The dreams had been coming frequent and vivid since Serpent of Paradise had found herself expecting. She wasn't sure why, whether it was from changes in her body, that new life growing inside her, or some magical influence from the Motherfather. The latter, she knew, was a bit of a long shot, but had she not received their gifts through what had started as a dream?

Had it been a dream? The doe still didn't know. Had long since given up trying figure it out. The Motherfather moved in mysterious ways.

This night, this dream, wasn't quite like that one, but it was bigger, more. That's how it felt to her once she'd woken from it.

She remembered the flutter of colorful feathers, and the rush of powerful wings. The coolness of smooth scales, and the bright flick of a forked tongue. The sense of the ground beneath her belly as she wove effortlessly throw tall trees and fallen logs, the crumble of dirt or the hiss of grass. Water lapping against her scales as she moved in an effortless glide across the water. Sinuous and elegant, silent as a whisper.

She remembered, too, the feel of bark as she worked her way up the crooked trunks of tall trees, or the press of the wind beneath her wings as she left those trees, gliding on invisible currents or air as she flew above the swamp.

It all felt so real, so wonderfully free. Waking had come with an almost crushing re-acquaintance with reality.

As she lay there, trying to recall the details, she heard the familiar whisper of Radiance gliding towards her, and the bright doe smiled fondly down at the feathered serpent. "Was it you that I was dreaming about?" She wanted to know, her voice a low and careful murmur. "Or were you merely the inspiration of it?" She touched her nose to the snakes, humming an amused note as Radiance's tongue tickled against her cheek. "It felt so real. Do you think it was real?"

Radiance offered no insight, only quiet companionship, and the doe lay her head on the serpent's muscular body, sighing out a tired note. "I liked that dream." She'd liked that body, the freedom it had given her. Like the freedom she was offered when she took the form of a bird, but sturdier, more versatile.

The doe yawned, nuzzling her head against Radiance's side, eyes closing to bare glowing slights in the darkness. She could hear Consume sleeping soundly, the heavy rise and fall of his breaths. It was calm and comforting. "Stay with me," she asked softly, a tired murmur, and yawned a quiet note. It wouldn't take long to fall back to sleep.

She hoped she could return to the dream once more. The scales and the feathers, the land and the sky. She longed to indulge, if even for just a few short hours.

The serpent silently flicked their tongue before lowering their head to join the doe in her sleep.