Little Shade shivered and frantically pawed with little glassy ice talons at his chest,squeaking with soft icey wind like sounds. The female kept herself on his forehead,trying to cool him incase he had a fever but her wings shook as she was worried that it wasn't anything like that.

"Dragons are such fragile creatures, aren't they?" murmured a voice one night, as he drifted in and out of stupor. "Truly pathetic." It snorted. "I heard this one was in love with Prince Ash. It makes you wonder what Mab will do to him, once he wakes up. She's none too pleased with the dragon whelp being all mushy-mushy with her favorite son."


"Well, he certainly picked an inconvenient time to go all Sleeping Beauty," added another voice, "what with the Exchange coming up and all." It snorted. "If he does wake up, Mab might kill him for the annoyance. Either way, it'll be entertaining." The sound of their laughter faded away.

"But...no....please.....I...didn't mean..." 'for it...' He couldn't speak the whole thought,if he had even spoken it at all. The two ice creatures had given up and rested on his chest,patting the braking cracks that spidered deeper still into him.

An eternity passed with few distractions. Voices slipping by him, unimportant. Tiaothin repeatedly poking him in the ribs, her claws incredibly sharp, but the pain belonged to someone else. "They have forgotten you," murmured a voice in the darkness. A deep, familiar voice. Machina. Jason could see him, his cables folded behind him. He was watching him with a small smile on his lips. His silver hair glowed in the blackness. Wasn't he supposed to be dead...?

'What? What do you mean?' He mentally growled to him. Confused on why he was there...somehow.

Machina never responded. He faded away. Another eternity passed, or perhaps only a few seconds when, through the confusion and darkness, he felt a presence near the bed. Maybe Tiaothin, come to bother him again.

"Jason," whispered a voice, heart-wrenchingly familiar, drawing him out of the void. It was recognizable immediately, just as he realized it was a figment of his imagination because the real owner of that voice would never be here, talking to him. Ash? "Wake up," he murmured, his deep voice cutting through the layers of the darkness. "Don't do this. If you don't come out of this soon, you'll fade away and drift forever. Fight it. Come back to us."

His lips parted and only was able to push out a few words,joyful and hopeful icey squeaks coming from both icey little creatures on his chest. "Why....?" Little Shade bounced over and nuzzled his cheek as the female,I'll call her Fatespeaker,hopped over onto his throat and tried to get him up by poking painfully at his cracks that had only widened.

"Please." A hand gripped his, real and solid, anchoring him to the present. "I know what you must think of me, but" The voice broke off, took a ragged breath. "Dont leave," it whispered. "Jason, dont go. Come back to me."

His eyes opened,wincing as real light seared into his vision. Little Shade gurgled like a bubbling river happily as he noticed this and his frills widened. Fatespeaker poked more,not satisfied that he was okay yet.
Jason groaned a bit,shutting his eyes tightly before blinking a few times. He felt the hand and for a moment the cracks along his cheeks cracked more,small bits of glass falling. "I'm....dragon,heh...not Jason....just a mingled half...blood..." He muttered,looking up with a purple eye and a hazel eye,all the golden flecks drowned out. His wings shuttered and pulled under him,closer to his back,and his tail curled in shakily. His fingers twitched,so tempted to hold the hand on his own but...he knew better,or so he thought he did.

After he opened his eyes, he could see that the room was empty. Faery light filtered through the window, casting everything in blue and silver. As usual, the air was icy cold. A dream, then. As the mist that had been swirling around his head for so long finally cleared, it left him devastatingly awake and aware. It was a dream, after all.


He had come out of his lovely darkness for nothing. He probably wanted to retreat, to return to the oblivion where nothing could hurt him, but now that he was awake, he couldnt go back.