Persephane got up from her chair in a daze, looked at all of them, and thanked them for everything. As Persephane began to head for the door to leave the room, she turned and bowed to them, then turned back around and left the room. She stood right outside the meeting room door, trying to gather herself before she was finally calm and steady enough to leave that corridor and go to the main doors of the castle. As she was walking down that long corridor, her head was full of so many thoughts that they were bombarding her all at once and it was giving her a headache, which was making it difficult for her to focus on a single thought. She was grateful for their concern, not only about her well-being, but her role as the savior too, and her relationship with the Commander. After a moment of doing some deep breathing, she tried to clear her mind so that the jumbled-up messy thoughts would be quiet and could give her some peace, even if just for a little bit.
Once she was right outside the castle's main doors and standing at the top of the stairs, all those thoughts that she had pushed down suddenly burst forth and flooded her mind, which made her headache grow more painful. As much as she loved her family, she was frustrated by how they were making her feel, they made her feel like she was a child like they needed to keep tabs on everything she was doing and make sure to keep her out of trouble. After having that thought, she realized how ridiculous that sounded, because now it made her look like she was an immature child who was pouting due to her parents scolding her or telling her no she can’t have the thing that she really wants or likes. However, she’s an adult and could take care of herself and didn’t need them sticking their nose in her relationship with the Commander. All she wanted was to prove herself worthy of her role. These frustrating and angry thoughts hit her all at once, she yelled out of frustration and then turned into a purple and blue ombre dragon and flew off in the night sky.
As her emotions and thoughts grew out of control, she roared loudly and fiercely which echoed in the night. Persephane flew straight up into the atmosphere at a high velocity and released a huge burst of magical energy that caused a loud explosion. The sheer force of her speed sent out massive pressure which caused the ground to shake and rumble like there was an earthquake. She didn’t care if she woke anyone up at this point since she was feeling a tumultuous myriad of strong emotions. Persephane had never experienced these types of emotions or had these types of thoughts before in her life, so she was ill-equipped to handle them properly. Due to this, she hadn’t learned proper coping skills for this kind of situation. After letting out a few major roars and spewing some fire in the sky while flying, she decided to turn back around and head back towards the direction of the village while scouting for a large enough clearing where she could land. Persephane made sure that the clearing was also still far enough away from the village so no one could find her easily and bother her since she just wanted to be left alone to mull over everything.
After a few short minutes, she spotted a perfect clearing a few meters up ahead that was in the middle of a dense forest and had a nice small lake for her to rest by. It was right at this point that Commander Caijoonyung woke up abruptly, right after he heard Persephane's roars coupled with the loud explosion that came from her releasing those bursts of fire and magic. Not completely awake and still in a daze, he quickly got dressed, gathered his saddle and sword, and then ran out the door to his horse. Caijoonyung had a feeling in the pit of his stomach that something was going on but wasn't quite sure what it could be. Once he was saddled on his horse, he knew he needed to hurry and locate the source of the magical burst that sent tremors to the ground and made that loud roaring sound in the sky, which woke the entire village. He was still groggy from waking up so abruptly and struggled to wake up his mind so he could figure out how he was going to find the source of all the commotion when out of nowhere, his body was able to pick up faint traces of magic that still hung in the air. Caijoonyung used his magic to lock onto the lingering traces of the magic that was left behind which created a faint trail for him to follow back to its source. With that, he kicked his heels into the sides of his horse and rode off into the night following the trail of magic left behind.
While chasing after the trail, something deep inside of him was telling him that the source of this magic he was feeling and the sounds he heard, were more than likely Persephane’s doing. The trace amounts of magic that started off faint were getting stronger and stronger as he got closer to the source. He took a sharp right turn that opened to a large clearing in the middle of a dense forest which had a hidden lake in the middle of the clearing. As Caijoonyung approached the clearing, his horse began to freak out and almost threw him off his back. Caijoonyung pulled on the reigns to try and get the horse to calm down. He dismounted from the horse and walked him to some trees a little further back behind the clearing so that the horse wouldn’t be scared and run off. Once he was done tying off the horse to a nearby tree trunk, Caijoonyung slowly made his way back toward the lake with his hand on the hilt of his sword, when he stopped suddenly, startled by what his eyes laid upon, a dragon with the most beautiful purple and blue hues that had golden accents all along the edges of the body.
As he approached the dragon cautiously, he kept his hand on the hilt of his sword, not completely sure whether this dragon was actually Persephane, since he had never seen her transform into any of her other forms before. He was aware that she could do so since it was Persephane herself that told him about her ability to shape-shift, and he remembered how stunned he was to learn that about her, but he also thought how cool it would be to witness something like that. Caijoonyung was going to remain on his guard just in case he might be mistaken. He hoped that he was not mistaken, but as they say, better safe than sorry. He continued to walk slowly and cautiously towards the dragon until he was right next to it. Even as he was this close to it, the dragon did not move an inch. This was definitely strange. A fierce creature like this should have made some movement once he got into its personal space. He continued to come around the dragon, giving it a wide birth, until he could see that its head was propped on top of its front feet just staring out at the lake. Sensing that the dragon was not going to cause him any harm, he decided that it was safe for him to approach it and sit down next to the dragon. Several minutes passed and neither of them moved. Caijoonyung wasn’t sure if it would be okay for him to try and make conversation or if it would just be better to leave the dragon alone.
Feeling that nothing was going to happen and that this dragon might just want to be left alone, he started to get up off the ground to leave, but when he did the dragon lifted its tail to block him from leaving. Caijoonyung was startled by the sudden movement and turned to look back at the dragon, worried that it changed its mind and was going to cause him harm, so out of reflex his hand automatically went to grab his sword. The dragon didn’t bother to lift its head to look at him but instead looked at him out of the corner of its eye.
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“Please don’t leave Caijoonyung. Stay here a little bit longer with me. Please,” Persephane said in a deep rumbling growl.
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She tried her best not to sound intimidating, but in her dragon form normal speech doesn’t come out sounding like you don’t mean no harm. However, after hearing Persephane’s voice come out of the dragon’s mouth, Caijoonyung took his hand off the hilt of his sword and relaxed once he knew that it was indeed her. He lifted his left hand and patted her tail like he would if he were to pat her hands and give assurance.
Caijoonyung stopped patting her tail and turned back to sit down next to her. He turned his head and finally looked at her wholly and completely taking all her glory in. He noticed that her scales were iridescent and somehow two-toned as well, so it made the purple and blue tones shimmer, shine, and blend seamlessly. While staring at her, he was still unable to fully believe that the woman he was so used to seeing in human form could become this giant dragon lying right next to him. It was hard for his mind to grasp just how Persephane could go from a petite and voluptuous woman to this massive dragon form. It was going to take some time to get used to seeing her like this. Once again, they both sat there in an awkward silence, which was making Caijoonyung feel uncomfortable. He figured that he needed to figure out the reason Persephane was out here in the middle of the night, in the middle of the woods, and in dragon form and not talking. First, he thought that maybe something might have happened after they went their separate ways after dinner but dismissed that idea since he was the one who walked her to her home and saw her get inside safely. Then he got worried that maybe it was because of him, and he did something wrong without even realizing it and that is why she is upset. Trying not to panic he reviewed the events of their earlier outing and dinner and was fairly sure that he didn’t do anything to upset her or to cause her to be upset with him. All these thoughts were making his head spin and making his chest tight with worry. The only way to resolve this matter was to ask her directly and find the underlying cause of it.
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Looking at her with a strong resolve in his eyes Caijoonyung broke the silence first, “Persephane, as much as I enjoy spending this peaceful and serene moment here with you by the lake, would you please tell me what made you decide to come all the way out here in the dead of night? And why are you in a dragon form for that matter?”
The silence dragged on for a few more minutes before Persephane finally decided to speak up.
Persephane sighed and said, “I’m sorry to worry you Caijoonyung. I had a meeting with my aunts and uncles, you know the demigods, and let’s just say that they imparted a lot of wisdom and advice on me that, honestly, I wish they would have either given to me little by little or at the very least not all at once and especially not this late at night. I understand what they are trying to do, and I know they mean well by telling me everything that they did, but it only served to make me overwhelmed and distressed. Right now, my brain feels like a hot jumbled mess. I can’t make heads or tails of my thoughts. Everything is so scattered that I cannot focus on just a single line of thought, and it’s so frustrating!”
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Persephane let out a huge, exasperated sigh that caused large ripples to form in the water of the small lake. She was very conflicted, part of her really wanted to talk about everything that she learned from her relatives with Caijoonyung, but the other part of her was worried about how he would feel and how he would take the news once she told him everything that she learned at the meeting. How would he react once she tells him about imprinting? Would it scare him off? What if he doesn’t have feelings for her that way, then would it even matter? She wouldn’t want to force an imprint on him if there were no mutual feelings between them, regardless of whether it is something that needs to be done to fulfill her destiny. Even so, would he even be willing to be bonded to her for the rest of their lives?
Caijoonyung looked at Persephane with a look of concern on his face. He wanted to come right out and ask her what happened at the meeting with her relatives, but he wasn’t sure if she wanted to talk about it or if she was just needing someone to listen to her vent her frustrations. He decided that he would wait for a few minutes to see if she’d continue talking, and if she didn’t then he would ask her if she would be comfortable enough to talk about it with him, that way he could see if there was anything he could do to help her feel better.
Roughly 30 minutes had passed and Caijoonyung felt like he had waited long enough and was just about to ask his question when Persephane finally spoke up. She sounded tired and emotionally drained, you could hear it in her voice that you didn’t even need to look at her face to tell how she was feeling.
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“Caijoonyung, my relatives told me something important today, and I am still unsure whether or not I should let you know what they told me. I’m worried about how you will react once I tell you everything that they told me. I don’t want any of this information to make things complicated for you or for that matter, complicate things between us. This information might lead to you stressing out and that is something I don’t want to happen. However, there is a small part of me that feels like I should tell you since this pertains to you as well.”
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Hearing Persephane say all of this definitely made him worry. Granted not much, but still, he worried nonetheless. He wondered if the meeting he had with her family earlier in the day was like the one she might have had with them. If that’s the case, he understands why she is feeling the way she is now, because he felt the same way when he left the castle. Keeping that in mind he contemplated what would be the best way for him to approach this situation. He didn’t want to add more to her already full plate. Caijoonyung wanted to help her let everything out and get it all off of her chest so that way she would start to feel better. After giving it some thought, he felt that it would be best to face it head-on and not beat around the bush.
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