Reichet tilted his head as he considered Riel's question. "Lonely? I used to think that, but now I think...I'm happier like this." It was a strange thing, but considering his own faults, he felt less stress when he didn't have to be around others. Although he appeared quite calm next to Riel, he wasn't quite. He'd only felt truly comfortable with another once before and since then, he'd become far worse in his time alone. "I'm an immortal being. Time and connections with others are not the same for me. It's not my purpose in life. Though I suppose I don't mine...small anomalies like this among company."

The dragon stretched, lifting his hands to the sky. Light made silver scales sparkle and gleam. Once his whole body had been like that, seemingly made of metal and yet supple and strong like only a dragon could be. "And what is your purpose?" Riel lowered his hands and let them rest against his lap.

"Mine is to break this curse, but failing that as I have been, I've resigned myself to trying to find someplace pleasant to live out the rest of my long life." He glanced over his shoulder at the blue eyed immortal. "You haven't heard anything about a fruit that freezes time, have you?"

Reichet's gaze softened as he looked down at the lake. Toward one side, the waters lay calm and a pristine blue. The waterfall bounced along the rock cliffs and created tremors in the water though, constantly stirring them and keeping everything fresh and new. "My purpose is simple and all encompassing. To protect and to heal. How can I have another when I was born from the very lake itself?" He could not even step foot outside of the forest's boundaries.

He glanced over at Riel, a mix of suspicion and sympathy in his gaze. "What caused the curse? A fruit I know nothing about though my lake-" Reichet cut himself off. It's true the waters had their own specialness, though perhaps not specifically what Riel was looking for. It's why he once promised his land to that once beloved man because of his pureness and good heart. That man gained Reichet's trust so completely when no one else could.

Born of the lake... It made sense now, that the nature spirit guarded it so jealously. Reichet's life was probably tied to the waters intimately, and to the health of the forest. The dragon gazed at it, seeing it's beauty reflected in the spirit sitting by his side. Riel was by no means an expert on what humans thought were beautiful, but he was certain they would be dazzled by Reichet.

"The curse was caused because of my greed. I tried to steal something I coveted, and was cursed by my own kind." He would let Reichet come to his own conclusion. Riel refused to speak the truth, that he had tried to steal another dragon's mate. It was unthinkable to do such a thing, and yet he had tried anyway.

So it had been greed that cursed Riel in the end. Although Reichet did not know the whole story, he decided it was a most worthy thing to curse someone over. One of the deadly sins, it was nothing to look over. He shifted slightly to put just the slightest bit more distance between the two of them. He did it without thinking. Only, he worried about his own ability to stay pure when nearly unpure things. For the sake of his lake, to always be pure. "I see..." he muttered. "Then weren't you cursed rightly? Why should you try to change it at all?" Weren't these the kinds of divine punishments that were meant to be learned from?

"Because my greed was founded upon love, or what I thought was love." Riel spat on the ground. "I coveted another dragon's mate. I tried to woo her away from him." He lifted his hands, looked at the clawless things with disgust. "He cursed me to look like this! Cursed me to wander the world looking like this! All I ever wanted was to find a mate, my mate. If she had rejected me, I would have gracefully bowed out." He was lost in his memories of the scarlet scaled beauty and her golden mate. The pair of them were the cause of his misery. And there was nothing to be done about it.

Reichet stared at the lake and stayed silent for a full minute. His mind sifted through the knowledge slowly in the sort of deliberate way of someone not used to a fast paced life. He thought as if he had all the time in the world to do so and he still didn't come to any clear conclusions as to how he felt about Riel's curse. It was a curse after all. For love? Should that change anything? He wanted not to have to think about such things because they made him a softer individual. "So it was a story like that. Love...get's us all into trouble doesn't it?" he finally said with a sigh.

Riel nodded. "It certainly seems so." The dragon sighed. "I miss flight, more then anything else. The freedom of it! This form, there's nothing to compare ... To elicit that kind of feeling ..." His eyes misted over. With a soft sigh, he let himself fall upon the ground, arms spread wide, so he could stare at the sky.

Shifting slightly, Reichet turned to look at Riel. The words the dragon said had him curious and confused. He glanced up at the sky. It served as a nice backdrop, but he felt nothing looking at it or thinking about being closer to it. He held back his long strands of hair as he looked down at Riel. "Freedom? I thought it was a human concept. I'm afraid...I'm not quite sure what it is."

The dragon sighed. "It isn't only humans who believe in freedom ... In having a choice in what kind of life they want to live. Society comes with rules, with restrictions ... People are expected to act in a certain way." He shrugged. "Even dragons have rules, and expectations ..." He had tried going against them. That was how he'd become what he was, a travesty.

Reichet's brow furrowed. He understood the tufts of grass that grew around them and the towering trees behind which had grown unhindered for centuries. He wondered how the life he lived appeared to someone else. Freedom still had no meaning to him. "To you...I suppose I must look trapped here? But to me, the world has no rules. There is only the laws of nature. A perfect web built up of millions of pieces. Everything just is as it is meant to be."

The dragon sighed. "I wish my world were so simple." He looked to the other man with envy. If his world had been like that, then he would always have been free. Riel wouldn't have lost his wings. "Why do we have to make things so complicated for ourselves?" He shook his head.

Reichet did think his life was special. He never tried to tell anyone to live his way because he wouldn't intrude, but he did dislike the manipulations others used to make their lives simpler. Somehow it always had the opposite effect. "I don't know why. I know too little about the outside life. But I'm glad someone agrees with this simplicity. Many...don't."

"Because they can't imagine it, living a life so simple and carefree." The dragon shrugged. "People are trapped by themselves, just as often as by others. Trapped by what they think they need, and getting it all confused with what they want." Riel looked at the sky once more. It was peaceful. Serene in a way most places weren't, even those the dragons reserved from humanity's touch. And it was a contrast from the careful way the elves took care of their forests. They groomed their homes, or at least some elven communities did.

Reichet followed Riel's gaze up to the sky. He'd seen the same sky for ages, though he didn't measure time as humans did. The sky changed from time to time. More clouds a little heavier than before, but otherwise change did not touch this forest. He saw to that. "You are a better companion than I thought. You're views are different from the masses...actually...a bit like him." Reichet quickly shook his head though. Not similar at all. Except for the moments they were even when the over all effect was two very different people. He didn't know why he found Riel as tolerable to be around as Nathaniel.

Riel sat up. Glanced back at the lake, then at the being born from its heart. "Does that mean that someday I would be able to see the lake from its shores?" He knew that to ask for such a sight now, was an impossible thing. But later? Perhaps. It was such a beautiful place. A place perfect to rest, to relax and recover... That was what the forest was quickly becoming.

"N-" The response started without Reichet having to think, but he stopped before he fully said no. Why couldn't he follow through and say no so easily? It must have been because he felt sentimental in that moment. He couldn't say and he hardly wanted to admit feeling soft. Instead, he frowned slightly and wrapped his arms around his knees. "I don't want to be asked such a thing now. What will come to be in the future, I will say nothing to."

Water fell from the sky. Riel leaned back, eyes closed, so he could feel it slide slowly across his skin. The rain drummed against the leaves, while the wind made the branches sway and sound like waves. It was luxurious! To simply settle down and be, while the whole world kept on going no matter what you did, without a care.

"Do you like the rain?" Riel loved it. The world was cleaned, all the old washed away with the passing of the rain. And the fresh way the earth smelled, the dragon couldn't get enough of it.

Reichet turned to watch the water slide down tree trunks. He followed the water down with his eyes until he was looking at Riel with his eyes closed and water following the curves of his face. Holding a hand out, Reichet watched the droplets pool in his palm. He could feel the cool wetness on him as familiar as the waters of the lake. He found himself smiling. "Yes. Water is my home and it...always fills me with peace." Far more than it just being a ncessary element of nature, he simply loved the rain and everything looked more beautiful in it. Rock, person, plant-everything. "Doesn't the world look more alive with a glow now?"

He opened his eyes, and glanced at the trees. The leaves were transparent, with thousands of droplets catching and reflecting what light there was. "The world is so beautiful right now, looking at everything from here. " He sat up. "It almost makes up for losing the skies."

"You have no idea what flight is like. The wind carries you over the land, and it feels like the clouds are holding you up. When you take a dive, when you cut through the air ... There's no feeling quite like that kind of freedom and joy." Riel's eyes lifted, despite the falling rain. The clouds were grey and white, with shining transparent parts where the sun tried to pierce through. He knew what it was like to hover above storms, to dive through them and battle the elements to stay afloat.

Riel's descriptions slid over Reichet's skin like the rain. Soothing and beautiful, he could nearly feel what flying would be like. Surely what it would feel like to ride the waterfall down into the lake. Teetering on the edge there was always a moment of tenseness before suddenly soaring. He stood smoothly, a smile sweeping over his face. "The trees here are very tall. If you climbed one in the rain with the sway of the wind, you could at least pretend," he said before grabbing hold of a nearby tree trunk and hoisting himself up against it. He wanted to help, although he didn't think he could do much. On a rainy day like this, his soft side always came out.

Pretending to fly? Riel sat up and watched the nature spirit scramble up one of the overly tall trees. "I suppose I could give it a try." He glanced at his soft hands, at the tiny claws. How was he supposed to get up one of those trunks without falling and hurting himself? Reichet made it look so deceptively easy. Even so, Riel did try. He wrapped his arms around a tree trunk and tried to shimmy up. He jumped, and tried to scramble up a low hanging branch, and ended up falling down instead.

Reichet had long limbs and the sort of grace that came from living in a forest and basically being a forest for many human life spans. Climbing came naturally to him. When he looked down from a few branches up though, he saw Riel tumble down after not going far up. "Oh my. You can't climb like that." He chuckled before sliding down to the lowest branch. "Move fast, don't hesitate or you'll lose energy. See there...there," he indicated a few places along the trunk. "They don't look much like ridges, but it's enough to grab hold of."

Riel stared at the ridges dubiously. "That seems like a very difficult task for someone whose hands are still a novelty. My claws were never this mobile. " He wriggled his fingers and pressed them against the tree bark. Rough, ridged, certainly a novelty to his soft hands. Though in truth, Riel hadn't thought about it over much since his transformation until then.

Tilting his head so that his hair draped down to one side, Reichet regarded the dragon. Lifting one hand, he looked at his long pale fingers which bore no marks of a working life despite where he lived. Were hands like this really so ungangly to use? "Even if it is difficult, you have to get used to the body you have now. It is not a bad one after all." He grinned and held out a hand toward Riel. "If you must climb up a little ways, I'll pull you up to the branch and we can sit here."