Eventually the dragonness stopped being unconscious and started being asleep. Her closed eyes began to dart rapidly and her expression became fretful. It was all replaying...

[i]Hieri in the museum, stealing the orb, killing the guards, running away from her. The chase. Over the edge. Down down. Storming like crazy. Past the point of no return. The battle!

Shinrai whined in her dream, weakly rejecting what she already knew was happening, had happened, was fact. 

BETRAYED!

It hurt so bad, as bad as the first time. He hurt her. But every time she hurt him, she hurt herself too. You can't win when you're fighting someone you love. But she did fight him. She clawed and bit and ripped and gouged until she got that orb back. 

And then what? She had it in her jaws. She was looking at him, with tears in her eyes. She already knew she couldn't go back up. So she had to just... get away from him. But he was already coming back at her. But she couldn't keep fighting him! She loved him too much! She wished... 

No, NO! She'd only wished... She hadn't meant to WISH wish!

She'd caused that all-powerful lightening to strike. SHE had.[/i]

This time Shinrai keened and came awake with a gasp. Which turned into a sob. She would've cried then and there, but when she tried to raise her arms and sit up she found that her body was too heavy. This kicked her instincts into gear and distracted her from her grief. 

She struggled to breathe evenly and quietly and strained her senses to get a picture of her surroundings before she moved. So far nothing alive seemed near but she couldn't just lie here unprotected. So she flexed her claws, readying to attack, lethargy or not. She drew her lips back in a threatening snarl. Then her emerald eyes flew open to fix on...