It was beautiful. But the beauty of the sunrise was not what made this the moment of peace that it was for him.

The rising sun forced Goliath to lift his wing to shield his eyes, but he was already looking at Elisa as she turned to him. He brushed her hair behind her ear, saying nothing as he held her gently at his side and considered his response.

He let his talons slip from her hair, thinking of the loss of the Wyvern Clan, the first time the world as he knew it was destroyed completely. Then, he had asked for eternal sleep rather than face that trial alone. He remembered the battle on the ship with the Nightmare King, when a great evil had played upon that despair that had made him choose sleep instead of that same, lonely battle.

He looked towards the sunrise again, sighing deeply. "I think I have been lost, Elisa. For a long time." It was as much an admission to himself, as to her. "It is so easy to despair without my loved ones, when I should be strongest for them."

He looked at her again, considering that for so long, all he had wished for was this - a moment to see her again, to lay to rest all his doubts. "Yet seeing you again has brought peace to my heart. I am afraid to lose that peace, Elisa, but if I awoke and you were gone once more . . . I could go on now, with this moment to give me strength."

How could he not? How could he wish for sleep again, with the chance for moments like this to protect?

There was always more he wanted to say to her, always more that he hoped he would have the chance to say, at least once.

But this was not his last chance. And with hope, that last chance would not come.

"Thank you for this strength you give me."