Faramir

"You cannot spend all of your time alone, with your nose in books and in paper. You should go out, meet new dragons."

"By the eleven…" Shutting her novel, she crinkles her brows. "I go out plenty, father, as the outside is my greatest comfort. Have you forgotten? I am grown now."

"Set in your ways as ever, I see." Starcast blows thin tendrils of smog out of his nostrils; pearl wrapped in his tail, he accompanies his daughter in her space, sitting next to her as she bitterly gazed upon her mountains of books.

"I will go outside, but I prefer you not come with me."

Starcast furrows his eyebrows.

"Why?"

Faramir flicks her ears, shaking her mane slightly. Her eyes meet him.

"As long as I am pure, you will seek a mate for me. I'm not interested in having a clutch of my own, ever." She looks away, clearly uncomfortable at the thought.

"I—"

As he spoke, Faramir stood. She lightly pushed him out of the way with her wing, heading toward the exit to the hobble just across several feet.

"That can't be the reason for my siblings and I, is it? Nothing more than an attempt to keep the lineage going... Pointlessly? Like an absorbed monarchy?"

She speaks heavily, ears against her neck.

"That isn't true, Faramir."

"Is that why I haven't seen my sister for so long?"

"You're like my mother." Starcast chuffs, following her from behind as she finally sets foot on the ground outdoors. They able their way out of clan keep, with no true destination picked yet.

"You speak a lot about her."

In the hollow's dense, fungi-filled forest, she finds herself digging through foilage for delicate alchemy ingredients. Starcast watches quietly, memories of his old clan running through his mind. He grew up in the Sunbeam Ruins as a hatchling. His relationship with his parents was so-and-so, but his mother was very memorable.

"You look just like her." He mumured, "... It's impossible not to think about her when you are so alike. Endearingly, Faramir. She was the same. Having a family wasn't her focus. She seemed troubled. Much like you are."

Faramir looked over at him, plants tucked in her hair for easy storage. She looked into his sad, yellow eyes. Lost. It was interesting to her, her father having grown up in a direct faction of the Shadow flight. Why would he come here? She never got that. The Light flight seemed so high up in their heads with how great their home was, why would one come down here? Have his children here?

"I will not have hatchlings of my own. Just because grandmother did, it doesn't mean I will."

Starcast stared longingly. Mother wouldn't like my insisting. She deserves a lineage, she would want Faramir of all her descendants to have a beautiful clutch to save our dying family... Wouldn't she?

"I find it hard to think she could be in my situation and find herself with a brood of hatchlings, but I guess with our name so faint, it makes sense." Faramir did feel sympathy for that cause. "But we still have my siblings. Maybe Usha will have a clutch of her own soon. If only I knew."

That hurt.

"Mirmir, it wasn't my decision."

"I don't care. It was mother's decision. You should have stopped her."

"Your mother is a fantastic leader, Mirmir, I know sending Usha off was for the best... We can always see her sometime."

The young pearlcatcher's eyes fogged a little, trotting idly into the hollow. Starcast was inclined to follow.

"I am grown now. I make my own decisions. You do not control me, and you do not puppet me. Grandmother doesn't puppet me. I've never even met the woman."

Starcast stopped, Faramir avoiding eye contact by digging through some reeds.

He sighed. All of his childhood was racing through his memory... Thinking of his mother. Is this what she would want?

Faramir was the pride of his lifetime. The aged dragon reminisced; he knew if he lost everything he had back where he grew up, he had Faramir now. A true piece of his mother, and his mother didn't even know. She... Did not know Faramir existed. He hasn't spoken to her since he changed flights. His pride and joy didn't care about Belle, the reason for Starcast's desperate attempts to keep their lineage alive. I get it... I get it...

Faramir didn't want to feel like a mindless chicken, laying egg after egg. She wanted to explore the world and have a good relationship with her family.

"I'm sorry, Faramir." Starcast sighed, only just now tuning back into the real life again. He watched as she stared into the forest, curious of what was beyond. She turned to look at him.

"If anything, you caring about your family shows I didn't do it all wrong, so... There's still a good father in me." The joke was painful but it was light. "— You will meet the family I've been so anxious to protect. I think...by mother should deserve to meet you."

Her beauty was always a curse to her, she felt. She'd never be able to escape the whines and howls of those wanting her to preserve her bloodline, but this looked like a promising change.

"That is long overdue, but it would be nice. I want to see Usha and Sicklespike again... I haven't seen them since we were hatchlings..."

"I know." In her moment of stillness, Starcast ambled over to her and sat to her side again. She stared into her pearl, in what she was shining idly. It was so clear, it reflected her heavy thought projecting through those darling, purple eyes.

"I will talk to mother."

"I would like to be alone now, please, father."

Leaving her alone out in the wilderness sounded like a terrible idea to him, but she'd... Probably be fine.

"... Okay... Don't stay out all day. Come back before dark, please."

I'm an adult, but okay.

Faramir shrugged and nodded. Watching as he slowly walked the direction they came, looking back occasionally when he thought he was far enough for her not to notice. As he disappeared into the darkness of the woods, Faramir absorbed the soft music of the forest.