The armour-clad arm wrapped around her waist, his grip having shifted from her arm to there, was the only thing which kept her afloat as she coughed up all the water she had so greedily taken inside her. She was a complete deadweight, pain wracking every cough and every breath as she found herself staring up at the blue sky above, being towed to the banks of the deep, fast-flowing river they had fallen into. Numbness sank its fangs into her like a terribly persistent snake, and Sakura couldn't yet muster up the energy to talk, let alone move. She was tired, oh so terribly tired. Though drowning was probably not a nice way to go, so she had to be grateful to her soulmate. Even if he'd have left her to drown should he know the horrible monster she was.

"Lothien?"

The voice sounded so very far away, lost and half delirious from the pain and subsequent near drowning as she was. She didn't even realise she had been dragged out of the water until she saw the leaves of the tree canopy swaying quietly above her and felt the hard earth at her back. Her shirt was sodden, clinging to her skin, and had she still been that preteen girl from her first life, then there was no doubt she would have been shrieking bloody murder and trying to cover herself up somewhat. But she wasn't that sweet, innocent, good, though unmistakably flawed girl who had clung to romance as though it were a lifeline. Something impacted her cheek gently, stirring her from the thoughts, and Sakura soon found herself staring up into a pair of beautiful grey eyes. They were so very pretty – she wanted them close by always – even narrowed in concern as they were.

He was her soulmate, some higher power having tied them together in that way, but Sakura couldn't help but wonder whether there had been a mistake. She wasn't worthy of someone like Glorfindel. A dragon was naught but a monster, and a dragon was what she was. One with a deceptive façade – and it was something she just couldn't seem to drop for the life of her, scared of rejection as she was. She was a monster. She should have been prepared for the hatred. But she was a coward at the end of the day.

"Lothien!"

Fingers patted at her cheek that much more urgently, and the abrupt realisation that wait that was her soulmate calling her name had her emerging from that muted, self-loathing state. She sat up with a gasp, eager to get away from her blasted soulmate—and promptly bashed her head against the plate of his armour.

"Ow," she groaned, wincing as she heard the huff of laughter, quickly concealed before she found herself once more staring up into those terrible grey eyes which promised naught but more heartache should she find herself entranced by them. She couldn't. She wouldn't. Not that he was making it easy for her to stay true to those silent promises, what with how genuine he seemed to behave around her – reeled in by that rumoured red string which bound soulmates together so, no doubt. That was how soulmates went – always inexplicably drawn to one another, no matter how Sakura wished that was not so. "What…? Where…?" she muttered, barely able to get another word out amidst her confusion and pain.

"We rolled down the hill, and now we appear to have ended up a short ways away from the battle currently taking place – which you are in no state to even attempt joining, before you should gather the strength to ask," he said sternly, and Sakura could only suck in yet another ragged breath as she tried to process what had just happened. The fall and subsequent water inhalation had scrambled her brains somewhat, and she was far more troubled by the fact that her brain to mouth filter seemed to have failed, as evidenced by her next word.

"Pretty," she muttered, staring at those mesmerising golden locks, and she quashed that aspect of her nature as swiftly as possible. It would be just her luck for her eyes to shift while her soulmate was scanning her over from head to toe rather intently. Rather than any form of interest which might have had her hopes for the future rising unhealthily, Sakura knew he was searching for any other possible injures. Beyond the concussion she no doubt had and the broken and bruised ribs hidden beneath her shirt.

"Do not fall unconscious until we have Lindion treat you," he warned, worry twisting his expression as the sound of battle resounded from where they had just been, a clash of scale and metal. "I will return shortly. We were fortunate to not drift too far…"

Sakura sat up swiftly at that because she had been injured protecting him, so like hell was she going to allow her good, wonderful soulmate to run off into battle with an enraged member of her kin. Dragons were so terribly dangerous, what with how large they often were compared to men and elves, and truly, all she could picture was her good soulmate lying there dead at her kin's claws. Or fangs. She had to be the one to suffer such a fate instead, because he was everything good just as she was everything evil. Chakra pulsing in her muscles, she climbed to her feet, noting how the world swayed as though she were aboard a ship in a stormy ocean. "Wait," she muttered, voice not carrying as she wished it to, but that golden hair was already what felt like miles ahead of her and Glorfindel did not turn back. She staggered after him almost drunkenly on unsteady feet, legs threatening to bow under the weight of the simple task she was trying to accomplish.

It took what felt like hours to make any sort of progress uphill, and Sakura had swiftly resorted to using her hands and feet to crawl up the incline. Dizziness assailed her about halfway up, and she had the most terrible urge to vomit. Sakura only prayed her soulmate's boots were far, far away as she turned and promptly upchucked the contents of her stomach once more near the roots of a tree. Narrowly avoiding falling in her own vomit, her back hit the ground, breath coming in ragged gasps as pain slammed into her with all the force of a tidal wave, and no amount of chakra could get her aching limbs working again. Her body simply refused to obey her wishes. It wouldn't have been so bad, a voice whispered then like a little devil upon her shoulder, had she been in dragon form. But Sakura refused that form. She wanted to be human. Good. So much unlike the unsightly blight she was upon that world.

Groaning, she closed her eyes – the light above her far too bright – only to be woken moments later by a frantic tapping on her cheek. A grumble escaped her, and she slapped at the offending hand, eyes cracking open just a sliver as she came to realise her sense of time was horribly distorted. Thanks to her slightly rattled brain. And she hadn't even been able to injure the pesky number of her kin who had done such a thing to her – she, a dragon of the First Age before their might had lessened. The rest of her injuries hardly helped, and she had the barest moment of lucidity as she peered up to find Glorfindel and Lindion leaning over her. Dimly, she wondered why they would want to help a monster such as her. Part of her was rather incredibly grateful for the fact she couldn't manage more than a few words at a time – her sentences a mess of one words. It meant she could hardly get anything too important or too revealing across, what with her brain to mouth filter being completely and utterly obliterated.

They spoke above her in hushed voices, a frown marring her brow as she tried to figure out there words, but all there was to hear were muted sounds and a faint ringing in her ears which was only growing louder as the minutes ticked by. Leaves swayed above her, acrid green eyes following their motions blankly, even as they began to slowly blur out of focus.

Then Lindion's beautiful, unearthly voice washed over her like an ocean upon the shore, splashing through the silence and dimness which had swallowed her so completely, and she fell under the waves of sweet, sweet sleep calling to her so. Despite the genuine slapping being done to her cheek in an effort to regain her attention, that was. Sakura only wished she had enough breath left in her to tell him that ship, with her attention on it, had well and truly sailed from the harbour.

It probably wouldn't matter too much if she didn't wake up anyway. One less terrible monster roaming the earth, and then perhaps her soulmate would be free of her and her evils.

Or maybe she would just reincarnate between the worlds as she had done before, part of her whispered, relishing in the fear which that very thought evoked deep within her, but the dark blissfulness of unconscious soon swallowed her whole. She liked the darkness. It hid her and her sins so very well. Coward, the voice whispered, and Sakura could only hum in acknowledgement before the abyss consumed her.

A blistering headache, painful ribs, and a mouthful of blonde hair greeted her as consciousness slammed into her with the force of a battering ram. "Huh?" she muttered eloquently, the urge to vomit rising once more, and she quickly shoved that feeling down as much as she could. Like hell was she going to vomit on him again. Once was enough. He would probably despise her if she did so again. Sakura ignored the part of her which whispered that it was how it was meant to be.

His head turned, gaze clocking her newly awakened self before he looked back at where his feet were taking the both of them. "Hush now," he said, and Sakura closed her mouth from where she had opened it only milliseconds before. "Do not speak – your ribs are still in a dire situation. Lindion could not heal you for reasons I have yet to understand," he continued, and Sakura felt a horrible realisation stir within her.

She knew little of elven healing methods, most of that which she had pieced from her occasional ventures out while she was still so very young in that second life of hers – the other parts coming from Melkor's scorning words. What little she knew of involved words of power sung in song, calling to body and soul in turn. But her body and soul were undeniably twisted from that which elves were used to healing. She prayed those suspicions were wrong. She didn't want to be outed as a dragon in an elven realm. Though she would likely get the death she deserved. Oh. Sakura blinked, realising why she was so terribly scared of dying again. She didn't want to go back to the Elemental Nations. Her lives there had always had the same, painful ending – one rife with a betrayal she hadn't thought she deserved. Well, not the first time at least.

She deserved betrayal there – though it could hardly be called that. She was a creature of evil, whilst her soulmate was everything good. It would be merely justice and penance for her sins.

"Dragon?" she asked, unable to get another word out what with the pain she received for voicing that single word aloud.

"Slain," Glorfindel replied shortly. "We have yet to reach Rivendell, where I hope we will find healing for you. If anyone should be capable of succeeding where Lindion has fallen short, then I have no doubts Lord Elrond will." Silence hung heavy in the air between them for a few short moments, her fears and worries bubbling just beneath her skin. "Though I would ask of you not to aggravate your injures by overtaxing yourself so, whether that be by trying to move, or even, indeed, attempting to speak."

Sakura, despite her reluctance to both obey orders and allow her soulmate to continue carrying her, could only settle her chin down on her shoulder, pastel pink hair working to hide her face as she tried to get comfy there.

She froze then, stiffening as she pulled an arm back, fingers closing around the hair colour she had chosen to leave behind years ago. It was strange to see it there, what with how careful she had been with here dye. Of course. Sakura yanked on a strand with a soft sigh. After Fainbarad and Gilithien had… she had neglected her hair colouring, too caught up in grief, the terror and hope she discovered upon meeting her soulmate, and the dragon slaying with said soulmate. Her latest tumble in the river had removed her subpar dye job, revealing her unnatural hair colouring to the entire world. To her oh so precious soulmate.

"I see now that your name comes from your colouring," he said, having noticed her gaze on the strands of hair which had been a dark brown colour before, grey eyes flickering over her face as she remained a complete and utter deadweight upon his back. "Unique as it is…"

Sakura huffed – and even that was a rather painful endeavour, so she closed her eyes once more, wishing she could somehow go back and undo everything. Or at least run away after her now slain kin had sacked the village she had lived in, if only to prevent her from ever coming into contact with her blasted soulmate and his kin. She wanted more time, if only to right more of her wrongs before the sword fell once more and cast her from that world.

There could be no other fate for a monster such as her.

"How far?" she croaked out, ignoring the sharp, stern glance directed her way. Because she was obstinate and continued to speak despite Glorfindel's orders not to. She probably deserved the pain. She was a monster and she was deceiving them – why else would they be carrying her straight into an elven realm?

"We are not far out from our destination," Glorfindel informed her, proving he was evidently well versed in the ways of understanding what information she wished to know despite her few words spoken. "Verily you have slept long, understandable given your injuries, though I feared you may not wake for a while yet – until we reached Rivendell perhaps."

Dimly, Sakura wondered just how long she had slept – though the rumble in her stomach told her it had undoubtedly been a while since she had last eaten. But dragons could go for long periods without consuming sustenance. She hoped her constitution hadn't caused any wonder or suspicion. Indeed, her hair colouring was probably causing enough of a stir as it was, and Sakura didn't want anything else pegging her out as unnatural, as a dragon wearing human skin. The fact she hadn't been able to be healed through the usual methods was bad enough.

She found herself missing the conversation which had once flown between them all too smoothly as she became accustomed and oddly comforted by the constant pace of his footsteps, the air between them thick and silent, her mind buzzing with thoughts and hatred for herself and her situation. Fear curled in her gut at the thought of discovery. Her soulmate would hardly carry her if he knew who she was to him. If he came to learn what she had done to his people in an age long passed.

Sakura closed her eyes, screwing them shut tightly as she tried to block out the whispers from that traitorous voice in the very depths of her mind.

Coward.

Unworthy.

Wretched monster.