The Dragon Princess Will Stay Alive!

Small fingernails scratched into the sheets, burrowing for some sort of semblance of the cold rock beneath them. It was dizzyingly hot, but she couldn't gather enough strength to lift the sheets. The fever took hold of her like a dizzying, delirious mess. The flash memories of her wakings were mixed in just as easily with figmentdelusions, tied together at the seams by only the familiar brushing of her hair by fingers that were now strangely absent.

Sophia's irises snapped into awareness, though her eyelids stayed clenched shut. Smoke. The air was suffocating, bringing a cough to the base of her lungs—So much smoke. But did she really have to cough? It was beginning to hurt, even the little ones.

Her brain replayed the last of last memories—a murmur. She could feel a hand holding hers loosely. Warm, but not at all uncomfortably. Oh, her sister was still there.

Something changed in the crosswinds of the cave. The smoke changed directions. Air. She breathed gratefully.

S...?

She was too tired to ask. Opening her dried-shut lips was uncomfortable. Willing her eyelashes open, millimeter at a time, the dim light hit her dilated pupils, a familiar flash of long, lime white hair in the orange light. The firelight cast a halo around the shadowed form besides her. She couldn't make out her face beneath the shadow, and neither did sister react to her waking; she was the only one awake.

The little one's strained facial muscles relaxed. Her attentive eyes watched the familiar body rise and fall in slow, unaware breaths.... while she laid there.. Vague comfort quickly unfurled into anxiety as the color began to pick up in her cheeks again.

Sophia's lips contorted, b.a.r.e murmurs of whispers of a cry leaving her little throat. Her body ached, her throat hurt from coughing, she was hungry.

Hah!

Her breath hitched and she tried to move again. Her head slightly wobbled up and down as she twisted her body and tried to pull herself up off the ground with the muscle control of a toddler. Sweat dribbled down her forehead.

Despite her best try, she lost her measly stamina and collapsed the mere inches she'd accomplished back towards the ground, leaving her in in a less comfortable position. Sophia scrunched her brows, the beginnings of tears once again impending on her vision.

"Si..." she hissed with a little more than the exhale of her breath. Her eyes begged the unconscious figure huddled besides her for some sort of telepathic awareness, that some twist of fate would wake her up.

She weakly groped the air with the hand within her sister's, taking ahold of Sonata's larger pointer finger that was a little more separated from the rest of them. But she hadn't held it for seconds before it slipped easily through her weak grip and sweaty fingers.

"Mmmh.." she softly w.h.i.n.ed, weakly kicking her knees beneath the heavy cloak, her brows scrunched in babyish frustration. But no one was awake to hear her, and her contorted expression unraveled again. Her eyes were beginning to accustom to the half-light. They could make out the harder contrasts of her sister's darkened face beneath the shadow of her hair.

Sophia studied the only object of interest within her field of vision. The scales on one of her sisters cheeks were displaced from their skinlike formation, roughly twisted or pulled upwards along the line of a scratch that hadn't been there before. Her sister was wet, more so than Sophia, and she doubted she'd sweated it all, without a fever like hers. Had she gone out? There was also dark stain of blood, soaking almost the entire the right side of her body, dripping down and sticking to the long clumps of hair that flowed down her shoulders.

The tiny blond's eyes flickered wide. Her gaze darted down to her sister's left hand, covered in blood, much more than her own fingers she'd thought sweaty. Her vision snapped to her sister's right hand... arm... ah!

Huff...huff...

Her body trembled. An uncontrollable shake rocked her from the spine behind her c.h.e.s.t, resonating through her arms and ribs. Her breaths quickened, her wide eyes once again strained with tears.

"Whuh..."

Sophia's mouth opened wide into a peanut-like crying shape, but no sound. Her eyes blinked away tears after tears, she scrunched her brows tightly, and as if in war with herself her mouth opened wide to cry, but it was muted. Her labored breaths came quickly and hitched back like the hiccup for a cry that never allowed itself to come, over and over again.

Si....Sis?

And then her mouth closed. She blinked back her tears again, her small brows knit tightly her reddened cheeks squinting her eyes up in stubborn determination. On its own, her mouth once again opened for another cry, and she shut it again.

Si...

She stared at her sister with wide, pulsing eyes, her breaths coming quickly as the fear on her face seeped away. On their own, her breaths steadied and distances themselves. She stared unblinkingly at the bigger figure curled up besides her, her expression going pale and vacant. Unnaturally empty green eyes fixated on one person as they drained of the little flickers and readjustments of life, perfectly frozen little peridot gems on a completely unmoving, doll-like head. Slowly by slowly, that porcelain-like numbness spread through the body, like the intelligent life of it had retreated deep, deep within, leaving only the husk of a tiny, blond haired girl, who's c.h.e.s.t only rose and fell in the most necessary of movement.

Flickers of movement reflected upon the glazy whites of her reddened eyes, dipping across the sides of Sophia's frozen irises and then back again, golden flickers in the textured moss greens and lime yellows. It happened one, two, three times before her eyes budged from their frozen position, soullessly watching the flickering light that fluttered above her head. It half-circles higher and lower in the darkness, until it seemed to decide to draw nearer, and a tiny winged form settled upon her nose. The see-through dragonfly wings of the pixie slowed to a stop, and her brightly glowing body dimmed. The tiny lady leaned forwards and met eyes with her, but Sophia's expression didn't react.

The pixie's delicate wings swayed open and shut in question as the little girl did nothing. The wings picked up speed and the tiny form shot up again, circling above the feverish five year old.

Sophia watched through glazed-through eyes as it fluttered around and around. Her vision disoriented, and when it came back again there were more. Two, then three sets of delicate wings fluttered around and around the dark cave overhead, coming in and out of Sophia's range of sight. Golden glimmers of light winding around and around against the dimly lit rocks and stalactites, leaving vanishing trails of gold as they spun around and around.

A sinister chill patted Sophia's back. She redirected her waning and waxing view to the darkness around them in fear. Her breaths immediately picked up as her fever visions took in the form of a shadowy form looming above them.

Sophia breaths slowed to become as silent as possible. What was that in front of her, a monster from the woods? Had all her mental willing summoned something that would put them in danger?

The teenager's glazed eyes stared unreadably at her unconscious sister, her long, partially see through waves of teal hair draping down to mesh with the shadows of her semi-transparent shawls and sleeves. A spark of the fire twinkled upon the shiny, pointed silver dagger in her hands.

Sophia's weak shoulders began to shake like the air had gotten ten degrees colder. She opened and closed her small palms, trying to prop herself up as her messy hair fell onto her face. "No-" she barely rasped.

Flick. The girl's cold eyes snapped forthwith towards the source of noise. The jewelry pinned to her hair clanked against itself, the dried up flowers crinkled and shed stiff petals.

Sophia immediately snapped her eyes shut. She tried to breathe slowly, like she was asleep. Whether or not the intruder believed her, she didn't dare open her eyes to tell.

Nothingess. Time slowed down in the absence of information and the helplessness and fear. Was she in the same spot? Had she moved closer? Was she leaning over her face, studying her, or once again holding that knife as she stalked her unconscious sister?

Her thoughts and worried buzzed, and she wanted to cry. How long had she been standing there? Why was she standing with a knife? Was she there to hurt them? Could she escape, if she really pushed herself to scream at her sister to awaken, or was the stranger stronger than them?

Was the stranger the reason her sister was unconscious besides her, half covered in blood? She felt her heart beat in uncertain throbs. No. There wasn't blood on the nymph's knife, or on her clothes, or on the things around them. Blood stuck to things, like water and jelly and food, she knew that as much. And she would have noticed blood… she told herself. Her stomach churned.

But she just couldn't bring herself to open her eyes.

If she gave away her cover, what would happen to her? Would the intruder change her mind and leave them both alone, with the close call? Would it be scary, or would it make her angry?

She instinctually held in a cough, but immediately after questioned it. Did people cough when they were asleep? Was her stomach tensing to hold it in, could you tell? She'd have to watch herself do it in a mirror to know, or see Sonata do it to see if one could tell.

The gut wrenching sensation of a hand running up her cheek. A hot moistness seeped across her clenched eyelids. The long, thin fingers rubbed at the corner of her collarbone, which progressed to groping and scratching. She struggled to keep her breathing slow. Did it still matter? She was scared, she could barely think of anything else.

She was scared, she just wanted her sister.

She felt tears warm her closed eyelids. The small left hand that had been left just barely grazing the tips of her sister's fingers dug her tiny nails in; Tentatively, then increasingly imminently, till they prodded as deeply as she could bury them. She needed her to wake up, she really needed her help. She needed her sister, she just wanted her sister.

The stranger pinched roughly at her skin, tugging painfully at the small baby hairs in front of her ear—Until a stifled screech escaped Sophia's mouth, forcing her eyes open to meet the teal blue eyes of the fae before her. Glinting, apathetic plates in the darkness.

Neither figure moved.

The nymph released the child's cheek, holding her gaze unblinkingly she withdrew her hand. The blonde was frozen in fear, eyes still darkened by that wash of the abyss that dulled her expressions and blanketed the soul from her eyes.

Slowly, the unknown stranger docked her head to the side, tucking a curled hand under her chin. Her brows rose just noticeably, her facial muscles contorting to a smirk and her cheeks stiffening without her lips making the telltale shape. All the while, her eyes deconstructed the sickly princess just as coldly, leaking ice from the storm outside despite her gentle movements and graceful composure.

Malice, malice and something else she couldn't read. Malice that wasn't specifically aimed at Sophia herself, because the way the older girl was looking at her was a look she'd been given by many people, many times before.

A few more browned, dead petals fluttered down the nymph's back.

"A human?"

It didn't sound like the nymph's voice, and it took a moment to register that it was. An insecure, slightly croaky voice of a sound, played by a being that strung it along with the accent and intonation of someone poised for power, quiet as the phrase was.

Sophia's brows scrunched. Human? What was she talking about? Who, her? Deep down, some part of Sophia's base personality was indignant, but she didn't dare correct her. The child just stared worried-eyed until a cough rattled her c.h.e.s.t, making her grimace and squeeze her eyes shut in pain.

She felt the blankets being tucked over her again, then remembered it wasn't her sister doing it. The tiny dragon shivered away from those movements. The nymph stopped.

Cold...hot. She didn't know what she felt anymore. It was just uncomfortable, and thirsty. Her stomach and food pipes had that acidic dry feeling, like she hadn't eaten anything in a very long time. But at the same time, the thought of eating made her queasy. Her body tried to cough again, but she stopped it. She didn't want to. Her throat was sore, it hurt.

A cool hand pressed against her forehead. The fever was coming back in all its disorientation again, dizziness and nausea and dryness. Her adrenaline gave out like the cap dropped over an oil lamp. She knew she should still be attentive, but she couldn't, she really couldn't. Her c.h.e.s.t rose and feel quickly in retaliation.

Sophia struggled to open her heavy eyes, just barely catching the invading figure turning and going away. She didn't have the time to wonder why, to survey the cave for anything she'd done. The sensation of leaves invaded upon her shoulders and cheeks as the invisible weight bearing down on her head finally knocked her out.