Some Fall By Virtue

Chapter Twenty-Five: taught me how to grow

Jumping into the waters, remembering how she had told them of going to bathe, instincts not letting her forget the pressing need to affirm her cover in any way that she could. Coward, the voice whispered, and her shoulders only sunk as she wet her hair and scrubbed at her body then, wishing she could somehow scrub away that which she could become. And make herself human once more. Tears bit at the corners of her eyes, scant few memories of her first life coming to whisper at the eaves of her mind then. But what was done was done, and nothing could undo the changes wrought upon her body and soul. No matter how she wished it so, so she could walk side by side with her soulmate in the sunlight he seemed to so radiate.

Sakura shook her head, pulling herself out of the waters, pressed with the need to return to her precious soulmate's side. He was probably worrying needlessly over a monster and her tendencies to run into other monsters. She wished he didn't – that he didn't need to, that there was no terrible connection between them which would ruin everything. Chakra pulsed in her feet, quickening her steps even as the fabric of her hurriedly pulled on clothing stuck to her wet skin, her hair a darkish pink and dripping with water as she hurried back to where she had left them. She traced her path back along the river, heart pounding in her chest at the thought of being revealed right then and there.

Should they have seen her eye colouring in dragon form, then there was no possible way it could be denied, as unique and ugly as that colouring of her eyes was. Unless denial was involved – denial of becoming involved with a horrid monster such as she. She swallowed, throat feeling cold and sore at that thought.

A rustling in the bushes made her blink, eyes wide as an elf she just about recognised came out from the underbrush, grey eyes locking upon her slightly bedraggled form. "There you are!" the twin she believed to be called Elladan spoke, hand closing around her wrist. "Come. Glorfindel grows more worried by the minute with your absence, and we are almost done with our preparations for leaving..." he said, dark brown hair fluttering behind him as he pulled her forwards and back towards the camp she had left what felt like only minutes before.

Clearly, killing one of her kin didn't affect her as much as it might others. And what does it say about you, cold, heartless dragon? the voice asked, insidious and cutting. "We're leaving?" she echoed, brow crinkling in mild confusion. Silly dragon. Of course they are – they're not stupid, unlike you!

"Did you not just witness what occurred?" Elladan snapped, fear and panic evident in his expression. Besides, a creature like her deserved to be snapped at. Sakura flinched. She would only experience such expressions should they figure out that which she was, and it felt like they were all too close to doing as such through every fault of her own – the pieces of the puzzle had all been lain down, and now it was but a matter of piecing them together. Her stomach twisted, and she found herself oddly looking forwards to running away back to Rivendell. To Imladris, home of her soulmate. How she wished it could properly become her home too.

Greedy, greedy dragon, the voice purred, and Sakura dropped her eyes to the ground. "There was a dragon," she mumbled, wanting to say something in the tense silence as she was pulled back towards the elves and her so very precious soulmate. The same one she seemed to have inadvertently claimed. Bloody hoarding instincts. Her lips thinned, and she stumbled over a tree root, much to Elladan's consternation.

"Did you not see the size of it?" Elladan asked, fear and panic becoming all the more prominent. Sakura hated the old part of her which relished in such an expression on an elf's face. She wished it would vanish. Of course you can't, the voice said, it's part of you, and it always will be, darling dragon. "Even Glorfindel would not think to take on a beast of that size... and I am only thankful he is too injured to even consider such a course of action, heroic though foolhardy as it may be," he murmured. "Nevertheless, we must return and report to Father on this matter... a dragon of that size..." he trailed off, and a mixture of fear and guilt swirled in her belly.