Darksight

With a gentle tap of her brush, Darksight tipped the excess blue paint onto the palette, watching as the colors seeped into the wooden surface of her palette. She turned back to her white canvas, its edges stretching to the ends of the easel. She sighed, a thousand images of ideas flickering through her mind. A sea? The moon? Yes, that’s it. The moon. The soft glow lighting up the forest, the same moon that they dreamt under.

True love never came easy for Darksight. Nor did friendship, to say the least. She found it hard to mingle, hard to talk, hard to keep a conversation going. The only things that seemed to keep her sane were the swift strokes of the brush, the plasticky smell of paint, and a newly-made canvas. She swiped the wooden paint brush across the coarse fabric, the brush leaving a wet trail of dark blue. Another stroke, for the suitors that pestered her, merely attracted to her beauty and not her real self. She pushed the paint in harder this time, memories of being stared at oddly whenever she let out a booming laugh. Her friends often judged her for her contrasting personalities, never really bothering to ask if she was okay.

It was always “keep it in, Darksight” - mask your personality with daintiness. Darksight forced herself to abide with her own rules; be lady-like, elegant, polite. Smile kindly. Do not be loud. Speak softly, and only when asked. This way, you might be able to find a companion...but she was tired. It wasn’t working. Why couldn’t she be herself once in a while when outside? She’d managed to keep this demeanour up for ages, but it only attracted dragons who wanted to be with her for her looks. They never bothered to get to know her. With each passing day, it seemed like staying at home to paint was the better solution. Alone.

Darksight imagined what being in a relationship would be like. No judging, a dragon that she could be comfortable with. Warm cuddling, tail twining, little presents she would treasure. What would it be like? Long conversations, comfortable silence. She longed to be with somebody who would understand her. Darksight covered half the board with paint, layering the strokes with varying shades of blue. At the very centre, she flicked on tiny specks of white, leaving a generous space for the moon.

The moon.

One night, she had stumbled out of her home, unable to sleep, dizzy from insomnia. The cool, fresh air filled her lungs, invigorating her steps as she padded quietly through the paths of her clan ground. Hazy mist wrapped around her like a veil, making her feel as if she was dreaming, a space of altered reality. Moonlight fell gently onto the grounds, illuminating the paths. She walked on, shaking away old sleep. As she staggered through the dreamy haze, she collided into something scaly, bringing out a panicked screech from the thing. Darksight flailed her paws in the air helplessly, about to hit the damp earth, before strong arms caught ahold of her.

Darksight’s first instinct was to shove the arms away, but she began to sink deeper into the arms’ warmth, trying to enjoy it, before they pushed her up and away from themselves. She frowned, looking up to see a towering Imperial, an impish look playing on his face. He wasn’t the best-looking she had seen, with his funny snout and unproportionate eyes. “Sorry,” she muttered, feeling her face flush, the drowse from the inability to sleep fading away. Why did I even try to rest in his arms? Stupid Darksight. Stupid. She couldn’t look into the dark dragon’s ice-blue eyes, a tickle of butterflies rising in her chest. The Imperial laughed at her strained expression, his eyes crinkling with no hint of awkwardness.

“Nah, my bad. I’d usually be able to spot someone from afar before they land on me.” he smiled at Darksight, who shrunk deeper into her scales. She swore she had seen him before, but just didn’t know when. “Moonclaw. I would usually introduce myself before tripping them,” Her eyes widened, taken aback by the sheer informality of this dragon.

Landing a playful punch on the dragon, she exclaimed, “You meant to trip me?” Then she bit her tongue in disappointment. She’d forgotten to be dainty! Then the thought of just being herself ate away that idea, and the feeling of ease crept up on her. Just this one moment, I will make this exception.

Moonclaw burst out into laughter again, opening and closing his wings in excitement. “Maybe.” He turned around, as if looking around for somebody. “It’s late, I’ll walk you home,” he continued, causing Darksight to freeze in place. A...a walk home? She dug her paws deep into the mush soil, feeling it squelch under her shaking claws. Nodding, she hobbled after the new, strange dragon, who had already started to walk back to where she’d come from.

As they neared her den, Moonclaw twirled his tail around hers, smiling softly. “Goodnight,” he shuffled away, leaving Darksight standing alone in her doorway, bathed in the moonlight and shock at the sudden touch. “I’m Darksight by the way! Thank you!” she stumbled through her words, unsure of what to say. The dark-colored Imperial turned around, bobbing his head in reply. She had never felt this feeling before, this ease and genuineness that seemed to radiate off the dragon, making her relaxed, allowing her to let her guard down. And despite his not very satisfactory figure, he had this kindness that Moonclaw could sniff out. Grinning to herself, she tumbled into her covers, falling into a dream of meeting Moonclaw again, into a blissful sleep.

The brush made a swooping sound as she twirled it on the canvas, eyeing her newly-painted moon doubtfully. Something was missing. Darknight squinted at the painting, trying to figure it out, but her mind drifted back to the second time she met Moonclaw.

Darksight tapped her foot on the grass, waiting for him to arrive. A sudden “tip-tap” behind her indicated so, and she whirled around in anticipation, her eyes searching for the Imperial, Moonclaw. He took slow steps toward her, a sense of ease emanating off him. “Greetings, Darksi-”

Moonclaw fell to the ground, rolling over the fluffy grass. He immediately sat up, coughing up soil. Darksight and him locked eyes for a moment, before she burst out in uncontrollable laughter. “Below you!” she giggled, pointing at a thin piece of thread that was suspended above the ground, tied across the field and supported to two twigs on the opposite ends of the path. “You-” From the ground, Moonclaw’s eyes narrowed, before he lunged for her, making Darksight squeal in alarm.

They both fell to the ground in a heap, chuckling away in the silence of the night. Darksight had never laughed so hard before, and seeing her new friend fall for her trap made her guffaw even harder. The same feeling she’d felt on the first night she had met him rose up in her chest again, the tickling of a thousand little butterflies flitting in her body. She felt like herself. She was being herself. And this made Darksight content.

Darksight colored the whole canvas black, blending the hues with the lighter shades of blue to make the pearly moon stand out. She took a step back, tilting her head as she inspected her almost-finished painting. Her mouth pulled into a smile of remembrance, an idea popping up.

She remembered when he first came into her den, he had knocked over a tin of paint. Red paint splashed the walls of her cluttered home, making her cozy home look more like a crime scene, the starking, striking red a match for blood. Darksight stared at Moonclaw, aghast and at a loss for words. They both stood there, frozen, watching as the paint trickled down onto the floor, the synthetic smell wafting around her den. Moonclaw extended a paw and released a bolt of ice, which melted instantly and washed away the paint, before materializing into frozen blocks of red paint, which clinked into the tin of paint before melting to become liquefied again.

“Solved,” he gestured to the wall, which was spotless as if nothing had ever happened. Darksight rolled her eyes, before picking up her paintbrush with nervous paws. “I want to teach you how to paint.” She gripped the paintbrush tighter, afraid of what he would say. The past few days were a blur of meetings at night with Moonclaw, the not-pretty dragon yet one with an amazing personality. Darksight barely got sleep due to their meetings, and was too shy to tell her friends about him until...probably never. They wouldn’t say much. “Another suitor?” they would start grimacing, and then the conversation would drift away from her to how the many suitors pester them too.

But Moonclaw was different. He wasn’t a suitor, he was a friend. He was a dragon that could let loose with Darksight, which seemed so hard to find in her society. Besides keeping it in, putting a front, it was truly to fit in too. That day, Darksight had shook her head, getting up from her bristly stump of a chair. She then trudged away from her friends, mind settled. Marry him, she would.

“Teach me to paint?” he stood, taken aback. Darksight felt a smile tug at her lips, and she nodded, before starting to splash the canvas with a collage of colors, painting the canvas with happiness. “Watch,”

They sat in silence, the sound of soft scratching from the brush filling it. After a few hours, it was done. Darksight grinned as she took the canvas off the easel and handed it to him. “That’s the moon. That’s me, the darkness around it.” But below it stood a Guardian and an Imperial. It was them.

“It’s for you...I really like you a lot and um-” Darksight was interrupted as Moonclaw put his head gently on hers.

“I like you too.”