BRIGHTNESS

Nothing could stop her.

It was the end for Jade Mountain Academy. For Visioner.

Her soldiers were almost complete. A total of nine-hundred eighty-seven stone soldiers twice the size of a full-grown dragon stood before her, radiating strength and fierceness. 

She was invincible.

Something sparked the corner of her mind. A sort of...warning? 

But could a warning taste this good, of oranges and starfruit and mango and Tamarin?

Tamarin...

It snapped her alert. She held up a sharp stone hard, hard enough to draw a drop of blood from her talons.

There was a cold, musty sort of scent wafting in her nose. Like a damp cave, of stale stars and skeletons and graveyards of fallen raindrops.

She looked behind. There, a NightWing stood quivering before her.

Next to him was a RainWing she never expected to see again.

"Brightness!" Tamarin sounded out of breath. She sounded so strange. So...heartbroken. The feeling of desperation smashed against her skull like lightning. "I'm- I'm so sorry. I'm sorry for everything. Brightness, don't do this, please...I'm so sorry."

"Tamarin?" Brightness asked. "Tamarin?"

A sad little smile appeared on her beautiful snout. The blind RainWing took a step towards her, hesitantly, before throwing her wings around Brightness.

Her embrace was warm, warm like the feeling of the sun on her back on a sunny morning. Nothing like the stabbing coldness, the empty feeling of being all alone, separate from the others. Brightness could feel Tamarin's irregular, nervous heartbeat, her heavy breaths as she caught her breath.

It felt...

Terrible.

No, no, no, no, no. This...no. 

It was as if the entire world swallowed her whole. 

How could Tamarin be so happy, so full, so amazing, when she was so broken, so cold, so alone?

No, no, no, no.

It was as if all the moon and stars where against her. 

This will never...I will never-

I will never have this feeling ever.

TAMARIN

She could feel Star's hopeful stare at her back. Her wings tightened around Brightness.

"Brightness, I-"

Tamarin gasped as something sharp pierced her heart. She felt her chest with a talon and realized a stone shard was imbedded deep in between her scales. The sickening stench of blood- her blood- filled the mountaintop.

A single tear escaped Tamarin's eyes. This would how she would die. Killed by the dragon she loved the most in the world.

She was already feeling faint. The pain was fading.

And- miraculously- she could see. The blood-splattered NightWing standing in front of her, purple eyes unreadable as her crimson talons tightened.

A final gift- and curse- given to her in her final moments.

"I despise you," Brightness says emotionlessly. 

She could feel her time running out. But she was not done yet.

"Brightness," Tamarin rasped. "I- I love yo-"

Her mind went dark as her heart finally stopped.

BRIGHTNESS

The last thing she had said to her was "I despise you".

The last thing she had said to her was "I love you".