Soul searching- Ruin Remembers.

          The moment ruin set eyes on the shrine, something itched in his heart, it burned, like a rising anxiety yet softer, not with sharp teeth, but desperate, grasping hands that pawed at the ice around his heart, and the cage around his mind.

Like a slow rising crescendo, it built in his chest, this rising fire of recognition, a spark within the dying embers of his soul, this strange....familiarity. The twin dragons, the smell of the incense...the soft sound of others in prayer....

it made his breath quicken, and his paws unsteady, as wetness stung his eyes, and his paw held his chest, as if his heart would erupt from it like a caged bird. It threw him back to a place he didn't know existed, to a room, in a city, with a picture on the wall of two dragons, a holo projection from a strangers PDA, cast upon the wall....

Each step caused the large Phuzo to hesitate, glancing back at Rai for reassurance, as if the entire cavern beneath Sanctuary would crumble by his mere presence. The warm eyed Sleeping Dragon of Sanctuary simply smiled though, and nodded at Ruin to continue. "It's alright, you belong here, big guy." He said softly, his tail twitching calmly as he watched Ruin move farther into the cavern.

          Ruin made his way quietly past others who meandered this beautiful space, shrinking away from the gaze of those he passed, even though there was nothing but soft kindness in those eyes. He was drawn to the back of the cave, where natural light filtered in from the surface like a blanket upon the small pond that surrounded a space meant for prayer or meditation. He looked up at the shrine, tilting his head with slight confusion as he felt his body settle into a kneel before he had time to realize it was happening. It felt so natural to him, so familiar, as he took a deep breath and looked down at his lap, his large tails coiled together around his form.

He had never seen this before, he had never prayed before. It was not something his handlers trained him in, and yet...there something tickling at his mind, a memory begging to be seen. It was hard to grasp though, something from so long ago it didn't feel real. A room? His apartment perhaps? No, Older. His room at the facility he was raised in? no.... it wasn't quite...right. It was quiet, and warm, and smelt like strange things, food perhaps, and strange Phuzo.

He reached out with all his being to grasp onto this memory, to pull it apart so he might remember where...who? His breathing became heavier as he closed his eyes, his wings stretching out behind him as he focused on what he could see. He felt something warm on his head...a paw? it was huge! Who's was it? He tried to look up, at the violet phuzo beside him, whos sweet and earthy scent coiled around his heart like claws of fire. He couldn't see their face though, replaced by an unnerving void of static. Their voice was also garbled and hard to place, like listening through several walls. He tried so hard to get anything, a single word, a name, something!

          Sweat collected across his brow as he put every ounce of his strength into straining his ears, his eyes beginning to sting as tears began pooling at their corners, perplexing him farther but he couldn't get distracted by that now.

Who are you? He tried to cry, but his mouth would not open as this was not a vision he could control. He watched in anguish as the memory began to fade, darkness trickling into the edges until this strange phuzo was the only thing he could see, their staticky face already fading as that distant voice began to quiet into a deafening silence.

Then, just when he thought all hope was lost, he managed to take control of this strange vision, and in a moment his dream self sprinted forward, reaching out and grasping this larger paw so much like his own, shattering the darkness around him as her face, for one fleeting moment, became so clear. Like a lance through his heart, he audibly gasped as her loving gaze filled his vision, and her voice, rich and melodic, reached his ears for the first time in over a decade. Shattering the carefully constructed walls that had protected Ruin all these years, through untold years of torture and abuse at the hands of the Iyzmiskan Empire. 

"...good job, O/-//ck../-..//d--, bedtime now! Let's go my little love!.."