It was evening when she was found once more, having vanished off at some point after Glorfindel had been summoned away to do whatever it was he actually did beyond venturing out to hunt down dragons and venturing out on patrol to keep the borders of Imladris safe and secure. Sakura felt slightly disappointed at the fact she hadn't asked as such, but she had a suspicious feeling it likely had to do with paperwork. Her wonderful soulmate was the Captain of the Guard there, meaning he likely had to submit reports, especially those related to enemy skirmishes or his dragon hunts, given how he was so very fond of the latter.
Sakura didn't want to disturb Glorfindel while he did important things, nor did she want to make herself more of a nuisance than she already was simply by existing. Nor did she want to irritate the overseer of the place in which she stayed by distracting Glorfindel from his work. She did that enough as it was. In fact, she was rather surprised nobody high up in command had ordered Glorfindel to stop bothering her and focus on his tasks instead. After all, she wasn't more important than the running of Imladris. She was more important than very few things, perhaps dirt for instance. But then again dirt hadn't killed people as a weapon of the enemy. So that probably made dirt better than her, or so she mused to herself as she stared over the balcony and into the gardens below. They were a vibrant green, one of many in that main building, expansive as it was, and it was while she was looking at them so intently that she was found.
It wasn't her beloved soulmate who found her though, lingering as she was near one end of the main building, closer towards the residential sections rather than the various offices and archives and other work-related structures in the other wing.
Brown hair fluttered on the breeze, and eyes narrowed on her then the way only one elf's really could, given the one who knew her secret was now far too terrified to even glance in her direction. She really had done a number on him, or so she mused with a light snort. And now she was laughing at it like only an evil dragon could. The thought sobered her up, and she turned to face Elladan as he walked towards her then, until he was looming over her like a dark cloud ready to send lightning, thunder, and rain down upon her. "My brother," he began, grey eyes cutting into her, "has kept himself in his rooms ever since his return."
She tilted her head, looking at him with the blandest expression she could muster, praying that it would seemingly pass inspection and make the elf stop bothering her. Make him stop trying to reveal her for the evil she was. Almost predictably, it didn't work. Or maybe Elladan was just that perceptive enough to see through some of her act. Sakura wasn't sure if she wanted to find out such a thing. She liked the life she had there, even if it was like walking the edge of a knife, even if it was only a temporary thing which would inevitably end as all good things did for her. She was certainly greedy enough to want to keep something which she didn't deserve, her current good relationship with her soulmate being chief amongst that.
"It was after he returned from meeting with you that he became so very afraid and closed off," Elladan continued, and Sakura stayed still, knowing betraying her own nervousness would be all but an admission of her guilt – of the hand she had played in Elrohir's new fear of dragons in human skin. "I wish to know why my twin refuses to come out from his rooms, and you will tell me."
Sakura resisted the overwhelming urge to say make me, knowing it was the crueller, manipulative part of her – the wholly dragonish side to her – which made her want to do such things, and she was trying to be good. Good like her soulmate, though she would never, ever measure up to his standards. He was so wonderfully good, golden, and perfect. Her mind raced, heart racing as she wracked her big brain to think of an answer which could hide the truth. Hide the truth which had already been revealed to one. She didn't want to bring that number up to two. After all, Elladan was seeming to be bolder and braver than his twin. Sakura didn't know whether she trusted him to not call her bluff should she reveal her true nature, and she did not want to risk the fragile happiness and contentment she had found there. Greedy, the voice whispered in her ear.
A satisfied grimace appeared on the elf's face. "So there is—"
"You are aware," Sakura found herself saying, "that when I ventured off into the trees that night, that I was going to… ahem… relieve myself," she said, thanking her lucky stars and cursing her dragonish, manipulative mind and lips which had so quickly come up with a response. If only she could've been half as careful and thoughtful on what she said around her soulmate. "So what makes you so sure that your brother is afraid and not merely suffering from the embarrassment of coming across me at an… inopportune time…"
Elladan blinked at that, clearly taking a few minutes to digest that information before a pink blush spread across his cheeks. So similar to Elrohir's, just without the pale face lined with terror only moments before. Sakura barely resisted the urge to laugh at the ellon who looked like he had just had his entire world flipped on its head. "But," he mumbled, voice sounding oddly far away. "But Elrohir was shaking… he was scared…"
She tilted her head, hating the part of her which had him doubting in what he had seen. He was right to think Elrohir was terrified her. But she was selfish and didn't want him to think as such. Always wanting what you don't deserve, the voice whispered. She felt sick at the reminder of such. "Are you sure that wasn't him just being ashamed at having caught sight of me with my pants down?" she asked, blinking as she felt a very familiar hand clamp down on her shoulder.
"Who might have done such a thing?" Glorfindel questioned, pulling her back a step and out from under Elladan's shadow, gaze fixed on the other ellon, and Sakura felt that thread binding them together tug at her then. She only hoped that terrible connection didn't affect him as much as she feared. She didn't want to ruin him, though she was probably doing that just by breathing. She could never forget that fact, heavy as it weigh over her.
Elladan swallowed visibly at that, and Sakura felt a mixture of relief and sadness wash over her then, heart aching viciously at the warmth of the touch on her shoulder. She was glad on one hand that he had seemingly come to her rescue, but on the other… A golden knight there to defend a dragon, the voice whispered mockingly, telling of how bizarre and unlikely such a situation was. Really, it only worked when the golden knight wasn't aware that the dragon was in fact a dragon. Her shoulders slumped forwards at that, even as Elladan hastily retreated under her soulmate's unflinching stare. Sakura wondered if he would still do the same once he knew who she truly was in those lands and under those stars. Definitely not, the voice whispered, and the coldness in her chest returned, biting and aching.
Glorfindel tilted his head, glancing between her and where Elladan had gone in his retreat. "I will have words with him," he said, looking as though he were about to hurry off in pursuit, and Sakura wasn't sure what madness had her grabbing a hold of his hand then. Grey eyes looked at her, curiosity plain in their depths, and she found herself looking away, wondering as she always did about how she could mislead such a wonderful, bright person who was the sun to her dark, starless sky. "Is there something the matter?" he asked, fingers curling around her own of their own volition.
"It's fine," she said, tightening her grasp on his larger hand, wondering why the sensation was such a balm to her miserable, battered, evil soul. "You don't need to have words with him," she added, frowning when all he did was sigh and shake his head at her like she was the one being stupid.
Stupid dragon, the voice jeered.
"He came to you and started questioning you without cause or reason," her soulmate said, and Sakura barely resisted the urge to wince at that. Because he did have cause and reason, but she wasn't about to elaborate on that because she did not want her beloved soulmate to hate her. Even though such an ending was unquestionably inevitable.
"I don't mind it," she remarked, ignoring the way he looked at her then – somewhere between exasperated and concerned. Two things she probably evoked within him far too often. Two things he shouldn't have felt over a dragon. She was supposed to be hated, and eventually she would. But she would enjoy this slice of sunshine and happiness before the worst came to pass, or so she decided, ignoring the whispers of the voice in the back of her head at that.
Glorfindel merely sighed softly at her words, and that was the end of that discussion.
The stars twinkled merrily in the skies above, the distant sound of singing filling the valley as she sat on the rooftops that time around, all but certain nobody would find her up there. Nobody would willingly venture to the rooftops like she did, if only because it would be ever so dangerous to fall off. Sakura wasn't sure whether she cared all that much about doing just that any more. Even if it meant going back to that world to get stabbed through the heart with another chidori. Absentmindedly, she clutched at the fabric of her shirt which covered her heart, shuddering at the brief moments of excruciating agony after that lightning clad hand had speared through her chest. Shivering, Sakura pushed the memories away. By that point, it was no less than she deserved.
Wind blew through the trees then, the breeze soft against her cheeks as she cracked open her eyes after a short, blissful nap she had taken atop that rooftop. Though it had been more of her merely closing her eyes for around fifteen minutes or so. Sleep always liked to elude her, growing further and further out of reach the longer she stayed in that elven realm, and Sakura could only wonder if it was a punishment of sorts for daring to linger in a place she had no right to.
Sighing, she lifted a hand, reaching up and out towards the skies she had all too recently flown under in that terrible scaled form. As if answering her thoughts on her larger, scaled form, a voice rang out from the floor below. In the corridor which was undoubtedly exposed to the elements, fond as the elves of Rivendell were when it came to archways and windows without glass. Sakura supposed being somewhat less susceptible to the cold gave them something of an advantage there and allowed for such architecture. Elves evidently knew 'mortals' were weaker when it came to the elements. Her rooms there were away from any open corridors which let chilly air in. Plus there had been the way her soulmate had fretted over her when she had lingered out in the cold a touch too long.
"Father," came the soft, shaky voice which Sakura placed in a heartbeat. Elrohir. Her heart pounded in her chest, part of her wanting nothing more than to leap down and reveal herself – a move, she knew, would shut the younger elf up in a heartbeat. But that was what an evil dragon would do, and Sakura didn't want to be as such. Not that she could truly change her designation. But she could at least act a little nicer towards the elves. "How fare the protections…?" Elrohir trailed off, and Sakura could just tell he was looking at the odd ring on his father's finger. One which whispered to her of power and reminded her of cool stream water. The complete opposite to the fire she breathed out.
"Why do you ask?" Lord Elrond asked, and Sakura could practically hear the curiosity and suspicion in his voice then, and she waited atop the roof with bated breath for the coming conversation. The silence which reigned between the two elves was toe-curling and far too agonising for her poor heart. The same heart which would probably be ripped to pieces soon enough – only this time it would be more mental than the physical way her heart had been destroyed twice to that very day. "Could it be," Lord Elrond spoke, bringing her tense wait to an end, "you are concerned about the dragon you saw so very recently?"
Sakura was fairly certain Elrohir was nodding, his voice seemingly failing him then. Not that she could blame him, what with the fact said dragon was actually well within the bounds of that elven realm. "Do you think a dragon could enter this realm…?" Elrohir asked, and Sakura closed her eyes with a soft sigh, letting her head fall back as she lay on the slanted roof tiles, opening her eyes only to stare at the skies above her.
"I think we would be able to see such a dragon coming," Lord Elrond said, and Sakura barely resisted the urge to throw her head back and laugh. That would give away her position, shut up Elrohir, and probably make the lord of those lands that much more suspicious of her and her unsightly existence. "If it as big as the reports state…"
"It was colossal," Elrohir said, voice becoming that much quieter with his next words. "Like the painting of Ancalagon…" he murmured, and Sakura scowled at the mention of the name she had been bestowed with upon her creation in that world later realised aloud by the elves and branded onto the back of her soulmate by whatever forces of the universe had decreed for someone as wonderful as he to be bound to something like her.
"Nothing which means us harm could trespass without me being at the very least aware of such a threat," Lord Elrond said, and Sakura could only frown at that, stomach twisting uncomfortably at those words. Because she had entered that realm and hadn't been greeted by a contingent of armed soldiers ready to eliminate her existence. Like there should have been. She rolled onto her side then, staring down the rooftiles, wondering exactly what she was supposed to do with her life, given how it was obvious the wards or seals or whatever made up the barrier line to that realm was so evidently faulty. It had let her pass unnoticed so many times after all, and that fact in itself made so very little sense at all. Cold air rushed over her skin, skin prickling, hairs standing up on end as she lay there, basking in the quiet and cold of the night. "You can rest easy in that knowledge," he continued, and Sakura could have laughed as she realised Elrohir wouldn't be able to do that. Not with the knowledge that she had slipped passed that which should have ousted her for that which she truly was. "The hour is late," he said then, and Sakura turned her face back towards the sky, musing on how she probably ought to be tucked up within her room. Though it wasn't like she had Noeneth still watching her every movement. Although Glorfindel might have tried to check on her and subsequently be fretting over where she had vanished off to. He was far too kind and concerned over her.
Footsteps sounded for but a moment before they stopped all of a sudden. "Father," Elrohir said, and Sakura could only groan at the fact he hadn't left already and taken the fretting fear she had at him revealing her for the monster she was – calling her bluff on burning his realm down to cinders. "Do you ever think Ancalagon was misnamed?" he asked, and Sakura snorted at that, the sound barely audible as she strove to avoid anyone realising she was hanging out on the roof.
"What might you mean by that?"
She could hear Elrohir's frown. "Why was that dragon named as a male would be?" he questioned, undoubtedly looking at his father as though he had all the answers to the many questions he seemed to have.
"Why should Ancalagon not have been male?" Lord Elrond asked in response. "There has been some argument, yes, particularly in regards to—"
"His soulmark, yes, I know that much," Elrohir mumbled. "Never mind," he added, and then came the sounds of footsteps – two sets heading in different directions, and then there was blissful silence once more. Time ticked on as it always did, and Sakura only rolled back onto her back, shrieking in the next second at the sudden appearance of a very familiar face.
"Why," Glorfindel spoke as he crouched on the roof beside her, "must you endeavour to find the most dangerous places to relax in?"
Sakura shrugged as best as she could, relishing in that terribly deadpan stare directed her way then. She enjoyed his attention being on her far more than she ought to. "I don't know," she remarked, sitting up then, watching from the corner of her eye as he adjusted his own position, seemingly ready to grab a hold of her should she begin falling down the sloped roof. Not that such a thing would ever happen. Her balance was far too good for such a thing, and even if she didn't fall, she would likely be able to swing herself inside the building using the edge of the roof. "It's just something which tends to happen."