Aurel

Aurel's wandering gaze meandered once more to the form of his sister where she sat not far from him, encompassed by a bed of green ferns and overseen by the looming boughs of a great oak. There was a pleasant expression on her face; not quite daydreaming, but not quite present either. Aurel's claws folded anxiously over the top of each other, for there was more to the scene than the monotonous drone of insects and peaceful summer breezes.

He watched as his sister idly prodded a large beetle, sending the small creature scurrying as Monarch donned a wistful grin. Wistful for what, Aurel often wondered, for he knew his sister carried no memory of her past. Not even him, her beloved brother, cursed to watch this stranger in his sister's skin. Her decline into madness had been fearsome and terrifying, but that was Monarch, his sister.

He relived the day they reunited often in his dreams. He would never forget her blank stare, her polite smile, her disinterested mannerism. She had seemed to remember a piece of him, perhaps. She remembered he had loved him, but for Aurel, well... that simply was not enough. He missed the dragon of his youth who had led her brother into the Godswood and shown him the great variety of carnivorous plants and animals (violent fauna had always been her favorite). He missed the sister who would swear harm by any that wronged her brother, misguided as her violence might be. He missed her heart-felt greeting when he returned home, and her stories that were likely highly fabricated to boost her ego but fun tales nonetheless.

Now remained only a shell of Monarch, a hatchling in a dragon's body playing with beetles as the summer sun dipped below the horizon in a cloak of molten gold. Aurel allowed a sigh as he looked away, as lost in his memories as Monarch was lost without them.