Tranz watched over the journal in his grasp. The pages were crisp from being so worn down. How many countless time had it been dropped carelessly? What about it being flipped from page to tantalizing page? He would often reread different recounts he had from his past, pretending he never had seen them in prior times. How fun it was to be a faux persona of some sort of creature, whether it be human or another Serpentine.

Slowly feeling the cover down the scratch marks, he nearly dropped it. Shaking his head, he moved to sit down on the dirty tomb floor. The snake person began to open the cover. No, he wanted to make himself wait. In and out went his breaths, so he took his time.

Sudden memories flooded him as he looked over the front of his journal. How he had been cornered by his past captor. That he had been nothing more than some experiment. It had left him with silent emotional baggage, but he tried his best not to bring it up with anyone. Good thing he rarely associated with anymore, then.

Sure he had the Serpentine he was currently living with, but the thought of them knowing too many details... Only Bellus knew all that much, but even then did he hold back some details. The true feelings he had felt as the countless times of the needles, or whatever experimentation of the moment, was just for him to keep over his head. He doubted either would care to have anything too detailed shared with them.

He had to keep up the facade of all smiles, though. Tranz wondered if he was permanently appearing to be cheerful. His life was anything but, though at first glance maybe you wouldn't be able to tell. Looking closer, you would see the different places where needles had taken to his scaly skin easily. Then there may be some conflict on his true heart.

At last he just took one last whistling breath. He popped open to the first page. It was crinkled; possibly the most. Tranz ran his nails lightly down the sloppy writing. After scribbling enough it went to a better writing style, but at first it was merely chickenscratch. Lovely.

Maybe that was just his self-preservation kicking in, but he gave himself a fake name when he first had this journal. Now he could neither read or remember what it had been. Not like it mattered, he doubted it would get lost or taken anymore. Being isolated out here with only two other trustworthy acquaintances was a relief. But something tugged at his heart.

On some level, he got both respect and fearing attitude from the youngest of the Serpentine he was near. While Bellus was like some sort of maternal figure towards Tranz, he felt another sort of caring for Seraphine...

She was like the moon, as cheesy as that sounded. Her presence seemed so close, yet when he reached out towards it, all he got was distance from her glorious form. That reminded him of when he watched the nighttime ritual of the sky with her, after they eventually warmed up to each other. He had been resting outside the ancient tomb, about to doze off for the night. Then her body was suddenly laying next to his, looking over at him with excited eyes.

Apparently she had been very into watching the skies when she had less to worry about. Even though the bogs she had resided in had bad viewing of the expanse over her head, there had been cleared moments. She took advantage of them. He could imagine her expression as she watched overhead. It probably caused her giant eyes to somehow widen more.

They had been so, so close, yet so far. Seraphine barely spoke, while he felt him babbling random facts about absolutely nothing she would ever need to be in knowing of. This always happened, but he wanted her to get it. That there was so much more to their lives than the acid humanoid could understand. She seemed too naive, which had gotten her to be among Tranz in the first place.

Now that he presently thought of that, he was glad she had been that way at the beginning. He had admittedly knocked her out, then dragged her back to this hiding area. It wasn't exactly a move you used on someone you wanted to impress, but he worked with it.

Tranz flipped the page after snapping back to the current activity. He skimmed the words this time, trying to decipher the different symbols he had once used writing utensils to create. How had he passed this off as adequate? Why he did was beyond him. He once had naive behavior coursing his mind at one point, but that all went away eventually with time as being a nobody.

He suddenly felt a gentle grasp on his thin arm, startling and dropping his book between his crooked legs. There was Seraphine. She tilted her head, silently assessing this situation. Whatever she thought was never brought up, instead she watched him.

If she wanted a good answer for something, Tranz had no answer... But then he noticed something, his face had no smile. In fact, he sported... a frown? No wonder she kept her watch sharp. Unlike the older caretaker, Seraphine immediately started in on him during any sign of discomfort no matter where.

While Bellus wanted him to become a stronger individual, he felt abandoned after she stopped being so sickeningly sweet. It felt nice to have affection rained on him once again, especially by such a beautiful Serpentine like Seraphine.

As she grew close enough to snuggle up to him, he actually allowed this for once. Usually he worried about how he would control reacting- however good or bad the way he may do so. Once they had warmed up to one another, it was a straight shot from there. He was never too sure how she felt. Maybe she was one of those overly friendly sorts, or maybe...

No, she felt nothing of the sort for him. He wasn't the sort of Serpentine you could find strong feelings for in that way. He was too broken for even her to attempt to put back together with a faint heart. He never told anyone that he went to his part of the expansive tomb to cry things out. It was healthy, so Tranz pretended he was completely fine.

Faking a smile, he got up and scooped the journal into his grasp. All this time they had been so quiet. The tension filled the room, but as he left with his head held high, she just let herself fall to her side on the ruddy floor. It wasn't fair that they were so close, and only cowardice kept them apart... But Tranz was too good for her, and he deserved whatever he felt was for the better...