Hello Everyone! New Chapter, sorry it took so long. As always, vote and comment below!

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The light danced and flickered before the creature's eyes. Heat basked the creature's face, causing pinpricks of warmth to run up its snout and cascade down through the rest of its body. The warmth made the creature want to huddle closer to the light, but it knew that smothering the light too much caused it to go away far quicker.

'Fire' the creature had to remind itself. That was what the light was called. At least, that's what it seemed to be called. The images in the light sometimes had 'fires' of their own. Then there were the creatures. The ones like itself, that breathed the same light. The raess, or dragons. The creature was a little confused as to which sound was the correct one. It only knew that it was what the humans called it when they brought food. It seemed to be what they referred to the creatures when they were together, as rarely as that happened within the flames. Mr Lee was often around them though, and that was what he called the creatures.

Now, the fire was showing one of the dragons. The large appendages on its back, its wings, or Leiss, moved up and down occasionally. Four spikey horns, or hyrss, protruded from the back of the dragon's head, and its long tail, qerss, moved and twitched within the fire. The creature found this a strange vision. Occasionally it found oddities like this, where there was a single dragon just... floating, as if on nothing. Most of the humans had other surroundings that they interacted with, but these dragons sometimes seemed to just be surrounded by... nothing. The creature wondered if they were trapped like it was, but even then it was sure that it would at least find some sort of footing.

Still, despite nothing seeming to be happening within the vision, the creature found it immensely fascinating. The dragon seemed so... free like this. No concern, no discomfort. Merely floating in endless nothingness. It made the creature's own wings twitch and rustle, as if eager to spread themselves. Instead, the creature huddled its wings closer, wary of this new and rather uncomfortable experience.

A sudden, loud, aggressive roar from the wall to its left caused the creature to leap to its feet in a fit of terror. A yelp escaped its mouth as it quickly fled to the opposite wall, pressing against it as the noise continued. It was... angry. A muffled growling, roaring, and clanging, that echoed all through the creature's home. It curled up as far away from the snarling as possible, trying to hide away in the now-growing abyss.

The fire in the centre of the enclosure was fading now. The creature's sudden movement seemed to have shortened its lifespan. All the creature could do was watch as the peaceful dragon disappeared with the flickering light, stuck as the abyss shrouded it once more.

"LET ME GO!" the words echoed through the enclosure, sounds that had meaning behind them.

It caused the creature's head to rise in surprise, staring at the opposite wall as the sounds once again turned into intelligible raging. Something was behind that noise, or someone. Someone who could make meaning with the noises, much like the creature had learned to do a while ago now. The words were also human words, but as the creature listened, the raging and snarling seemed much more dragon.

It lay its head against the ground as the Abyss once again blanketed it, simply listening to the snarling and growling. Eventually, it began to grow quieter, softer, until it stopped altogether. What replaced it was a much softer noise. A more vulnerable noise. One that caused sadness to well up within the creature. Still, it waited, not sure what to do except huddle in the opposite corner of the Abyss.

Eventually, curiosity got the better of it. The creature got to its feet and began to approach the sniffling noise. It was barely noticeable now. But the lack of noise only caused the creature's worried heart to reach out further. Whatever this noise was coming from seemed incredibly hurt, or sad.

As the creature approached the edge of the Abyss where the noise came from, it hesitated. The last time it had tried to communicate, it had been with one of the humans that brought it food. The sounds had seemed to scare the human, and it hadn't given the food. The creature had gotten very hungry then and decided to not try to say anything else. So, the words were stuck in its throat. It reasoned however that this was different. Whatever was behind the wall was sad after all. And it wasn't bringing food. Probably.

The creature cleared its throat with a grunt, deciding to go with the human language as that was what this strange being had spoken before, "H... Hello?"

The sad noises stopped, replaced by a scrambling. Besides that, there was no reply.

A little disheartened but unwilling to give up yet, the creature spoke again, "Hello!"

There was a pause, before, "Hello?"

The creature barely caught the word, as it sounded quiet and broken, like it had been cut into pieces and stitched back together. However, it was legible, and it caused excitement to quiver through the creature's body. The excitement was quickly replaced by worry however as it realised that the being on the other side required something else. It was a conversation after all. In the fire visions, the words often continued, replying to each other depending on what the other said.

The creature had to think for several moments, trying to find the correct sounds, "Who... you?"

Again there was a pause, before an angry snarl echoed once again, causing the creature to leap back in fear, "Who are you?"

The growling again caused a worm of fear to run through the creature's back. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all. Especially if this other being was going to be so terrifying. But it was angry before. Maybe something had happened to it.

"Answer!" the voice came again, causing the creature to rumble in unease.

"I..." the creature paused, considering the question. Who was it? Was this other being asking for something like a name? Like Mr Lee. But Mr Lee wasn't the creature's name. So, it couldn't say that. It frowned. The humans only ever called it dragon. Maybe that was who it was.

"I... Dragon," it responded, "Who you?"

The snarling stopped, "Dragon?"

The creature, 'Dragon', frowned. Did the being not understand? Why was it not answering the question back?

"I Dragon. Who you?" it repeated.

"I'm... TheeLei," the voice responded, seeming hesitant.

TheeLei... that wasn't a word that Dragon had heard before. Names were supposed to be strange though. Different words, specific words. Maybe 'Dragon' was the wrong word then for who it was. Maybe it was supposed to be something else.

"Are you... a dragon?" the voice, TheeLei, asked.

"...I... not sure," the creature responded, "Yes?"

The words TheeLei said back came rapidly, and in a completely different language, 'ciss cavss battss yiss jurss?'

Dragon didn't understand as much of the dragon language as it did the human one, despite finding the words much easier to say. Though even if the creature understood some of the words spoken, the meaning was lost on it. So, it replied in the language of dragons.

'Tavss iss thungss.'

There was a weary rumble, then another flurry of words in draconic that were even more difficult for the creature to understand than the previous, especially with them being so broken and muffled by the wall in between them.

'Tavss iss thungss,' repeated Dragon, emphasising that it did not understand anything TheeLei was saying.

"Aargh," TheeLei grumbled, "We speak human then."

"I understand more," agreed Dragon.

"I understand less," TheeLei replied, "Why not speak... Raess?'

Dragon tilted its head, taking a moment to switch the mixture of languages in its head, "I not understand... Raess.. well."

There was a shuffle from beyond the wall, "No... why not... understand Raess? If you are raess... I mean... dragon... you should know dragon."

Dragon looked blankly at the wall for several long moments, still struggling to grasp exactly what TheeLei was insinuating, "I don't know."

There was a sigh and a stretch of silence.

"Why... you... sad?" Dragon asked, figuring that it could now start to understand more of the noises TheeLei had been making.

There was another pause from TheeLei, before answering, "I trapped... hurt... scared. How you know I sad?"

"You make... sad noises... and scary noises. Make me feel sad."

"Oh..."

Dragon lay by the wall near TheeLei's voice. It didn't understand why, but being able to talk to something was filling some deep part of its heart, drawing out a longing that it had never realised it had had before.

"Are... you trapped too? Raess... Dragon, sorry," TheeLei asked.

Dragon looked around the darkness that was now surrounding it. It did... feel trapped sometimes, in the Abyss. When it was able to make fire, fire that stayed around, it didn't feel entirely as trapped. It was quite comfortable actually when the fire was around. And when the food fell. And when it was sleeping. It liked those times.

'I... trapped by... the dark. When... fire stays... or food comes... I not trapped."

Dragon could hear more shuffling from beyond the wall.

"Dragon... how long you in there?" TheeLei's voice stuttered.

"I... not understand?"

"Umm... Where you are... how long you there?"

Dragon frowned, trying to figure out exactly what the voice was saying, "I been... where I am... long time. Forever."

There was an inhaled audible gasp from the voice.

"You okay?" Dragon asked, the noise worrying him slightly.

"Yes," the voice quickly replied, "You been... there... forever? Not remember... parents? Sky?"

Dragon knew what a parent was. Mr Lee was a parent, to Mia. The sky... was something. It had heard the word before... but had never understood exactly what it was. All it knew was that the sky was 'up'.

"I know... Mr Lee. Don't know about... sky."

"Mr Lee," the anger in the words caused Dragon to shiver again, "He did this to you?"

Dragon found TheeLei's anger strange, "No... Mr Lee parent... see in fire. You see him too?"

Again there was a long silence before TheeLei spoke again, "You see... Mr Lee... in fire?"

"Yes... and Mia... and dragons... and humans... sometimes other things."

There was some whispered murmuring from TheeLei that sounded like the dragon language but was too quiet for Dragon to understand.

"You... speak quietly."

"Sorry Dragon... surprised," TheeLei responded, "Is that... how you know to speak? Things in fire?"

"Yes," Dragon replied.

"Huh..." a happier noise came from TheeLei, one that made Dragon's heart jump for joy.

"You happy now!" Dragon noted.

"Happy... found you. I think. If you... what I think you are."

"Oh... what am I?"

"Maybe a Tovaress... maybe. A fire seer"

Dragon tilted its head, "A Tovaress?"

"Maybe... not know for sure. If I see you... maybe..."

"Are you... tovaress?"

Again the happy noise came from TheeLei, "No... I simple raekykess. Ahh... girl dragon. You? Girl, boy? Can't tell by voice."

Dragon frowned, "Male... I think. I four horns?"

"Yes... you raekyess," the happy noise happened again.

Dragon allowed the same noise to bubble out from him, and it made him feel light. The Abyss suddenly seemed not so close.

"I raekyess and tovares?" Dragon said, his excitement growing. Whoever this voice on the other side of the wall, this raekykess named TheeLei, was, he was glad to have spoken up. It was difficult, but incredibly worth it. She knew about him as well. Knew of him. Now that he was talking... he never wanted to stop.

So they didn't. They continued to speak... for a very long time. And when they stopped, and Dragon fell asleep, he felt lighter than he had ever before.