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Her time was near. She bore no wounds and had no scars, but a part of her just knew instinctively.
It wasn't difficult to find her way back to the place where she had lost everything. She hadn't been there since, but when she noticed the black flowers in the field it felt like a warm welcome home. A brief respite from the loneliness that had plagued her for far too long.
Her claws dug into the ground as she gently landed amongst the flowers, and her wings folded back, raising just high enough for her tired legs to walk.
She walked until she had no strength left to move. Then she lay down, exhaustion seeping into her bones and taking root in the dirt beneath her heavy body.
She watched as the sun began to set, glowing in the same golden colour that day as she cried next to where her lover used to be. The same sky had come to give her a final send-off as well.
Her tired eyes swept over the field of black flowers, stretching as far as her eyes could see. Past the mountains, and past the rivers in the valley below. She wondered how she would go; whether her soul would travel the same path as her lover had. Whether she would meet him again after being free from this lonely, old body.
She knew she wouldn't get an answer, but it didn't matter. Her questions, her worries, everything melted away as she felt a soothing warmth beginning to bloom on her skin. Looking down, she noticed flowers, one by one, sprouting on her claws, moving up her limbs one by one. Flowers had also formed on her head, and she felt their vines and leaves gently cradling the horns that she had once tried to get rid of. They were like a soft blanket, and the rustling of the grass was a gentle lullaby in her ears.
There would be no one to sing a requiem for her; not even herself. Her voice had long disappeared, leaving her with nothing but the roars of a lonely, heartbroken beast for the rest of her unbearably long life.
But that was fine. She didn't need a song or someone to be with her. The flowers were enough. After all, they had also seen her lover off, and very soon it would be her turn as well.
Her eyes began to slip close, no longer having the strength to keep them open. She succumbed to the feeling of the field of flowers enveloping her whole, keeping her warm and safe.
Her heart would no longer bleed, and her eyes would no longer shed tears.
She could finally rest.
She woke up in a field of flowers, blanketed by warmth.
It wasn't the warmth of flowers, but a pair of arms enveloping her frame, holding her securely against a strong chest.
Her eyes shifted up, noticing his beautiful, garnet eyes shining down on her. A smile played on his lips, before he pressed them to her head — where her horns were. Or rather, used to be. She couldn't feel them anymore.
"Finally awake?" he asked. His voice was deep, low, familiar. Made her heart ache with longing.
Her fingers reached up, tracing the line of his jaw, his lips, his cheeks, and finally stopping at the corner of his right eye.
"Sy...lus..?" The syllables rolled off her tongue effortlessly. She wanted to say it again and again, like a babbling infant who knew nothing more than a single word. It felt like an age had passed since she could say it out loud.
"I'm here," he replied, hand brushing a fallen petal off her cheek.
It was all so familiar to her. Sylus, surrounded by flowers, and smiling at her. But what should have been a happy sight was tearing her heart apart, and she wished she could claw it out to ease the pain.
Tears streamed down her face and she couldn't control her body as it shook in his embrace. He held her close, allowing her to bury her face in his chest.
"A... dream..?" she asked in between her sobs, unable to manage anything more coherent than those two words. She wondered if he could even hear her like that.
Sylus confirmed it with a comforting squeeze of her shoulder as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
"It's not a dream. Not anymore."
She continued to cry as he kissed her under the setting sun, the warmth of his kisses and the tightness of his hug assuring her that everything was real.
And that everything would be alright now.