#(oc) daeodon

In the pouring rain outside he'd screamed for Daeodon to just kill him. He'd fought his wounds being see too until all the fight he had just evaporated and the tears began to flow until they two evaporated into those solemn whimpers.

Daeodon paced the chamber beyond his bedroom, his wings ached with the need to fly away from this mess, his mighty claws with the need to end it with violence. Static itched through his mane and lightning struck outside the den. He needed to do Something, but what that something was remained a mystery to him as every thought that tried to piece itself together instead tied itself up in knots.

He turned to begin pacing back the way he came, but saw that monster beside the doorway.

His heart thudded with that same painful hope the man's mockery of a visage always seemed to fill him with before his mind could catch up.

"Go back. I'm not ready to deal with you yet," Daeodon snarled,

"Too bad," the man snarled back, his hooves clacking against the stone floors as he approached, "I want to go to the village on the other side of the forest. So either take me or let me leave on my own,"

"No, Go back,"

"Fuck you, just tell me how to get out of here, so I can be on my way,"

"No, There's monsters-"

"Shut up, I know there's monsters, I know the forest is a fucking death trap because of the storm you're causing. I don't care. I'm not staying here and I'm not going home,"

"You ungrateful brat, I could kill you-"

"But you won't. You've already proven you're not good for it. So, let me go either find a monster who actually will or get to the village where- I don't know. I'll figure something out once I'm there,"

"Is your death wish truly that strong?" Daeodon expected him to step down. To finally obey and return to where Daeodon didn't have to look at him.

"Yes," The firery resoluteness of that single word felt antithetical to the meaning it carried.

Daeodon tried to find something clever to say in response, but instead all he could ask was "Why?"

"Why would you care?"

"I don't. I'm just curious. You come to fight a dragon wearing the face of his long gone love, hoping to die. I want to know why,"

The man shifted, his arms held tightly crossed against his chest as he seemed to argue internally with himself,

"Because, There's no better option for me. Happy now?"

"No, Stop being cagey and explain yourself,"

"I don't have to-"

"I'll take you all the way to the village if you do," Daeodon cut him off. It was a win win in his eyes, the man would gone, and he'd have his answers.

The man stopped his protest, his eyes calculating as he carefully picked his next words, "Give me something worth selling and I'll tell you why I look like him too,"

"Deal," Daeodon nodded towards the lounge he'd kept since the days of his lover living with him, "Take a seat and get talking,"

The man did, settling down as he picked his words, "You've made it rain constantly for all of these decades because of what happened to Tahir, right?"

"They took away my sunlight, so I took theirs, yes," Daeodon confirmed.

"Yeah, the priests tried to resurrect him but it didn't work. So, they decided to reincarnate him," he gestured to himself with a sour look, "That's me. I think they failed though because besides looking like him I don't think I'm anything like him. So, sorry, your sunlight isn't coming back anytime soon,"

"Fools," Daeodon growled, "How dare they besmirch my beloved's memory like this,"

"Yeah, yeah, shut up and let me finish. They raised me to be his replacement, and made sure I spent my entire life knowing I'd be wed and sacrificed to the same beast that's murdered all but one of his brides... I got fed up with it all. Always being compared to the actual god of love and beauty gets old real fucking quick, and if I failed to be him, either you killed me like you have all the others or leave me to the rest of the beasts. And if I wasn't a fuck up and you accepted me then that would just mean I'd be even more Stuck in his shadow. Filling his place in your bed and forced to pretend I'm him every waking moment lest you drown everyone again.

"I Didn't care to wait for our wedding to find out what you'd do, so I just, took the sword and ran when they weren't looking. If you killed me I'd be free, if I killed you I'd be a hero who stopped the rains, but I knew I had no chance against you. It was just the quickest route to the same end, " he shrugged, as though everything he had just said was normal.

"And now that I haven't killed you, you're going to try to start a new life in the other village?"

"What else is there for me to do?"