No matter for how long of a time she soared, the sights never dropped in their glory. Her eyes were glowing in the darkness. They darted to the side as she released a high croon of pleasure and dove, the air whistling past, the ground seeming to move upwards rather than have her move towards it. Her wings flared, and she shot back up again, back towards the stars and closer to the beauty again. She pulled in her starry appendages and spun, maneuvering herself in complicated patterns in the sky, dancing for her goddess, for her ancestors, and for her own enjoyment.
Despite all of the excitement, and all of the vigor of the night, there was an odd . . . emptiness that resided somewhere in her heart, a void of sorts that frustrated a part of her. It was unaffected by the mood now enveloping her. Why? No matter what she did, no matter which way she flew, no matter what angle she gazed towards the glimmering heavens, she couldn't fill this one spot of coldness. Unfortunately, it was familiar once she recognized it, and she couldn't help but feel her carefree mood drop a note. It was still there. There had to be a way to fill it.

There had to be [i]someone[/i] out there to make it whole.

When this thought came, she fell into silence, her crooning calls ceasing. Suddenly, the situation had turned from a lovely nightly fly to a silent, hopeless search. Loneliness washed over her all over again, quite unexpectedly. Even as the spirits soared at her sides and carried her forward, she couldn't help but feel this empty spot pang at her heart. Her wings, which were steady in a glide, now beat up and down, up and down, allowing her to gather speed. The forests were a blur far beneath her, yet the stars . . . they remained steady, still. It was a fascinating contrast. She knew there were probably living things crawling about within the trees and patches of land that occasionally and briefly interrupted the sea of green. Many most likely had mates and even small families of their own.

The mood changed too quickly for Lumen's liking.

Silence, along with the ambient whistling of winds underneath her wings and at her sides, reigned once more. Though peaceful, the loneliness was like a weight attached to her tail, like her mind was trudging through mud. It was detaching; it sent her soul adrift from her body in a way not at all good, yet not quite horrible, either. Thoughts. Hopes, Wonders. A feeling that could never be explained through words. She remained like this for a long time, with the grand pearl of the skies drifting across calmly, sluggishly, towards it's destination on the next horizon
All the while, she would dip back into her senses and check around. She took in the sights, the scents, and the sounds warily. Even if no human could keep pace with her own speed in the air, and even if a human could never have the aim or the patience to injure her at the altitude she flew, she was still, [i]still[/i] careful. Natural instinct? A burden of sensitivity from a wretched past? She thought, knew, in fact, that it was both. She took in air through her nose and released it in a note of her downtrodden mood.

[i]. . . Wait.[/i]

Lumen blinked. She took in air through her nose again, pulling up and slowing herself until she was simply hovering, wings beating strong to keep her in the air.
There was something else that she caught.
It wasn't . . . natural. As in, it wasn't something you could capture from normal surroundings. This was a scent that stood out. There was a slight breeze as she hovered still, and it carried a scent that confused her mind, her instincts, and her heart.
It was a brisk smell. It was an alluring smell. It was a [i]draconian[/i] smell. She had captured scents like this before, long, long ago, when her kind was still in the reaches of the world. It was a scent that made her body tingle with instinctual excitement. But as her body shivered, her mind attempted to repress it. [i]This can't be true[/i], a voice whispered in a disbelieving uncertainty, [i]the winds are deceiving you, Lumen, this cannot possibly be the scent of another living dragon.[/i] Her senses rose, and screamed at her to follow it, for it was fading with the shift of the breeze, but her mind was scolding her for believing such natural trickery.

Her hope, though, was what leaped into the fray and won.

Her hopes risen only half-heartedly, in case this truly [i]was[/i] a form of derision by the earth, caused her to snap back to attention with her senses. She huffed, her wings doing a beat forward to move, turning from one side to the other in shifting paths as she sought out the very faint trail of the mysterious smell. Even if it was nothing, her curiosity was now pressing for her to find out, and to rest this curious case. She needed to find and confirm to have her thoughts be put to rest.