So often had the girl found herself alone, keeping away from the others as she sought to further discover herself, only to realise that she could not. A part of her longed for the place where she’d been born and raised, whilst the rest of her could think of going nowhere else other than where she currently was. It was, slowly but surely, becoming her new home; settling in was still difficult for her but, with the passing of recent days, the young dragoness decided that she would make herself far more available to the pack than she’d previously been. That vow, made only to herself in the silence of a cloudy night, was the one thing that pushed her to seek out her sister after the eldest girl’s voice reached her ears. Pushing herself up from her resting place, the lamb set off to locate the other Draconid, her nerves flaring to life as she wondered what sights and insults might await her.

After walking for a decent while, Kaori was able to see the silhouette of her sister, which did little to ease her worries. The other child had grown, as had she, but this she looked passed and pushed onward, the distance between the estranged siblings lessening inch by inch until there was but the length of a vulpine left between them. It was there that she stopped and stood in place, mouth kept shut whilst her eyes roamed her sister’s face, wondering what it was that she wanted.

There was a certain type of numbness that the young dragoness had expected to feel upon reuniting with her sister, the individual that forced her to leave her home behind—but the opposite started to bubble to the surface. Kaori did not feel numb, nor was she happy or excited to see her elder sister again. No, in fact, she was furious. Several times had she been forced to swallow it down, to bite her tongue and continue staring as if there wasn’t a fire raging within her, only for it all to come rushing out the second Airi opened her mouth.

“Hontōni kinisuru...?” she asked, her tone harsh and not the least bit befitting of the girl. “Anata wa watashitachi zenbu o satta! Īe sayōnara, anata ga mada ikite iru to iu chōkō wanai, nanimonai!” For as angry as she was, she was also hurting. This hurt, however, was not something that she could properly translate through either her words or her gestures. It was a feeling that she didn’t quite know how to handle, just the same as her anger was, for the lessons of her childhood had never covered such things. Kaori was not a vessel, she had not been born one and would not be made into one, and so she had never undergone the lessons to perfect self-control—she was not her mother, she could not filter everything out and approach things from a logical standpoint.

Trembling, she took a daring step forward, only for her eyes to betray her as they revealed the truth behind her advance: to find answers, not to bring harm. “Watashi wa anata o mitsukeru tame ni ie o denakereba naranakatta,” revealed the lamb, her voice considerably softer but, still, lacking forgiveness. “Shiori wa watashinohaha to issho ni tomatta ga, watashi wa—” There her voice fell, her throat dry and scratchy whilst her tongue felt swollen, the ability to speak no longer something within her possession. Again, she stared at her sister—the eldest, the vessel, the prodigy, the favourite—defeated and tired, her energy drained from the sudden outburst of negative emotions.

Although the sudden shift in emotions should have thrown her off entirely, it had only just barely done so. Some part of her had expected a change to come, unable to be fooled into believing that her sister might care at all about her or their family. Always had Airi lacked the same spectrum of emotions that the rest of them possessed, so why would that have changed during her time spent away from them? Still, the realisation that her sister cared not just a little, but actually not at all, left her grasping for some sort of hold on herself. The ridge of fur along her dorsal raised, yet her expression remained sorrowful—a contradiction of feelings, for the girl could not properly sort through them all.

Finally, after allowing for Airi’s words to hit her, the dragoness asked, “Naze...?” Why was she the way that she was? What had happened to make her so cruel? “Naze anata wa ki ni shinai nodesu ka?” she proceeded to ask, unable to figure it out on her own. “Naze anata wa ki ni shinakatta nodesu ka? Watashitachi no darenotameni?” It didn’t make any sense. Their mother had never expressed her love for them through traditional means but, at the same time, she’d always made sure that they knew she was there for them—in her memories, that is. Asterr had loved them each as much as she could, as well as had raised them together, so why was it that Airi had turned out so… so awful. “Naze anata wa watashitachi o nikunde iru nodesu ka?” asked the middle child, equally curious as she was fearful of the answer.

The longer she listened to her sister, the greater her anger grew. They were not weak, for their lineage simply would not allow it. This she thought to say, but held her tongue as the other continued, dismissing their history as nonsense; this, simply put, was unforgivable. Each word spoken drove deeper the wedge between them, separating to two beyond what might be repairable. And for this reason she ignored the wounds of her sibling, focusing solely on her slandering of not only the young dragoness, but their family as a whole.

“Watashitachi wa yowai wakede wa arimasen,” was the first declaration to leave her mouth, voice unwavering. “Anata wa ryū ni se o mukete yowaidesu—anata no kazoku.” The words, as simple as they were, were all she could allow herself to say. And after having spoken them, she stared long and hard at Airi, hoping that she might realise the error of her ways. Yet, she waited for not long at all, shaking her head shortly after speaking and then moving away from the other Draconid. Lest she be stopped, the lamb intended to walk away from the other girl, unable to bring herself to even look at her for a second longer.