A New Beginning

[Neron]

Sunlight danced from the heaven above down to the green floors of the Unicorn Meadows. Everything seemed fresh, as the world was bathed in that heavenly light, the morning dew sparkled like diamonds and the sky was a radiant blue. The only thing dampening the delightful picture was the dark form, crumpled up on the grass. To many it would seem that he was sleeping, but if you looked close enough you would find his eyes squeezed shut and a pained expression on his face.
The wind tried to tousle his black hair, but it was damp with morning's dew. His pale skin was clammy and cold, dull and lifeless, it seemed that the man was close to death. Strange as it might seem, but he looked like a shadow, caught in light and melting on the ground until he was there no longer. He had been wasting away, slowly and surely. The only thing that had nourished his body had been water, and very little at that. Dizziness and almost madness had taken over his mind.

Neron stirred slightly, it was morning, he had laid there all night, reflecting on his life, pulled into his memories. His eyes turned to a smooth black case that sat beside him. His violin. Reaching out the sound of the clasps being released sounded and he case was soon thrown back. The beautiful instrument was soon caught up and almost cuddled in Neron's thin arms. But for once in his life he knew he couldn't play her. She would do no help to him now and her soothing voice offered no comfort. Instead the masterpiece of an instrument lay soundless in his lap. Bowing his head his eyes closed once more. HE had to get through this, he had to. A tear rolled down his face. He didn't know how much longer he could hold on. Never in his life had he been so weak. Sure he had been wounded to a point of almost to return, but this was different. IT was as if his very soul was deserting him, leaving an empty useless shell behind. Drawing a hand over his face he removed the wet streak that was a testimony of his emotion. He needed to pull himself together, but he had no strength.

His green gaze came alive as his eyes opened and turned to his arm. IT was still so weak, that blasted arm of his, he had kept it hidden and had dealt with the pain in secret. Miriel had knit some of the bone back together, enough to make it look like a minor fracture. So minor, in fact, that he refused to wear a cast, he could suffer with what he had done, he deserved to suffer. All that had happened was because of him. All of it. If he hadn't been so knuckle headed...If he hadn't.. "Oh, it's useless." He muttered louder than he thought.

[saerwen]

It was as though the free sky was calling to him, begging him to leave everything behind. All of the pain that he felt, all of the distress that was stirring within him, it made him want to fly away and forget that it ever happened... But he wasn't the kind of person to do that. Those thoughts never got further than surfacing discomfort and restlessness that was surely incurable. Damion walked with a pace that could have been turned into a jog, his leg stretching about as far as they could, propelling him in his never ending walk of disturbance. He was unconsciously doing this, and the beating of his heart escaped his notice.
Frustration plagued him, rampantly torturing his tender soul. It was Miriel. No, he took that back...It was Jaedon's unwillingness to help her ever devoted friend. It angered him more than words could express. He was not taking into account how hard it would be for Jaedon, the only thought that he had was that Jaedon was preventing him from being comfortable, from relieving his person desires to have the old Miriel back.
His frustration yelled at him to continue his mindless rampage. He had walked through the garden, all over the woods, through the town, and now, his restless mind knew no where else to go but the field, the meadow, full of half green and half blue. The ground, and the sky. His heart longed to fly, even if he went no where in particular, even if he came back, he just wanted to fly away. He didn't though, restraining himself.
It wasn't long before he had walked half way across the field. Suddenly he heard a voice to the right of him. His head shot around quickly as the phrase ended. A black puddle was reclining in the middle of the field, only a little ways away from him. What an unfortunate looking fellow. Damion thought as he came closer. He was about to inquire after what was so useless, but then, he saw who it was. Neron. He looked as though on the brink of death. Damion suddenly lost all other thoughts.
"Good grief man, what has happened to you? Are you alright?" Damion hadn't seen him since the coffee shop, and he hadn't really been paying that much attention to Neron at that point. His thoughts revolved around Miriel and how to help her without Jaedon now, but he was now starting to realized that this was preventing him from seeing the other problems that friends were having. He could never stop himself from putting Miriel first though...He knew that for a fact.

[»Míríel«]

Neron didn't even hear the oncoming Damion, even though his footsteps sounded like thunder against the ground and sent vibrations rushing through the ground. His sitting position had reclined to a laying position, the violin clasped beside him. His eyes closed as his mind started to wander. Why was he here, why had he out of all of his siblings been chosen to suffer this much and then to waste away sue to the fierceness of his mind. "There is not much you could do Neron, it was you who brought this on cursed fierceness, you are your own problem."

A voice shattered through his thoughts, but Neron didn't start, nor did he let out a shout of shock, instead her just lazily opened one eye. White, white was above him, had he died and gone to heaven? NO...No that was just Damion. "Yeah, Just dandy. I feel like running a race I feel so utterly fantastic." Pulling himself into a sitting position, being careful not to us his hurt arm, and stared up at the white figure before him. "Do I look ok Damion, seriously, do I?" His blood shot eyes seemed haloed by dark circles and his skin, even in the sun, seemed a pasty white. A finger lifted from his lap and traced along the curvy edge of the violin. "I don't know Damion, nothing seems right anymore. The mind is a terrible thing. Just look at Miriel, her mind is locking away all her bad memories, but in doing that she's loosing all her good memories too." Focusing on his violin for a moment he continue tracing the edge. "But at least she finds comfort in you. I find comfort in no one, not even my violin can sooth me with her voice." His finger stopped suddenly his gaze lifted. "Damion, what is the point of life if everything you have contributed to it was grief to others?"

[saerwen]

As always, the cheeky Neron came back with a sarcastic remark. At least that hasn't changed. Damion thought to himself as he looked at Neron's wasted form. The strong figure that had caught Miriel on their first meeting was nothingness. It was utterly terrifying. He had seen despair before, but this was different. This wasn't just despair, it was the minds utter triumph in its quest. Your mind is always trying to trick you, make you think things that are untrue, make you sure that everything is wrong. That is why beings become angry, because they think that an injustice has been done. That is why he was struggling now, because he felt like he was being deprived of something that he deserved. He had not stopped to consider that it was his own fault that Miriel was having this trouble now. He was still vexed though...And it was made obvious when he let out a long sigh and practically fell down on the ground next to Neron.

"No, you don't look okay. You look like something has gotten the better of you and pushed you down time and again." He spoke as one who was fixing to give up. He listened to Neron as he spoke. Was Neron letting out his thoughts? No...it couldn't be... What was he doing? He was telling Damion what was on his mind. Neron had never done anything like that before.

"Well Neron, I can't say that I have ever been there before, so I don't think that I am quite capable of giving heart to heart advice, but what I do know is that there is never a point in time when life is pointless. There is always a chance for redemption so long as you have time left to live. Start over Neron, put everything that you have done wrong into a jar. Keep it so that you can remember where not to go, but keep it sealed so that this," he nodded in Neron's direction, "never happens again.That is all that I can do when screw up. It is there to serve as a constant reminder of the man that I was, and the man that I am now, and hopefully to bring about greater change in the future." He stared up into the sky, looking there as though to find inspiration.

[Neron]

Neron had resumed back into his laying pose. "Thanks Damion, I'm flattered." Neron smirked to Damion's remark about his appearance. "It took hours to do my hair, and my eyes, you have no idea how long it took to make those look like they are." Tucking his hands behind his head he continued. "I should be a model shouldn't I.. I would knock them all dead...literally." Then under his breath her muttered sourly. "Can't stand models."

"Of course you haven't Damion. I don't know if you have devoted your life to doing things that you know you will regret. As for there never being a point in life where life isn't pointless." His face grew stoic and calm. "That is a bloody lie." His eyes, which he had closed at the beginning of the dialogue, opened showing green flames of anger. But the anger didn't last long and died away frighteningly quick. "I have tried the jar method but the problem is that the jar keeps breaking. I put it in a safe but it knew the code to get out. Every complex problem don't you think? Running from someone who knows your every move and thought." Neron sighed. "Quite frankly I've tried facing it, but all it ended up is me looking like a bruised beat up fish bone. I'm sick of fighting and I feel like just giving up..." HE paused for a moment. "But then...when I'm almost to that point something, or someone stops me." His head turned away from Damion. A picture of Jaedon rose before his mind's eye. "So now I'm just trapped in the middle, not moving forward or backward. " Neron sighed again and shook his head slightly, clearing the picture. "The only change that I have made in the world is a bad one. I want to stop Damion -" He stopped mid-sentence. A headache racked his mind , causing his fists to curl up into a ball of pain. "But I can't." The pain resided slightly, but it was still there, beating against his mind as a reminder. "It's hopeless."

[saerwen]

Damion chuckled at what Neron said. "I never much liked models either. They are too perfect...too fake. Models are just that, a model of what life should be like, but it is all lies." He picked a weed that was growing near by, stared at it hard for a moment, as though staring at it would make it dissolve. It suddenly frozen over, becoming the perfect ice sculpture. He just held it as he thought.

Oh, Neron...Just because nothing has worked yet doesn't mean that nothing ever will work. Damion shook his head as Neron answered. "Neron, if there were no point to life then why are you here?!" Damion threw up his hands as a sign of cluelessness. He shook his head again. "You have the answer to your problem in your retort." He smiled. "Neron, the only reason that I live is so that I can serve and care for other people. There is no other reason for life. Think about it for a moment... You can try to become wealthy, but when you die, what good has wealth done for you? You can become powerful and get what you want all of the time, but when death knocks at your door, what deeds can you offer to say that you have done something worthy of redemption? If you are living to serve yourself Neron then no...you will never come out."

The ice sculpture became a pointer as he pointed to the surroundings. "Look at where you are Neron. Look at this place! It is gorgeous! There can't be places like this for no reason. The reason that this is here is so that we can enjoy it, and we do. But to enjoy it, you have to be alive! Should this beauty go to waste simply because you fail to see a reason to live? Sure there will be someone to come along behind and enjoy it later, but what if they see your example? They say, 'he didn't enjoy it, so how can I?' Then others will fall into your fate."

Damion sighed. "I have no room to preach on this but please let me try and encourage you. This is not a hopeless cause. The only reason that you have to live right now, the only reason that anyone really has to live is either for themselves, or for others. You have found that living to satisfy your own needs leads no where, so there is only one other place to go. It might seem impossible now, but one day Neron, when you get through this, you will see that life has reasons. Friends are a huge reason, the common man who needs help pushing his car out of the road is another, but the most important thing..." he paused as he looked up to the sky. "No, I really can't preach on this, because not even I have learned it yet." he shook his head and looked to the ground.

[Neron]

"I hate perfection." Neron mumbled under his breath. The grass about him moved lazily in the breeze. As he listened to Damion speak he felt himself drifting off into sleep. The warm sun rays had a way of relaxing you. It was pleasant. So he listened to what Damion had to say without saying a word and he stayed so still it almost looked like he was no more. But within that motionless body his mind was at work churning through what Damion was saying. When he started talking about how beautiful it was and how everything was so peaceful, Neron finally started to relax. It was peaceful here, and it had been a long time since Neron had been able to be at peace.

Things that are so pleasant last for such a short amount of time. Neron found this out for as soon as his body started to drift off into sleep a vision of terror flashed before his mind's eye. It was as if the black dragon within him was lunging at the peace and tearing it to shreds. Jumping up suddenly, with violin in hand, Neron's headache came back full force. Whirling around at Damion Neron snatched the frozen weed from Damion's grip. "You see this is where we differ." Twirling the rose in his fingers, grimacing in distaste at the cold, he then continued. "You preserve things. This weed is now encapsulated in ice, it reflects the light to everything around it and gives it a beauty that it could not have had before but me...me." The weed went up in flames and ended up in a pile of ashes in NEron's hands. "But me...I just make things black as death and turn things of beauty into things that people detest. Now that weed is nothing but ashes, something people clean out and throw away." With an angry look on his usually stoic face Neron clenched his fists and grimaced at the pain in his head. "Don't you see Damion, your point in life is to bring happiness but my point is to destroy. You may be the sun but I am the black thunderclouds that ruin everyone's day. "

The pain that wracked his head became to much to bare, and turning from Damion he reached up and clutched his head with his hands. The words of Damion were echoing in his head. "What is someone does fall into the same fate as this. But who no one would... no one...Who would have a life like mine?[/b]" His mind hurt to much for him to think about it, but the question remained. Bending over in pain he soon collapsed on his knees, back arched, head bowed, in a upright fetal position. The violin stuck from beneath his hand like a strange sort of antenna. But Neron had forgotten that he was even holding it. Instead he was staring blankly at the grass before him, pain evident in his eyes. He felt sick, but there was nothing in his stomach to release. Luck, for once, was on his side, if it could be called that.

[saerwen]

Damion was in deep thought when Neron suddenly jumped up and snatched the weed out of his hand. Damion just looked up at him, listening in silence. He put his tongue in his cheek when Neron started talking about preserving things. He then smirked, "And here I thought that you liked science...Don't you know that ice can kill as well as preserve? You might not believe this Neron, but there was a time that I became so angry that I froze someone to death. When they thawed out after a week in front of a heater, their heart had stopped, and no amount of CPR could bring them back." Damion looked to the ground. "All things, all people are capable of killing."

"There are things that you can provide that I cannot. You can provide warmth, light, and safety." He shook his head. "Miriel will always be cold as long as she stay near me. Granted she has enough heat to melt my soul to nothing, but I can provide no warmth for her. Your can make like with a thought Neron...And I cannot. I will never be able to provide light for as long as I live...I might can slightly 'glow', but light will never come from me, but you... Do you know how much..." Damion stared hard at Neron for a moment, and then looked out to the fields. "Do you know how envious I am of you? To have such powers?" he sighed and shook his head. "You have no idea how many times I have begged to know warmth, to know what it feels like. I have heard that it is wonderful. My body temperature never goes above 68 degrees, and any time that I try to feel warm, I burn. My skin physically can't take it. You have no idea what gifts you have till you have lost them. So don't think that you are made for death. You can do more than kill if you just give yourself the chance."

It was after he finished speaking that he noticed Neron was putting a little too much pressure on his violin. "Neron?" He looked with concern towards the figure that was fading. Then Neron fell to the ground, clutching his head, in more pain that Damion even wanted to think about. Damion was up and at Neron's side. His hand went to Neron's shoulder, showing that he was there for support, should Neron need it.

"This has got to stop, friend." Damion muttered. As he watched Neron struggle with the pain he thought about Jaedon. Would she have to endure this fate one day? He hoped not.

[Neron]

"Just because I like science doesn't mean that I know everything. But I do know this, Ice may kill, but at least it has a chance to preserve. Fire, it only kills it only disintegrates things." He smirked. "I guess we are the opposite sides of the ball. Both extreme opposite, something that never happens. Only things that are balanced with cold and fire live." His eyes grew distant." At least you have Miriel, Damion and even with her memory the way it is, at least you have her. She could warm you and teach you the beauty of light, you could teach her how a cool breeze refreshes the soul. At least....you have each other, you are the summer and winter and the perfect mix of that is spring and fall. " He shook his head. "We envy each other you know..." Neron didn't continue with that sentence, but left it as it was.

Neron's eyes, if Damion could have seen them. Were switching between snakes and humans rapidly. His hands clenched tighter and tighter on his head as if he was trying to crush his skull. Damion speaking his name went unheard and unheeded. Pain, it was like his very soul was being ripped apart, piece by piece. A touch was felt, it was gentle and strong, one of a supporting friend. IT was something Neron has never felt before, well not in a long long time. For a minute his hand relaxed as the memories of an old friend played in his head. The violin maker, Neron's first true friend. How they had loved each other like brothers,, the world had started to come together for Neron, until that fated day.

With a snap of his wrist Neron flicked Damion's hand away. Pain wreathed in his arm, he had unknowing used his hurt arm. But Neron didn't let this show to much. Getting up shakily Neron muttered in a pained way. "Go away Damion...Go away." Moving towards the violin case he settled down in a sitting position. Wind galloped through the meadows and tried to smooth Neron's hair back like a worried mother, but Neron paid no attention to it. Instead he sat on the ground and with shaking hands opened the violin case and gently placed his beloved violin inside. Snapping the lid shut as another wave of pain racked his mind and body Neron groaned slightly, his hands started to shift into his true form. Digging into the case Neron's head fell upon the case also and he whispered loud enough to hear. "You have a life before you, so go away..." It was the only way Neron could tell Damion that he didn't want to hurt him. He didn't want what had happened to Miriel to happen again. Those bright green eyes of Neron were now a poison green, slitted like a snakes. Turning suddenly to face Damion there were actual tears held in his wild eyes. "Just go AWAY!" As if ashamed Neron turned once more, pulling at his hair in distress. His form collapsed into a kneeling position. It was then that Damion's earlier words rang through his mind again. "Then others will fall into your fate." An image of Jaedon came before his mind eye. It was a picture of her at the coffee shop. She had looked terrible, but even then her face was beautiful. But it was a sad beauty, something that caused him an unexplained pain in his chest. She was already starting down the path that he had taken. If he gave up...Neron couldn't think about it. "You are right.." His hands faded back to normal and his eyes returned to a more human shape. "This....has got to stop." Even though he was calm for a bit he didn't know how long it would last. Plus, even in this state his hands shook and his heart was beating wildly. It was like playing hide-in-go-seek, expect knowing that no matter where you hide the person who is seeking was going to find you, it was only a matter of time and this time the seeker held a gun in hand.

[saerwen]

Only now do I start to realize that the grass is always greener on the other side... Damion thought as he listened to Neron. They both longed for what the other had. Damion longed for warmth, and Neron longed for something other than death. When you thought about it, they should have been worst enemies, but they had something in common that was very strong, a longing for what the other had. It was a strange place to be.

Damion watched in horror as Neron suffered even more from the pain that was killing him. He felt Neron try and relax at first, but then his hand was pushed away as Neron rose, obviously running out of remedies for his unconquered pain. Damion knew that Neron was afraid of hurting him, but Damion knew already that he was not going to leave. He was not going to leave Neron like this. There was no telling what Neron would do when like this, and Damion would not let himself leave and guess. There was nothing that Damion could do right now, and he felt so helpless. He wanted to relieve Neron's pain right now more than anything else, but he knew that he could do nothing.

"You have a life before you as well. Nothing that you say or do could make me leave you right now Neron." Damion looked at his suffering friend with concern and stubbornness in his eyes. Damion had a slight idea, and he wondered if it would work. He was hesitant to try it because he didn't know what Neron would do with it. Reverse psychology was more of Jaedon's art, but he had been learning. What if he told Neron that he couldn't do it, that he would never over come it...Would that urge him to try harder to beat them? Just to prove Damion wrong? Nah, that would never work...

[Neron]

Neron smirked as his whole body shook slightly from the pain. "You sound like some sort of lover or something." He groaned with pain.Why did these headaches always have to come at the most inconvenient times? Right now he wished he could just stand up look Damion in the eye and tel him that nothing was wrong, but that wasn't even possible. One thing Neron did know was that if this continued he was going to loose his skin and if it continued after that point, he wasn't going to make it. Even now he could tell his heart was racing at an unnatural speed, perhaps if he was lucky he wouldn't go into shock.

The only thing that caused these headaches was the fight that he was putting up against himself. HE had to change he had to stop all this nonsensical fighting. It wasn't just hurting himself but also his friends to. The strange thing was that he never had a conscious before, perhaps Miriel and Damion had finally worn through or perhaps it was Jaedon who gave him a picture of himself that jump started it. Either one of the choices had caused him to want to change, to strive to be a better person. But it wasn't working.

Suddenly another wave of pain wracked his body. It felt like nedles and knives were being pushed through his skull one at a time. Flashes of what he had done ran rampant through his hea.d "You'll never change you demon, there is no way. Look at all you have done. You only know one thing and that is to kill, to have anger in your soul. Do you think that in just a couple of days you can change what your whole life had built up?" Flash after flash, it was light standing before a host of photographers using the biggest brightest flashes, all aimed at you and all going off one after the other with no space inbetween to recover. He was being blinded from the truth. "You are to weak of a person to change even inf you wanted to. You can't even show protect one of your oldest friends from yourself. Look at Miriel, how many times have you hurt her in your rages, how many times have you shown JAedon more about yourself then you want." Neron's will to fight was being changed by these arguments."I'm not strong enough.." Neron's green eyes closed in exhaustion. "I can't do it..." What was the point of causing himself more grief if he kept up the change of himself.

[saerwen]

"Maybe that is how you see it. Really, I am just being a friend. Friends don't leave Neron." Damion had never known something like this, all he knew was physical pain or the pain of losing someone important. He was glad that he had never known this kind of pain, but it made him think about what he would be like if he had. He could say that he had overcome some of the worst. It was strange to think about it...Every trial makes you change yourself in some way, either for the better or for the worst. If Damion had gone through something like this, would he have been able to come out of it? I suppose it is the troubles that we face that turn us into who we really are. Miriel and I are who we are because we responded to the things that happened in a different way. Jaedon is who she is because she ran, and she didn't know what else to do. Neron is who he is because he also had no other way that he knew of to cope with the bad things that happened to him. We have all suffered, but because of our suffering we have been shaped into different people. The only difference between this time, and last time is that Neron is trying to respond in the right way. Why is responding rightly always the hardest thing in the world to do?

"Neron, if you aren't strong enough then no one is." Damion spoke quietly, thoughtfully. "You are the only person that can help you. I can't help you, that is obvious. Miriel can't help you, especially not now, and Jaedon..."Damion paused. "Jaedon wouldn't even know where to start. I don't think that she can even comprehend how to fix something like this." Damion looked at Neron a smirk on his face. "So if you don't find the strength to fight yourself, then no one will."

[Neron]

Neron's eyes dilated slightly with the pain. "The friends I know do." He closed his eyes as a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. "Or the ones I knew..." Neron's eyes shot open and seemed only more red. His mind was flashing back and forth between past memories, making him start to loose grip on reality. "What year is it? Where am I? What am I doing? Why am I here?" Young,middle aged, young again, parents, killers, victims, all in rapid concession and out of order. It would be like trying to learn history by opening the history book up closing it and opening it again in a totally different section.

Then Demion's words seeped through Neron's bruised and wounded mind like a cooling rain. "Jaedon.." Pain shot through his head at her name. Why did he feel on fire all of a sudden? "She wouldn't understand, she couldn't handle it, she wouldn't be able to pull through. Neron..." He coached himself quietly. "If you don't pull through....she has no hope..." The words were uttered unconsciously outloud.His head turned at the neck as a deep intake of breath was heard. He had to fight, he had to. For himself, for Miriel, for Damion, but most importantly, for Jaedon. His sudden revival of strength poured through him as determination filled his should. HE would over come this. At least if he did die, perhaps Damion could tell Jaedon that he was at peace, he had come to terms with himself, for once. Letting his hands slip from the case to the grass his fingers dug into the ground. Pain, it was all he could feel, his senses were flooded with it. But this time, even though the pain was worse then ever, he knew that he had to hang on, he had to win. Just a little bit longer....a little bit longer. His form was flickering and waving. His skin was being lost.

The pain or what was going on in Neron's head and body could not be explain with mere words. IT was something that was so incomprehensible to the human language or the human mind that it would be like trying to describe the color blue to a blind man. You could give emotions but the blind man would never be able to tell what it truly was, or the extent of the color. So Neron's suffering is recorded in only the most unsophisticated way, but the only way it could be done. Silence.

[saerwen]

"Knew? Are you counting yourself as a dead man already? You give up way too easy..." Damion shook his head. He was not serious, knowing that Neron had suffered alot already, and that many people would have given up halfway in, but Neron was so close to finishing his transformation and he could tell. Then he thought for a moment. He had seen Neron changing... He was starting to care for people more, show respect, cut down his pride, it was like a fairy tale... Perhaps Neron had yet to see the good effects of his deeds, but every little thing that he had done that had been good had been just one more step to his destination.

Then he heard what Neron said. "What?" he cocked his head to the side slightly. He was a little more than curious. "Do you mean that you are actually fighting because there is someone else facing the same thing?" Poor dense Damion didn't make the connection. "Are you saying that you want to persevere so that you can help this other person?" He was in disbelief.

[Neron]

"No not giving up..." Neron's words were laborious and spaced. "All my friends I had...they tried to stay by me but....they died....all died...in my times of greatest need." His hand went to his stomach. The world about him seemed to be blackening, his vision was fading. "Perhaps Miriel, you..." His voice softened slightly. "Jaedon, it is only a matter of time before you are taken....from me.. it always happens. Ah.." He winced in pain as his raven hair covered his eyes from view. "Only..a..matter of time..."

His once impressive form curled into a fetal position as he tried to answer back to Damion's incredulous discovery. "Am I to much..of a demon for that? Perhaps.. I should give up...After all...no one would believe.. my change.." His lips curled into a sickening smile. "And for this person....I would..." His eyes closed as he tried to regulate his breathing to a more relaxed mode. But it was useless. It didn't take long before his breathing became short and painful. Memories came so rapidly that his mind no longer recognized the present, it was lost in the past. Strange twitching took to his form as indistinguishable mutterings came from his parched lips.

As if bad memories weren't enough his form started shifting, it seemed to flicker and meld into that of a dragon. Slowly though, the black dragon emerged, wings pinned to the side, to that the membrane could not be seen. Neron rose from the ground slightly, struggling to stand, but his eyes rolled back and he collapsed with a loud noise on the ground. IT was then that his wings unfurled. The plain matte black membrane down was laced with veins of silver shooting around like lightning. It was like his old stripes that he had, but now they only showed through his wings. The struggle had been long, days in length, weeks actually, but his form was almost unmoving besides a very shallow breath coming from the large form. It was finished.