Drawn by InfectedWolf

***

"It's all right, dear, just--rest. You have been gone a long time..." the red Wildclaw soothed his mate, brown eyes filled with adoration, but just a little too wide, his manner erratic under a thin veil of calm. The black Wildclaw--Void--lay beside him, air whistling from her lungs in a facsimile of breath. The exposed bones and teeth on her face, the tattered state of her wings, the deadly stillness that radiated from her like the cold that suffused her scales--any reasonable dragon would assume she was dead.

And they would not be wrong. Or, rather, they would only be partially wrong. For Raucous, upon discovering his mate's passing, had done the impossible. It had taken him months of learning with those who lurked in shadows, those who would rather kill than have their names or faces known, making questionable deals with even more questionable entities, to acquire the power he needed for this one moment.

But it would all be worth it--was worth it--to see her open her eyes again. She looked at him, dazed, as though she were only half in this world, but he would bring her back, no matter the cost, in whatever form he could. "Who...what--" She cast her head about the room, breath fogging even in the warm air of his cave. "I don't remember--"

"Shhh, love," He hushed, stroking the icy scales of her face, "you don't have to remember. You just have to be." Shadows seemed to wreath the room, caressing the two of them. "Nothing else matters. Now, Void--" His claws gripped either side of her head, a strange light kindling in his slitted eyes as he brought his face close to hers, "--come back to me!"

***

Two dragons strolled through the twilight of another beautiful day on the Windswept Plains. One, bombastic and colorful, led the pair, his entwined arm pulling her along as he spoke of all manner of wonderful surprises to come. The other, gliding beside him, nodded absently within her sleepwalker's trance, though the first seemed not to notice anything awry. From a distance, the pair seemed nothing but ordinary, their long shadows stretching out behind them on their lover's walk. From a distance, passerby could not see the white bone which still shone from one's face, or the almost maniacal gleam in the other's eye. And from that distance behind the two, it was impossible to see just how deep the shadows writhed.

Part 1--Read Part 2 here~