Cassiopeia

WARNING:Small attempted suicide! If you are uncomfortable with this DO NOT READ. (I'm not even sure if what happens counts as attempted suicide but just to be safe I'll slap this here)

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“Cassiopeia, my little queen. You’re going to grow up to do great things. Maybe you’ll even go up there.” The little imperial’s mother pointed to the sky when she said ‘there’. “You could even meet the ones who gave my blessing,” This time, she pointed to her wings when she said ‘blessing’. The hatchling tried traced the shining stars with her claws. “Now, Cassy. It’s time to go to sleep,” Constell picked her up. Cassy tried to protest by kicking her legs but she was wasn’t that strong. She didn’t want to go to sleep. Not again. Not ever. Her mother laid the imperial hatchling down on her bed untangling her from the cloak she was wrapped in. “Good night.” She said to the little one.

“Gwood night,” Cassy said back.

It had been an hour. The hatchlings eyelids had started to droop. No. She couldn’t sleep, not yet. But her body protested. Her eyes closed and she fell into a deep sleep. But then, her eyes opened again. For some reason, the imperial was all grown up now. She was in her bed. Cassy walked out of her lair, into a clearing of her clan. Suddenly, pain came from her wing tips, chest, tail, cheek, and feet. The pain was becoming increasingly unbearable. Tears ran down her face. She screamed. It felt like she was being encased in stone. Like acid was spreading across her body. The opal like splotches of purple were growing. Where ever they were hurt. A crowd gathered around her. Staring and pointing. No one made an attempt to help her. Finally, her whole body writhed with pain. She couldn’t move. Her eyesight was being blocked by the opal splotches. The imperial had been encased by her opal.

Cassiopeia awoke in a cold sweat. Her whole body aching. Immediately she got up and ran to the nearest mirror. Her opal had spread slightly in all the places it was. At least she wasn’t encased in it. She thought. Her mom walked in. “Did you have another dream again?” She asked solemnly. Her hatchling nodded. “Oh Cassy,” A tear started to form in her eye as she touched where the opal was slowing growing. The hatchling flinched at her touch. “What are we going to do,” Constell whispered in a shaky voice.

Her mother picked up Cassy later in the day and brought her to Galexus. “Ok my little queen. Tell me about your dream,” Cassiopeia told her mother about the dream. It had been the same as last time but more intense. More real than before. This was the fourth time she had had the dream. Each time worse than the last. “I,” Constell took a shaky breath. “I have to talk to Uncle Galexus for a second okay?” She said to her daughter as she got up.

“Ok,” The imperial hatchling said. Her mother and Uncle walked into another room. She was left with her own thoughts. Curious to what they were saying, Cassy got up and walked to the corner to eavesdrop.

“--if we take her there!” Her mother said.

“No! It’s the only way!” Her uncle yelled.

“It is not! We can find another way! We have to!”

“Everyday the pain is worse and it feels more real! What if one day it is real! There is no other way!”

“Dragons almost die going up there! I am NOT putting my daughter in danger!”

“Well if you won’t do it, I might!”

…

…

…

Cassy had heard enough. She walked back to her room and cried. Unfortunately she cried herself to sleep. The same dream occured. The only different thing was the level of pain and realism. Day after day. Year after year. Again and again the same nightmare plagued her dreams. The imperial’s opal spreading more and more. It was growing along with her. As she got older, it got bigger. Cassy ended up becoming more extroverted and loud. Thinking that if her dream came true, her clanmates would like her enough to help her. She put on a happy facade. Sarcasm and jokes in the day hid her inner demise at night.

Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore. Cassy woke up in the middle of the night sweating. She was frustrated. Frustrated because of the pain. Frustrated because she was she was going to die. Frustrated because her opal was even worse. She couldn’t take it anymore. Soon she would be encased. The imperial ran out of her lair. Coming to the cliff by her clan. She looked out at the world for a few minutes. “Why do I have this- what to call it, curse?” she whispered to the stars. It would be so easy to.. to just leave this world. The opal wouldn’t get her then. She’d stop having those terrible dreams. Cassiopeia stepped closer to the edge of the cliff.

“Cassy?” Her mother said looking at her daughter.

Surprised, she stepped back. “Oh! H-hi Mom,” The imperial said in a soft voice.

“What are you doing out here at this time of night?”

“Uhh. Looking at the stars?” She said it more as a question than an answer. And hey! I could ask you the same thing!”

“I heard something out here so I came to investigate,”

“Oh. That makes sense,”

“You okay?”

“Y-yeah,”

“You don’t seem okay,”

“I-I just can’t do this anymore Mom,” Cassy broke down crying. “I’m so tired of this dream! I’m so tired of the pain! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to be taken over by this, this stupid opal!” The imperial said. “I hate it!” She screamed. “I hate it,” she whispered breaking down in sobs.

Constell could see her daughters pain and demise. She looked up the stars. Once again feeling the pull she had felt again since her daughter’s birth. Knowing what she had to do, the adult imperial stood up. “I think I know how to fix this. Follow me Cassy,” Her daughter stood up and followed her mother as they flew somewhere.

They finally reach their destination. The mother and daughter duo were on the top of the highest place near the clan. They sat down and looked at the stars. Constell closed her eyes. She knew it was too dangerous to take Cassy all the way up. This was the best she could do without putting her daughter in danger. “Please. If you’re listening. Help me. Please, save my daughter. I don’t know what’s wrong. She’s slowly being encased by her opal. I need to help her! I’ll do anything! Just, help her,” She prayed.

Once again voices flooded her senses. “Should we help her? The poor girl will be encased by the opal by time she becomes an adult!”

“Who did this? It had to be one of us!”

“It was me! Constell had no right to share the starry blessing we gave to her. It was supposed to only be hers! Not her daughter. She deserved it! I knew she was special from the start. I only enhanced the growth of her opal”

“No! You did this. Now you must help her. Fix your mistake,”

“Fine,”

“Wait. What are you doing? You can’t do that!”

“She did say that she would do anything. It’s the only way.”

“Will she stay like that forever?”

“Yes,”

Constell’s eyes opened suddenly. She was back in her lair lying down. Galexus rushed over to her. He must have carried her back. “You’re awake! Are you okay?” He worriedly asked.
She began to sit up. “Y-yeah I’m fine,”

“What happened?” The imperial male questioned.

“I found Cassy outside by the cliff. We talked for a bit and we fina--” Constell stopped talking at once. She stared at something on the floor. She couldn’t believe her eyes. This had to be a dream. This couldn’t be real. She pinched herself. It was real. Her daughter. Her little queen. Cassiopeia. She was.. She was a baby again. A small little hatchling running around on all fours playing. Her opal receded back to when she was just a small blue shiny ball. Constell started to tear up. Partly in joy. Partly in sadness.

She was so confused. But then she remembered the voices.

“The poor girl will be encased by the opal by time she becomes an adult!”

“She did say that she would do anything,”

“Will she stay like that forever?”

“Yes,”

Constell pieced the puzzle together. The voices had heard her. “By the time she becomes an adult… I would do anything…” She looked at the baby form of her Cassy. Her opal looked perfectly normal. She looked just like she had before the dreams. The imperial mother remembered the last bits of what she had heard:

“Will she stay like that forever?”

“Yes,”

One of the voices had changed her daughter into a hatchling. Forever.

“Hi Momma!” The hatchling yelled as she ran over to her mother snapping her out of her thoughts.

“It seems she has no recollection of what happened with her opal. Not even the dreams.” Galexus said.

“O-O-opol?” Cassy tried to say opal. “What is my opol?” She asked.

“Nothing. All you need to know, is that your safe. I love you my little queen,”

“I wuv you too Momma!”