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"My reasons are mine." It was said like it was as simple as finding the sun. While she understood the 'bothers you/bothers me' topic it when she said it, when the words returned to her, they sounded more muddled and confusing and she fumbled with the idea, moving on to something else to change the topic. It was confusing enough that she hardly noticed her hair being messed with.

"Why would my listening kill you?" she asked, looking up at Micheal with curiosity.

"No. Yes. And can we stop talking about killing and death for a moment?" The ranger's head dropped on to the knee that wasn't holding up the bottle. It was bringing back the whole reason she was here with the bottle in the first place. "I mean, honesty is all good, but just a minute here," she said as she took a breather.

Jay let the absence of words clear out the fog that had built up around her and in her head. Quietly she listened to the sounds of a song Micheal was humming, wondering how long it had been since she heard someone sing... or nearly sing like this. The bar songs didn't always quite cut it.

"You didn't see anything of that dream, did you?" she asked one final time, knowing that he probably spoken true earlier, but it was the easiest way for her to break back into the conversation.

"Did you really want to know?" she asked, not lifting her head, her hand squeezing rather tightly around the bottle. "This isn't something you are going to storm out again at, is it?" she tentatively spoke, wondering how long she could keep this up. She was starting to feel the wear of the night; the extreme strain of energy, lack of sleep, and the alcohol were starting to bear down.

"It was more than roundseason ago. There was a call for archers, experienced mercs in particular, to take a job for Baroness Yvette," she started, still talking into her legs. The scenes began to play out in her head, similar to what was in her dreams, but not as warped by the current events. It was a decent sized town just as she said, a mix of stone and dirt streets though it looked as if she was in a less upscale part of the city.

"Another place was having problems with raids, a larger town, and this was a small group of Fallen. It was a few days waiting before the dragons returned again. Everything began to go downhill fast."

The scene of daylight on a city switched to a smoke-filled evening, just as if someone snuffed out the sun, the area only lit up by the fires of entire buildings nearby. From the scene's playing, the ranger was up away from street-level, possibly a rooftop or some other taller structure. She was scrambling for a better view as she pulled out her bow and another arrow, her quiver already half empty.

"The dragons and what bounds were with them retaliated. The dragon's breathed fire while the bounds did a mix of things. Dropping things from the sky that set fires once the dragon breath was used up or they faught the hireds like myself who were about the city."

"Would hardly be the first time," she answered. Brief images of other jobs flashed through her mind at the mention. "This job was bigger than those past, however."

The image of the small city returned and in the streets the mercenaries were in their assigned groups or doing their solo work. There were still villagers fleeing the area, ones who hadn't left after the first raid. Most of them just didn't have anywhere else to go.

There was movement to the side and the view changed to see a scuffle. It wasn't long before a bow was readied, a pause, and a man clutched his shoulder where an arrow was sticking out from it - at least until the man he was fighting with struck him down with his blade.

The view then returned to the sky where the bellows of dragons covered up even the sounds of the streets below, dark winged shadows crossing the small city like black ghosts. The nearest belonged to one that was flying awkwardly, one wing beating harder than the other as it constantly was trying the maintain its advantageous height.

"Already two dragons were down, one dead and the other grounded. My target was a dragon who's wing had taken a hit and was now faltering in the sky. A few other archers and I had gotten in a few shots earlier but had to chase it down as it moved to a different part of the city. I picked a new spot on a rooftop and waited for that dragon or any others to come by for a shot, and then I got my chance..."

The dragon seemed small in the distance but it was quickly growing. It looked as if it might fly right past her position. The wind tossed a stray hair into her face, but she didn't flinch. It was hard to tell how fast or slow time went until arrow was already in the air, the first missing, the next hitting below a wing joint, and the last making a line straight for the dragon's head....

"...and I got a hit. The dragon was screaming. It started making wild dives at the buildings below and blew another breath of fire. The dives continued until the dragon's wing buckled and it began to plunge toward the ground."

Even out of the path of the dragon's blast, the surrounding air around had heated up and enough ash was stirred for the ranger to choke and gasp for air until the next flap of wings brought in new air.

As the picture began to shake less and the lung ache began to go away, there was small face in a nearby ground floor window. It was the face of a little boy looking around in the gold flickering light, watching everything with wide eyes. The boy's face turned to look to the side as if someone had called for him.

But that's when the house and the dragon became one in her mind.

"It crashed into a house. There was someone inside. I had a glimpse of a kid..."

Then there was a feeling of falling as something from beneath gave way. Sudden pain spiked up beneath the left shoulder blade and the upper right arm before everything went black.

"I think either part of the dragon or flying debris from the crushed building took out a part of the building I was standing on which caused part of its collapse. That probably would have been my last night if it weren't for the healers who were out there as well. When I came back to, everything was throbbing, though I still remember the voices I had heard."

There was a strong smell of smoke followed by another fit of coughing that shook the start of the next hazy picture. There were voices all around, one belonging to someone very close and above her, probably the healer from the words being said. Another voice in the distance was also clearer, not so much because it was loud, but because it was being focused on. A man was shouting - even swearing from time to time. Something about his family: wife and kids. Someone else said for the man to stay away from the building and the dragon body. The building was still burning. There was more swearing. More yelling.

"I found out later as I was being treated that there had been people still in the house when the dragon hit: a mother and two little boys. I've seen countless scenes, but this one refuses to die and remains frozen in my head."

There was a frown on the ranger's face even though she had not lifted it from her knee.

"Don't joke with me. I do not wish to make light of it, whether it be directly of my control or not." Though she may not have seen the bodies, it was almost a morbid hope that anyone in that house had met their death upon the dragon's impact. If they had not, it meant a far more painful way out of this world.

"But yes, I suppose it is time to call it a night," she said more so to end any further conversation on the topic, as if the story had run her out of words. She lifted the wine to her lips once again, the contents of the bottle were a noticeable notch lower when she moved and set the bottle on the floor beside the bed.

"Do with the rest what you will. It's served what purpose I had for it."

She slid back farther on the bed, but instead of lying down she leaned back against the wall, wrapping her arms around one bent knee while letting her head hang down as she closed her eyes. If her mind had any say, she would not sleep that night, exhaustion or no, but she knew that sleep would come due to the alcohol at least and hopefully it would be soon, before she could have a chance to be ill from the contents she swallowed.