the barter and life prospers without unnecessary waste. What cannot be trade is scattered around the Realms for the wildlife to feed on, balance is retained in each regard, we don't take more than we need while the wildlife is fed only scarcely and in different places so the animals of the world won't get dependent on our generosity"

Cloudas opened up his mouth, ready to say something but quickly decided against it. He really wanted to note that he asked her a simple question and in return he got a lecture that could serve as a paragraph in some book for world building. He didn't care how this city worked, he didn't want to say it out loud however, he might be rude, but he had some mental barrier that told him when another mischievous needle would feel too much like a hostile stab.

Besides his host did it unconsciously and seemed to enjoy it, showing the colors of a true cleric, which was actually nice to see, behavior like that meant that she was loyal to her profession. He was no expert of course, but seeing her and the way she talks about priesthood could only mean that she was respected and liked by the populace. You only can get both at the same time when you're truly good.

A trait that he experienced very rarely in his life.

And for some strange reason he was glad that Coriza displayed such a characteristic, she made an impression on him from the start, that special quality at least could serve as a valid explanation why she had this charming aura around herself.

Even though he could feel in his guts that this wasn't the whole truth in the slightest.

"Hey, at least you always have someone to cheer you up after a bad day. As a priestess you deal with a lot of different folks and their problems, some must get on your nerves sometimes so it's kinda cool to have always that special station where you can charge up your batteries. Plus getting gifts every morning? Who wouldn't like that?"

He noticed Coriza's lips stretching finally into something far more pleasant than a grimace of shame, it was a shy smile, thin line pulling at the corners of the mouth, cleric giving the smile she was known for. Nice, but modest, stirring away from a bold grin.

"I suppose it is quite soul calming to see unbridled good in difficult times like these. A physical symbol of faith itself, a sign that I never really paid much heed to until now"

Her thoughts were thrown back down the memory lane, to the mornings where she was offered all sorts of food in the marketplace by the smiling people there. She took it for granted, never paying much attention to it, treating it as normal as the widespread reverence for the dragons by the moles.

Also the cosmetics, the perfumes, she was always given what she asked for and if she had to pay for it, it was always some meager amount all things considered. Such little things, but those were the details perhaps that she was missing, all this time she was afraid she was doing the bad thing, provoking the Ancestors and yet they stood by her side all this time, offering their support in the modest of manners.

Subtly supporting her on the path she took.

Ancestors always believed in the power of her faith.

It was about time she started to believe in it herself.

The kitchen finally stretched out before them.

"No way" Cloudas gasped "You even served it already? You sure you didn't want to wake me up?"

The table was set, neatly prepared for two guests, being dragons they didn't really need chairs, but they remained at the sides just in case one of the dragons decides to sit on one. In their places were two pillows, tidy and fluffy, proclaimed comfortable by glance alone. Bowl of colorful fruit stood in the middle, surrounded by two dishes.

On one there were several slices of all kinds of meat, evidence that Coriza was speaking truth about Warfang offering the leftovers to the population for personal use. The other dish was filled with all sorts of dried food, mix of peas, beans and all sorts of vegetables. Breakfast made of everything two dragons would need to fill their bellies with a light dose of nutrients.

"Do you like it?" she asked shyly, pulling at her strands to somehow stretch them out to cover her burning cheeks

"Hell yeah!" he immediately rushed to one of the pillows, occupying it without second thoughts, his eyes thrashing over the served table "Last months I could only dine like that with bugs and let me tell you that they have no sense of any social manners, they really suck at keeping their mouths to their platters only"

"That sounds horrible. You didn't have a place you called home?"

Cloudas immediately reached for a fruit, biting into it hungrily.

"Nah I guess" he answered with a callous shrug, mind circling around the delicious sweet food he just sank his teeth into "Home is a place where all the doors are open for you and held back by folks that don't want to see you no more"

"I never knew you were cast out from your home. It's good then that Spyro and Cynder found you and gave you the chance to experience hospitality again"

The wind dragon's eyes widened suddenly, his feathers bristling, he immediately started to cough, choking on the slices of fruit he was chewing.

"Cast out? No, no, no. I-" he punched his chest, while the other paw covered the mouth

"You need help?" Coriza rose in alarm without waiting for an answer

Green clawed paw that shot in the air stopped her in her tracks.

"I'm fine" he rasped, with one final cough taking finally the desirable chug of air "What I meant is that I was on an important mission and had no way of going back home. Nobody cast me out or anything" he chuckled nervously, waving his paw dismissively "I was a spy and no, before you ask, it's not as interesting as it sounds, just forget about me and let's talk about you. After all it's you that want to bribe me"

The cleric slumped down, looking around the served table with sad eyes, claw scratching the head as her thoughts rotated around the determination that fueled her actions and the fever of opportunity she clung onto when Cloudas toppled her down.

Yesterday and today circled only around that.

Her selfish desire to push things forward.

With no regard for others.

What is she doing?

"It really seems that way doesn't it?" she whispered, losing all bits of appetite

"Darn girl" he sighed almost tiredly "You sure need some help with that stick, you take things way too seriously"

"I'm sorry, I just-"

"Hold on there" Cloudas gently knocked at the table "It's cool you want to be nice to me and all, but if you want to do something relatively important, like finding total peace, you gotta be confident in your actions. Why do you think the Shapers rule the world? Power is one thing, sure, but the other is that they don't take crap from anybody, even their failures leave an impact, on themselves especially. You gonna need to accept the harsh reality of going against people, or not pleasing them once in a while. I'm not saying to be heartless, just don't apologize for every single thing, adapting to everyone must be a pain, maybe if you wouldn't focus so much on it you might actually not trip over your own tail one day"

She giggled softly, shaking her head.

"So my friends kept telling me, I understand the logical argument behind this, but to me, even if the path would be a successful one, would eventually lead to the same thing, to rebellion, literal or otherwise against the values that were forced on the world. Each change of doctrine was antagonized, birthing opposition along the way because of the wrongdoings committed against them and each time history proved that nothing of that was forgotten, brewing more conflict in the end"

"Yeah, sure" Cloudas snatched a slice of meat "But you some of those times were good who cares if they were won by blood when the present is quite peaceful and everything is normal"

"It is temporary, brining the end of the world"

"This temporary can last many decades, there are good and bad leaders, even Shapers can make a bad decision, but as long as little guys like us had a good living under them?" he took another bite, shrugging his shoulders "Worth it in my book"

"So you are not bothered by the fact that a mistake in the race for domination brings the end to all known life? That ambition for power births a world scale catastrophe?"

"This is how the world works and there is nothing we can do about it. If my world wouldn't end you would never get the chance to breathe air. It's a natural cycle"

"You see a failed ambition of one soul as a path of natural case of events?" the eye behind the hair flashed, spitting out small thunderous tendrils that coiled around the locks like snakes over branches "Don't you think that the process of generation replacement should happen by birth and love instead of a genocide?"

"In a utopia you want to create, maybe"

Coriza jerked her head back as if he would slap her across the snout.

He was about to reach for another snack but felt immediately guilty when he noticed her reaction, his paw moved back respectfully.

"Look, you wanted me to sleep on the future you had in mind and I did. Don't get offended when I tell you what I think. I warned you that I have no sense for tact"

"I am not offended" the cleric's robe ruffled mischievously

"It sucks to wipe all life and I know it, but what can we do? Shapers are here, Shapers were in my time and I bet they were also in that big butt chick's world too. Flare also mentioned the purple dudes. Can't you see the pattern? Shapers were everywhere and each time they dominated by force, nothing changed and nothing will change since Spyro and Cynder are already treated like rulers, at least Spyro is. It is already going in the same direction"

"Spyro and Cynder are not power hungry"

"Maybe they're not, maybe the Shapers before them weren't either, but whether they like it or not power is drawn to them and who knows, maybe at some point it is just too much to deal with and it takes over their souls and then bam, worlds crack like eggs. I don't know how this process works, we only know how it ends and there is already enough evidence to say that it happened the same way every time"

Coriza sighed, taking the said worlds into consideration, in her time as a cleric she had many dialogues each time though she never had to fight for her rights, always being the listening side, respecting the one that came before her and only guiding the troubled soul on the path it already chosen for itself.

What she had with Cloudas right now wasn't exactly the same. It was a conflict of opinions, this time she wasn't the listener only, she was actually an active party wanting to present her point of view. It was natural that her look on the events was different from his, it was natural that he might not agree with it.

It almost felt like the struggles a Seeker must face, after all a Seeker commands the temple and to see if grow and prosper he must make decisions and some convincing to see his plans bear fruit. Guiding here was no longer an option.

And what is her faith, her desire to see the draconic race prosper in peace if not a way to spread the influence of her own imaginative temple further?

But she is no Seeker, she has to counter the presented argument, not only it meant going against her internal way of avoiding fight, it also meant looking for an explanation for something that made much sense, after all it was repeated many times over throughout the ages.

She was stuck.

That was the truth, she considered the words and all she could do to continue this conversation was to fight them.

She remained silent, staring at the table helplessly.

Cloudas observed the cleric, feeling his heart bleeding with guilt, she helped him against a wild mob out of sheer good will, she allowed him to rest, having big hopes about her dream of having the dragons throwing away their bloodthirsty desires and letting them prosper, increasing their small numbers so they would never again face genocide. She allowed him to sleep in her home, made breakfast the day later, dressed up and polished her claws even to look the part. Having put all her faith in him as the wind dragon, her symbol, anchor for the faith, she didn't even tried to hide it, blatantly explaining all of it to him yesterday.

And he crushed it all.

Even though his mind screamed he did no such thing, all the colors from her magical eyes faded away like blown out candles.

"Coriza, listen" he said softly "I admire your determination, I had same ones...back in the old days. I decided to see the world for what it is and there is no changing that, but that doesn't mean you should throw away those dreams of yours. You have to fight for them, spread your faith and to do that you kinda need to accept that not everyone will support it"

"I don't want to fight, I'm not a Seeker" she mumbled in defeat

"What's a Seeker?"

"Leader of a temple, a physical manifestation of faith you may say, a direct bridge between the mortal world and the Ancestors"

"So someone with a lot of faith in what he believes to be true and right, hoping to spread his view onto others and guide them on the same path?"

"Something like that if you ignore the divine aspect"

Cloudas scratched his feathers thoughtfully.

"So you basically. You're a Seeker"

"No!" she exclaimed in horror, shaking her head decisively, locks of her hair flapping about like tentacles of some frenzied beast "I'm no such thing! I'm unworthy and I'm...I'm..."

"Too modest" he finished for her, making her mouth slam shut, expression of bewilderment stretching out the scales on her snout, she looked so silly and childish that he couldn't help himself but to smirk

"The Seeker is a holy boss then and whether you like it or not you aspire to be one. Maybe you don't have many followers yet, folks don't really listen to your opinions and your influence is still limited enough to prevent you from calling any shots, but in my book you got all the traits necessary to become one. You're smart, pretty, passionate, respectful and determined, you got a huge heart in the right place and you're charismatic. I can't get enough of your for some reason, the way you dress, the way you make your claws, even the way you brush your hair so it obscures that awe inspiring eye of yours, not to mention the black lining that you put around your visible eye to make it glow brighter. You already know how to draw attention, but besides the looks there is something...I don't know... weird, natural...about you I don't know how to call it, but when we're one on one like now I feel as if you put a lasso around my neck, if you only wanted to you could tug at it and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't even notice. You need just a bit more confidence and the desire to stand up for yourself, when you get those you're good to go"

"So much...compliments" Coriza huffed, her cheeks turning red, she fervently began to twirl the strands of her hair between her toes "I'm...I mean...you think too much of me"

Her heart was racing, if such nice words would be coming from any of her friends she would believe that they say it mostly to cheer her up. But those words came from a wind dragon she just met, a dragon who stated immediately that he values honesty.

And he kept true to his words.

She started to believe that there really might be something about her, how arrogant as it may sound, that makes people want to be around her. She formed a special bond with Sparx from day one, something clicked between her and Cynder just as quickly. Not to mention Flare and Spyro, the eyes of both of them seemed to follow her reverently whenever they were together.

Each one of those souls always acted as her shadow, ready to protect, assist or even listen.

Before she didn't make much of it, she was a priestess after all and those of divine duty are greatly respected in the Realms, bonding and the swift discovery of a line of understanding could be a result of that inherited respect.

Cloudas however changed all of that.

Was she really taking the path of a Seeker? If so then can she really pull it off?

Bit of confidence is required.

She brushed the locks from her snout, the thunderous beige eye hidden behind sparkled magically.

The wind's dragon eyes were immediately drawn there.

Full of awe.

She saw his true colors, feathery white and bright green, every now and then a subtle hint of purple hiss danced around his blurred edges.

"So you believe that the world is doomed to fall to the influence of power?" the beige eye sparked, cracks of gold shimmering within

"I don't care really. I'm just connecting the dots like I do the stars when finding constellations. Volteer talked my head off about the lore and it matches with what I and everyone else knows who took a Veil trip" Cloudas' mouth moved the moment the cleric's lips stopped, as if his voice would be the extension of her breath

Coriza leaned in closer, colors dancing in her exposed, beige eye.

"And does rejecting the influence of greed for power in the name of peaceful resolution does not count as strength?"

Cloudas kept staring at the shining eye, it was like a hypnotizing portal, a window towards a magical sky in a different dimension, whips of gold lightning cracking across its surface.

"I don't know" he replied immediately, his voice resounding with a snarl, as if he would be forced to reply to a question he didn't want to be asked

Pink claw brushed the hair over the beige eye a little farther away, the moving paw cutting off the awe inspiring hypnosis of the glance for a brief moment. It only made the orb look that much more addicting when it seemed to flare up with more intense light when it was uncovered once more.

"Then why are you still here if you know that the future is so dark?"

He kept staring into her eyes, when she leaned in the tendrils of magical electricity were so much more visible, each flash created a small dot that twirled like falling stars.

Like stars.

And there were many stars like that in her pupil.

The whips of thunderous electricity twirled around them, grazed them, or shyly guided them around, stretching out blazing lines that were so familiar, so interesting and intoxicating that he couldn't look back. The longer he stared at them the more he tried to notice a pattern there.

He didn't even know when his paw started to rub against his star medallion.

He didn't even know when his mind began to search for a constellation in those eyes.

He was certain that there was one there and his love for the sky was too strong to allow him to ignore it.

He craved to know where it all led to.

"I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night"