Pana

The embodiment of Pandora's box, Pana carries a burden so terrible and lonesome.




When it happens again, Pana makes his way back to the steppes. Eventually, lush and windswept greenery pales until he is surrounded by shades of gray.

"Back so soon?" Monochromatique greets wryly.

Pana sighs. "These secrets are impossible to hide."

She studies his shimmering, opaline patches. They flash orange-pink-yellow, winking like eternal sunsets... or sunrises. A silent but irresistible siren's call to the curious. Authors, philosophers, scientists, even curious hatchlings line up like ducklings just for the chance to take a peek. They'd flocked to him in record time and it had taken a fair amount of agile maneuvering to escape them.

Pana complains, "They seem to get more persistent with every passing day. The things I've been offered in exchange for these secrets..." He trails off, too troubled by their greed and ambition to finish the thought aloud.

"Why not write them down?" she suggests with a frown. "Rid yourself of them."

Pana shakes his head. The secrets are a terrible burden, true, but written down and let loose in the world is a terror that keeps him awake at night. "And risk dragonkind repeating the cataclysm of the Second Age? No. I cannot trust that we are less vulnerable to hubris than those who destroyed themselves."

Monochromatique nods once in defeat. It is not greed, Pana knows. She just wants to help. Perhaps because she cannot help herself.

"Come closer," she orders. "I'll draw out some of the vibrancy but, really, you should have Rend open up some uncharted caverns for you."

"And hide myself away? Like you do?" Pana surveys the gray garden, carefully grown and lovingly tended by Aeron and then selflessly given to Monochromatique for her powers to leech of color. The last time he'd been here, the roses had still had a bit of a blush to them. Red is always the last to fade.

She's not happy with his assessment, but she is too honest to argue. "Yes. Hide. Like I do."

"One day, you'll have full control of your powers," Pana says, offering the platitude like a golden reefprince on a platter.

"One day," she agrees, accepting.

It takes a little more than a day spent snuggled together for Pana's flashing colors to dull. Monochromatic sees him off with a friendly nuzzle.

Pana tells her, "I'll see you soon."

"Hopefully not too soon," she jokes.

He chuckles even though he knows it will be soon -- if not very soon -- but perhaps next time he'll be able to convince her to come on his travels with him. If she could learn to focus her magic on him, he wouldn't be inundated at every turn. Besides, it would do her some good to see the wider world and Pana thinks having a companion could be nice. Quite nice.