Pink Pigtail Memories

She just stood there. And hugged herself. It was that emptiness again and it always bewildered her and by now she thought she should have been used to it.

The shadows that cast across the twilight shore were all in deep dark tones; crisscrossing the soft gray sands beneath a sky of forgotten dreams. Had it been so long, since they had walked these dark shores, since their passing had been witnessed by the stars? If she became really, really quiet she could almost, just almost, hear again the soft native Kaldorei, the sound of a crackling fire, the raising of a gentle voice offering a toast to the night.

Still and seductive eyes closed.

Had it been that long?

Had it truly been so long?

Is that why the beach was now empty,even the scuttling crabs and the slow moving snails gone? Only the silent roll of the surf in and out, the barest hint of rippling around stone and the ancient gray memories of piers that were.

Behind her, like a dream slipping in and out of the waking world, the forest of this dark shore were painted in sepia, drifting in and out like an evening mist. The shadows held its rememberances like a precious secret, such that once pink pig tails looked out across the sea as she did now, just ... just to watch the moonlight shimmer across the forever sea.

Beside her, the great felhunter stirred. So sensitive the crimson demon was to even the littlest hints of what barest mana remained, and even more so to disturbances, to something out of balance.

"Shhhhhhhhhh Zhaatom ..."

She reached out her hand, to rest it on the great beasts head, calming, quiet. Sometimes she was jealous, her curse to be the smartest, the sharpest of her small family. Sometimes, sometimes she had to admit, she wished she could live life as her little sister. But now, now was a time for quiet. Even Pizyap knew that, all it took was a purple eyed glance to cease his complaining. It was Mezzy ... Mezznuz ... that she worried for. They had been together so long, served together, and even now, even now she could not fathom what he thought, what he felt. But she knew, she knew, that all it would take is a hand upon his bracers, to remind him of who they were.

And more importantly, who they once belonged to.

"For a brief while, do you remember?

"Kind words."

Even the wind had vanished, upon this forsaken place.

"Why we are here ...

"On this shore ...

"On this empty shore ...

"It's not important.

"It never was."

Her curse.

For a long while she was quiet. All relative. But even for her, it was a long time.

"It is not the place you are. It is not even the getting there that is important.

"It is who you share that journey with."

A second moment of stillness.

"Mistress always believed that."

She just stood there. And hugged herself. It was that emptiness again and it always bewildered her and by now she thought she should have been used to it.

But then Disneri the succubus hugged herself tighter. Eyes still closed. She had to keep them closed. Closed tight.

Because demons don't cry.

"For a short while we shared our journey with Larisa too.

"And we are so much the better for it."