ORIGIN

The strange creature in the tunnel had told them about them. The singing gems that littered the caves. Asimona, never being one to pass up an opportunity to keep herself busy, had gone to work right away. Sister wasn't following her today - instead, Father had decided to tag along, as he had so called himself at one point (like hell she believed him, though). They were with her all the time now, ever since she had decided to try and make things work, one of them had never left her side. The days where Sister kept close where some of her best days, but it definitely got worse with Father or Mother keeping her company.

She felt his fear-ridden presence tickling the back of her spine, but she did everything in her power to ignore him. She had to focus on her task. Focus. Keep her eyes ahead, clear. Focus.

Eventually, she heard a strange sound coming from nearby, a singing-like sound and stopped in her path, turning to go and investigate. She heard Father snort behind her, but she was focused on her quarry. A little glowing crystal, making a strange sound, wedged between a couple of rocks. "That must be what that creature is looking for," she whispered.

"Look how small it is." Asimona let out a small growl as she glanced back at him. "Fuck off."

She reached forward and quickly picked the crystal out from the rock, opening the small pouch slung around her neck. She had found it abandoned as she traveled through Polaris and realized that it would make a good carrying satchel for the gems she found. It was definitely way too small to be a purse, but fit nicely around her neck. It looked a little silly, but it did its job.

With the first gem safely in the pouch, she turned to continue exploring.

Polaris seemed ominously quiet as she carefully made her way through the large, dark cave. She could still hear him behind her, making so much noise, considering how absolutely massive he was. There was a continuous growl coming from his throat and she was starting to get really irritated by his constant annoyance. Eventually, she halted and whipped around. "Can you, like, shut up for one minute!" she snapped at him, her eyes blazing.

Father only snarled, showing his teeth to the ice dragon. "No! I will not and I will always follow you until you know! Know how useless and worthless you...hey! Don't you turn your back on me!" With a disgusted puff, Asimona had whipped around as the insults began to fly and she ignored everything else he had to say, even if, internally, she felt another bang against the iron wall she had built around her heart.

She had things to do, crystals to find. And, as Father continued to rant behind her, she picked up the sound of another. His voice died away as she became focused again and immediately galloped towards where a larger crystal was stuck out of the ground. Without hesitation, she grabbed it and slipped it into her pouch, giving it a small, content pat as another gem was added to the collection.

It was starting to get more and more difficult to ignore Father's growling and occasional chuckle, as if there was something incredibly funny that she was missing. She wanted so desperately to turn around and confront him, but she knew that was exactly what he wanted. So she continued to move, trying to keep herself oblivious and, ultimately, failing.

She came to a sudden stop and instantly whirled around, her wings raising and her tail lashing angrily. "What is your problem," she shouted at him. "Why are you doing this to me?! What have I ever done to you to deserve this?!" She knew that she was definitely letting him know that he had gotten to her, but she didn't care at this point. "Why are you always tormenting me? Haven't you got anything better to do?"

Father laughed out loud, right in her face before responding through his booming voice, "Because it's fun! It's delicious to see you squirm with discomfort, to fear and to cry! Because you will submit to me and I will take you as my own one day, I promise you that! There is nothing else I can be doing besides this. One day, Asimona, you will be mine!"

Asimona curled her lip, but had literally no words in response. She could barely focus on her task anymore with him following her like she was a dog on a leash. Every so often, she couldn't help but let out another growl from her throat.

She trodded on, barely even noticing anything as all she was concerned about was keeping that annoying chuckle and growling from getting too deep in her ears. It was starting to drive her absolutely insane. She wished that Sister was here instead, that she was the one following her, not him. But, then again, Mother could be behind her, screaming continuously. This was definitely preferable.

More singing distracted her for an instant and she swerved out of her path to grab another gem singing on the ground. This was about the size as the one she had gotten before and she also place it alongside the other in her pouch. She twisted her head so that she could look down at it, fondly, before she heard another chuckle. Ignoring it, she continued on, but apparently Father wasn't having it.

"This is a waste of time, little dragon. You will fail in all your endeavors. You will fail in everything. Come on, Asimona. Just give in already." She didn't even bother responding this time, though, as she just continued, determined to keep her sanity at least for another day. She hated being alone.

Everything else was so quiet, though, that it gave Asimona the chills, even though she was literally a dragon of ice. Why was Polaris so quiet? Usually she would have bumped into someone by now - the cave seemed to attract gembounds like moths to a flame. But there was no one and no sounds except the singing of the gems.

Behind her, Father chuckled again. "Scared little dragon," he crooned. "Scared of isolation. But I'm still here. I'm all you've got." For just a moment, Asimona realized that this was very true - he was the only one. But...no. There was Sister too. She was somehow. Not here now, but somewhere.

And the singing gems were there, at least, to distract her every so often, as another one did at that moment. A tiny one, on top of a rock to her left. She quickly scrambled up a small rockfall to reach it and slipped it into her pouch beside all the others. That was four now that she had. She wondered how many the creature would need in the long run.

A scream split the cave and Asimona immedaitely picked her head up, her heart dropping to her stomach. She barely dared to turn, but she had to, anyways, just to confirm her suspicions. She was right. Father was gone and none other then the armored dragon that she called Mother was in his place. Her eyes were blazing as she roared at the ice dragon.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, you useless WRETCH," she howled. "Collecting rocks for an unworthy creature? Listening to singing gems?! YOU ARE A DRAGON, you pathetic welp! Disgraceful! Ungrateful for your gifts!"

Asimona opened her jaws and let out a warning roar right back at her before turning to head deeper into Polaris, trying so hard to keep her mind on the task at hand. Finding gems. She would have to find company later and put up with them for now. She had to do this!

Perhaps it was because of Mother's screaming that she could only hear the loudest one of all. But she stopped and turned just as she heard it and, suddenly, her eyes fell upon something amazing. A huge gem, nearly the size of one of her head, jutting out from the ground not far from where she stood. For a moment, she dared to believe that it even existed. But then, as she got closer, the singing got louder and she knew it was real. And there was no way would that fit into her pack.

She laid her claws on the gem and, with a great heave, tore it from the dirt. But then what? She had a huge crystal she couldn't carry everywhere with no pack to put it in? She had to hide it, come back for it later. She didn't even hear mother's screeching now - she was too focused on her mission.

She eventually found a crevice that would fit her gem and she crammed it in, covering the entrance with some rocks from the vicinity. She put another rock a little ways away and rested a pebble on top so that she would know where she had left it when returning to the creature. She would come back for the gem - she promised.

Now that she was travelling Polaris, she had her mother screaming behind her, continuous insults and inane rambling about how she was dishonoring all dragons everywhere. This didn't really mean much to Asimona, as she had only met Dread as a dragon that others could see. So that wasn't really anything she was concerned about.

But still, the words cut deep after a while. They always had a way of getting to her, even if they usually wouldn't, so it took a lot of fighting and ignoring to hold it off for at least a little while while she tried to busy herself looking for more singing gems.

At one point, she heard it. More singing. She turned and saw a gem, unlike the others she had come across. It was in a funny shape and wasn't glowing like the others had been. Curious, she walked up and reached forward to touch the thing but, as her caw came in contact, she unintentionally exterted a bit of pressure and the stone simply crumpled to the ground, the singing died away.

She heard a lout crowing laughter from behind and saw her mother completely losing it. "HAHAHA, you idiot! You need to learn the difference between real and imaginary, little baby! Useless, pathetic fool!"

Angry that she had been able to fool her, Asimona continued on with slumped shoulders, moving her wings to cover her ears so that she didn't have to listen to the laughter so loud.

It was becoming unbearable. The constant yelling and laughing of mother, the increasing feeling of father's presence and the complete lack of sister's calming aura. And the loneliness weighing down. Asimona had wanted to help, she wanted to focus on a task alone. But she apparently couldn't even do that. Anger was starting to build and she flexed her claws on each step, imagining sinking them into her scales and ripping off the armor-like plating.

And now when the singing came again, she whipped around to make sure that Mother wasn't making the sound. She then had to take the laughter and ridicule before turning around to where she had heard it. This time, it was a real gem, although a small one. But still, it was a gem and she place it in her pouch, sealing it tight. It was getting a little full - she would have to turn around soon.

She continued on through Polaris, her eyes drooping from incoming weariness and her feet dragging on the ground. She was not physically exhausted, but the mental strain of having her mother following behind and never shutting up was starting to get to her. The laughter, the never ending laughter in her ear...it was driving her insane. She couldn't bear it and she didn't care what it took to make it stop. If she knew how, she would do it.

But then it did, without any action. The laughter and the words cut off very suddenly. For a moment, Asimona didn't even realize until the silence pressed in on her. She stopped, a little surprised and looked back. Mother was gone and, in her place, was a rock sailing right towards her back. Instinct immediately kicked in and she whirled around to face her attacker. She leaped cleanly out of the way, sailing right over the boulder as it smashed onto the ground. Asimona landed on top of it and squinted, seeing the golems approaching in the distance.

She growled and crouched atop the boulder, her wings wide. She wasn't going to wait for them to reach her. She leaped off the boulder and sailed through the air, rapidly approaching the golems on wing.