the smell of weed is distinct, smokey and herbal and addictive. though, it smells what you associate it with, good times create a euphoric aftertaste to the earthy scent.

but euphoria isnt what dragonscale smells tonight, it isnt euphoria or the spicy smell of her lover, the person she always spent time with while high. usually they would. usually the phantom smell of spice and life energy was still there for her.

tonight, it burns a hole in her lungs with its absence. they hold their breath too long and choke on it.

and tonight the absence slowly fills with rot, the revolting scent of mold and gone bad meat and fruits in puddles of their own rotten juices, the smell of assimilations weeks after morphing.

is she hallucinating again? they already secured the fort, keeping herself isolated and safe so she can enjoy their high.. is the shadow in the corner really who she thinks it is?

its twisting skin, its bared ribs, its gnaring teeth, dripping, oozing, drooling, she doesnt know what.

she knows who it is yet still she cant help but ask themself, is it truly ghost? how did they get in? more importantly...

"how did you find me?"

the shadow snarls - chuckles? laughs. it leans down- they lean down to her height, stalking closer. theyve never imagined ghostpepper with legs before but theyre the first bits she really sees in the low light.

broken, mangled, twisting every different way and hobbling, how can it- they even stand? its them. she knows it is. that laugh..

the scent of rot is permeated by the smell of them, their pepper, as they bared jaws loom closer and closer to dragons body and she yelps back when they take a sniff of her.

their wings folded so tight its painful, the radius and metacarpals digging into her spine. even here, even like this, despite all her bravo, she could never hurt them, knowing its them.. its why she fled. its why she didnt make sure she burned them alive.

they dont seem perturbed by their yelps or flinchings back, instead they only step closer, their snout pointing lower, looking at them, really, truly seeing her... theyre eyes dont close for a second as they press their leaking nose to hers.

her breath catches and her hooves shake, everything in her body says that this is wrong... but relying on instinct has never helped her, its her mind thats kept them alive.. and right now they feel a calmness that embraces her soul.

its really them, its really ghostpepper, her wife, her lover, their partner in every time. she just has to figure out how to fix them.

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