This thread may be tagged as mature for possible triggering content.

She was resting, resting and crying. She had cried nonstop, every since she had left the tunnel. Loneliness weighed down on her like a thousand stones. She had been alone for far too long, with only the dragons to keep her company. She needed to escape them. But where was she escaping? What was real? Were the dragons the only ones, there to torment her as she walked the caves? Were the others just figments of her imagination to fill the space? Or the other way around?

She didn't know. And it made her despair. Her tears flowed freely from her eyes as she dug her talons into her skin, her moans and cries carrying so far. Blood was welling from where she scratched at her head, but she didn't care. She didn't care about anything anymore. All she wanted to do was lay here and cry forever.

The dragons had at least given her this time. Ever since fleeing the cave, they had been silent, nonexistent. She was alone once again. Whether this was a good thing or not, she did not know. But at least he wasn't here. She was free from him for now.

She was atop a low ledge, just big enough for her to lay on, her tail hanging off and waving slowly, one of her wings carelessly draped over the side. Her wails were so loud, so sad, so full of despair and hopelessness. She didn't know anything. She was losing her mind from the emptiness.

She didn't hear the hyena approaching. How could she beyond her sobbing and moaning? What could she pay attention to except for her own sadness and pain? The loneliness, the hatred, all the madness that the voices brought. She couldn't think of anything until a soft voice whispered in her ear, "Someone is here."

She jerked up, her wail dying away, but tears still flowing freely down her cheeks. She didn't at first recognize who was standing there. All she saw was a dark pelt and shaggy fur so, at the very least, it was not a dragon. This was the only bit of rational thinking that was going through her head. She would have, a moment later, recognized the figure as Giggle, but tears blurred her eyes and too many thoughts were interrupting her mental functions.

"They won't stop," she choked out, her voice shaking. "Why can't I get away from them?" She shivered, another wave of tears dropping from her eyes. A streak of red ran down her face from the wound she had unintentionally inflicted on her head where she had dug in her claws, but she blinked it away as if it were merely another tear.

"DRAGON! USELESS DRAGON!" Her eyes moved away and widened with fear as she saw the silver dragon floating above him, her strong wings keeping her at eye level. Asimona wailed with despair and turned away, clamping her claws around her ears, but it wasn't enough to dampen the shrieking voice. "They do not understand you! You do not understand them! You should be above them, yet you let them into you freely! FOOL! I should never, NEVER have let you live, NEVER have let you run along on your own! You are a disappointment, a disgrace to all dragonkind! Shame on you for crying, shame on your weakness! SHAME!"

"SHUT UP," Asimona screamed, curling in on herself, her claws digging into her skin again, as if to wake herself from a dream. But she wasn't waking. Did that mean this was real? That her nightmares, the dragons that haunted her steps, did that make them reality? And everyone else...Faelan, Envy, Dread...they were the lie?

No, NO! They couldn't be, they had to be real! She wanted to see them again, even that snot of a weasel, just to reaffirm herself. She wanted to play in the snow with Faelan again, she wanted to soar the skies with Dread. She wanted them to be real, so badly. She needed them to be real.

She could hear them too, beyond the dragon that still screamed and spat. She could barely make out anything. There were too many voices and now there was another, whispering comfort. Don't listen, don't listen, don't listen...

But who was she not listening to? The dragon or the hyena or the unknown third? Who was real? Were they all? Were they fake? How would she ever know? Everything seemed real, yet everything felt fake. This was too difficult, too much for her to handle.

She lashed her tail with agitation at too much noise and it eventually became too much. Anger and frusteration and confusion boiled over and she slammed her claws against the rock and threw her head back, letting out a terrible, ferocious roar. It shook the walls, sending rocks clattering down the ledges. She had intended for ice to shoot from her jaws, but no magic was coming to her now.

When the sound died away, she was relieved to hear that it was quiet now. Nobody was talking. None of them were real. She slumped back down and was about to close her eyes when she realized that all three of them were still there. The dragon was on the ground now between the hyena and the newcomer, glaring up at her, wings folded back and her tail twitching.

She shivered, wanting to retreat and prepare herself for another berating, but her anger was too overwhelming. She wanted her gone, she wanted to never see her again! Kill her! Destroy! That was the only way to stop her, because nothing else seemed to work.

With a guttural growl, she slowly rose to her feet and crouched. In an instant, she was leaping off the ledge, straight towards the dragon who immediately turned and bolted. "COWARD!" she screamed as she slammed on the ground between the two. She had grown considerably since her last meeting with Giggle. While she was fully mature, her body still had some growing to do. She was nearly twice the size as the hyena now at the shoulder, not even speaking how much bigger she was then the cat.

After a moment of glaring after the dragon, all of her energy suddenly died and she slumped back to the ground. "Will this never end," she moaned with despair. She had chased them away before, but they always came back. Always. She moved her head so she was looking at the cat, her eyes dull and barely caring. "What do you want," she asked, bluntly before looking at the hyena. Her voice was expressionless and there was no light of emotion in her eyes. "You...you told me that this would be a gift. That I would overcome. But...I can't. I just can't. They won't leave me alone."

Glaring deadly at Giggle, Asimona lashed her tail with frustration. She didn't get it, no, how could she get it? Nobody could ever understand how difficult it was. "They are not just voices, they are real! Creatures that follow me and haunt my steps. There are three and they never leave me alone. Never." But when she mentioned touching her, her eyes widened and she looked away, heat pooling in her skin. She remembered the feeling of his tongue on her cheek, the heat, like fire on her skin. That was real, wasn't it? He could touch her. Which meant he could harm her.

"...yes...they can touch me. But they have not harmed me. But they can. I know they can." Her tail thumped nervously against the ground as she started to shiver. She covered her head with her claws as tear began to leak down her cheeks again. "But they make me feel things. Things I don't want to feel. And I can't stop it, I don't know how!" Her voice was starting to rise into a wail again as she despaired in her life. "They come to me everywhere! Nowhere is safe!"

She turned towards the cat now, one of her claws shifting so that her eye could look down at it. "But they are real! You don't understand! I don't need to relax, I need them gone! I need them to leave me alone. But they don't! And I'm always so lonely!" She wailed again as she covered her eye again and dug her claws into her skin. More blood dripped down her head as she cried, angry and hopeless at this situation. She had spent nearly two cycles alone, with no one to keep her company but the three that pestered her and never left her alone.