Brianna
Shit.
He'd noticed the way she'd looked at the skull, and was now standing under it so she'd be forced to look at it. Clever bastard, she thought.
With a sigh, Brianna ran her hands through her hair, from scalp to tip, and looked the man dead in the eyes, unblinking. "A tit for tat, eh? Alright. I'll play along..." Licking her dry lips, the feline rose to her feet, and what had started out as her wetting her parched lips had turned into her chewing off any skin she could pull off with her teeth, breaking her eye contact with Zaeren.
Dragons.
"It's...not something I really like to talk about..." she trailed off, gripping the pendant at her throat so hard her knuckles turned white. Damn her curiosity. Damn this man and his mysterious aura. Damn her own weakness. But getting him to answer her questions...ah, sating that blasted curiosity of hers would be worth ripping open some old wounds on her heart.
Again she made eye contact with him, but for only a moment before her gaze rose to meet that of the dragon. Her tail bristled, and the crystal at her throat grew warm in her hand. Heartbeat quickening in her chest, beating so hard it felt like it would burst. Her pupils swelled in size, her eyes shining as she dredged up the memories.
"I grew up in a large kelahati settlement in the forest. I don't remember where, honestly, but I know there were lots of trees and a beautiful lake, with mountains close by where we'd hunt and gather herbs... I didn't have any family. It was just Mom and I, but she was really good to me, and everyone was so nice. I...I used to lay awake at night listening to my mom tell me stories of far off places my dad had been to, and she'd talk about how when I was older we'd go find him. I'd think about what he was like, what all those places would be like..." Her breath caught in her throat.
Brianna's eyes narrowed to slits as she continued, claws unsheathed and digging into her arm. "I was just a child when it happened. Gods, I was barely six when they came. The sky grew dark and it snowed ash as the dragons descended. There was so much fire, and the screams...gods, the screams..." Her eyes began to well with tears. "Mom told me to run. Gave me this necklace and told me to run as fast and as far as I could, but I was so scared," Brianna said, her voice cracking before breaking into a snarl.
"I watched that fucking monster eat her!" The snarl that tore from her throat wasn't human, her eyes still fixed on the dragon's skull above the mantle. Fangs bared, she continued. "I saw them eat the other villagers, snapping them up in their jaws, playing with them, tormenting my people!" Hot, angry tears fell down her cheeks, burning. Her hand released the pendant to grasp a fistful of her own hair, covering one of her ears as though she were trying to drown out the screams of people long since dead.
Her breathing caught in her throat again, rasping and uneven as she tore her gaze away from the skull. "There's nothing left. Nothing there but scorched earth and trees now, and all I'm left with is a head full of things I'd rather forget and this." In her anger, Brianna unclasped her shirt and let it fall to the bare wood floor, and gestured harshly to the massive scar on her left shoulder. Whatever left the scar had massive claws, and had torn into her shoulder, raking down across her left breast and down her ribs. It was an ugly, twisted thing.
"I hate dragons," she hissed, her eyes boring into Zaeran. "I want nothing more than to become strong enough to kill the bastard who did this..."
And then her anger melted away, her shoulders dropping low and the angry tears that had flowed down her cheeks were now replaced by those of sadness and loss. "I'm the only one who made it out," she croaked, "And gods, some days I wish I had..." She ran her hands over her face, rubbing away her tears. It didn't matter that she was shirtless in front of a stranger, or that she'd just ripped open the old scars on her heart, all that mattered now was she was tired and emotionally drained. There was nothing left in her, no anger, no sadness, only a sinking numbness that poked at her.
With a sigh, she fell backwards, landing on the floor with a heavy thud, and stared up at the ceiling, her hair spread out around her like a curtain. "I need a drink."
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