The Dangers of Yesterday

epilogue

this day would surely go down in history.

heliconia waited impatiently, tapping her long, well-manicured talons against the marble below her claws. "where in pyrrhia are those little bastards?" she hissed, the sweetness usually coating the hybrid's words having faded away along with with her patience.

"you shouldn't be saying such things, heliconia! they're going to be our equals, from this day forth" another voice responded. these words came from sage, a small grey and pink speckled dragon with a myriad of frills going down her spine. sage stood alongside the other goddesses in a line that bended around a large golden circle etched into the floor. each of the five goddesses in the room sat impatiently, tails swishing across the floor, murmurs slipping from their half-open mouths.

"ah, sorry for the delay" a foreign voice hissed slowly, seeming to ooze from all corners of the magnificent area at once. it sounded like something slithering across the room in the most uncomfortable way possible, and it forced five sets of eyes to snap to attention. suddenly, as if drifting up from the earth itself, three shaded figures stood perfectly still inside of the golden ring. they were oddly translucent and ghost-like.

"nori, risana, corey- we have a proposal for you" sage continued. her pale pink eyes carefully pinned down each of the outcast's features like a hawk stalking prey. the figures simply stared back with three wide pairs of cold, unblinking yellow eyes. "we all know we've not had the cleanest history-" sage started, but was interrupted by a murmur.

"you can say that again-" a larger brown and orange dragon grunted. she towered over sage, and her very scales seemed to emit lava-like heat.

"caldera-" sage hissed under her breath, casting a quick glance to the bulky brown dragon. clearing her throat, sage again plastered on a thin smile and took a step closer to the golden hoop. "-but i believe it's time for a new start. i propose that we make peace, make a promise to not interfere with one another. you outcasts stay and er- /defend/ your respective areas- and we'll stay monitoring the world from up here." sage forced her smile ever wider as the ghosts kept their eyes focused on the small goddess. silence quickly fell. the outcasts didn't even turn to look at one another, but some odd and otherworldly understanding that sage couldn't grasp seemed to pass between them in that seemingly eternal moment.

"so, it's peace you're after, isn't it? well, i don't see any harm in that" the same voice that had signaled the arrival of the figures drawled. it came from the mouth of a dark green, ancient-looking seawing who sage had addressed as nori. every second around nori made sage's skin crawl. it felt like the seawing's unblinking eyes were melting sage's false confidence right off her face. the other goddesses seemed on edge at the outcasts' cold gazes as well. although sage gritted her teeth, she nodded and pressed on.

"so we have a deal?" sage pressed, eager to get the strained words out of her lips. nori flashed her a thin smile, although her eyes did not move.

"i believe so" nori replied. sage nodded, beginning to extend a pink talon to shake on it, but then recalled that nori and the others were just ghosts in this heavenly realm. then, as quickly as they came, the outcasts seeped back down into the earth. sage could still see their eyes boring into her long after the peace had been ensured.