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Rechazando al Fénix, Domando al Dragón
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Short filmTranscript
00:03On the night before my mating ceremony, my twin sister climbed into the bed of my beastmate, Finn.
00:09Now she can marry that monster in my place.
00:14As long as you're safe, my queen.
00:16I didn't know their swapping plan.
00:18In a world where spiritual beasts are gods, I am the lowest thing breathing.
00:23It's simple, but then Finn, the phoenix, rarest creature alive, chose me.
00:30I actually believed I was special to him.
00:32No, I wasn't.
00:34I only knew that until my sister Sienna's bonded dragon went rogue and lost control.
00:40Finn shoved me to bind with that monster without blinking.
00:45Here's the thing.
00:47Sienna and I are identical twins.
00:49Identical, except for the mark on my face.
00:52I wasn't chosen.
00:53I was kept as a spare.
00:55In the spiritual beast world, every human must complete a bond before their 18th birthday, or their body tears itself
01:02apart from the inside.
01:04Sienna and I came into this world together.
01:06I was born with the mark.
01:08She was born a masterpiece.
01:10Every beastman in the territory fought to bond with her.
01:13And she chose the most dangerous one alive.
01:16Alaric.
01:17The dragon.
01:17The most powerful being in our realm.
01:20Beastmen carry a sickness called the Feral Curse.
01:24When it takes hold, they hunt their bonded by memory alone.
01:28Drag them into a shared nightmare and torture them to death.
01:31I always knew Sienna would pick Alaric.
01:34Power calls to power.
01:35What I never saw coming was Finn choosing me.
01:39The day he announced our bond in front of the whole territory,
01:42I felt like I was drowning in honey.
01:45The air tasted sweet.
01:47Even the people who had spent years spitting on me blurred into background noise.
01:52I stopped hearing the insults.
01:54I forgot every ruse they'd left.
01:57I thought everything I'd survived was just the universe clearing the path to him.
02:02Except he never touched me.
02:05He never showed me his true form.
02:07When a beast man reveals their animal form to their bonded,
02:10it means love, trust, everything.
02:13Finn never once shifted in my presence.
02:16I couldn't find a single feather in the entire house.
02:19I told myself it was just his nature.
02:22That he was private.
02:24Then one night, I stayed up until 3am collecting morning dew, his favorite,
02:29and carried it to his room like an idiot with a smile on my face.
02:33And I saw the flash of scarlet.
02:35His true form.
02:37He was showing someone his true form.
02:39I stumbled through the door.
02:41That someone was my sister.
02:45The moment he saw me,
02:47Finn pulled his form back in like a fist closing around a secret.
02:52Sienna smiled.
02:53Soft, unbothered.
02:54Like a cat who knows she owns the room.
02:58Samara, you know Finn and I grew up together.
03:00Revealing his true form animal side to me,
03:02it's not a big deal.
03:03My chest felt like concrete poured inside it.
03:07I kept my face very, very still.
03:10Right, I just came to...
03:11The dew I'd carried all night had already tipped and soaked the floor.
03:15I stood there, hands empty, useless.
03:19Finn looked at me once, cold, brief.
03:21Nothing urgent?
03:23Then go.
03:24I walked out with my head down.
03:26Sienna's voice followed me down the hall like smoke.
03:30Finn and I grew up together.
03:31But I met him first.
03:33I met him first.
03:35And nobody cares.
03:37That winter, I found Finn half dead in the forest while I was out cutting wood.
03:42Red light pulsed off every inch of him.
03:45The feral curse.
03:47He was losing control.
03:48Every survival instinct I had screamed at me to run.
03:52His eyes stopped me.
03:54There was something in them I recognized that turned his fever patterns, held him down through
03:59the worst nights.
04:00His body healed.
04:01The curse didn't lift.
04:03Then one day, Sienna visited.
04:04She told me to leave him to die in wind.
04:07He came back to himself.
04:09Powerful.
04:10Radiant.
04:11Healed.
04:11After that, he started showing up.
04:13At my place.
04:14At Sienna's.
04:15I thought he was paying a debt.
04:17He was.
04:18Just not to me.
04:19Ugh.
04:20I was so absorbed in the past memory that I forgot to see the front.
04:25When I looked up, I met the deathly gaze of Alaric.
04:29You do look exactly the same as your sister.
04:33Except...
04:35His fingers slowly traced my...
04:37Finn got busier by the day.
04:39Busier arranging Sienna's bond ceremony with Alaric.
04:42I knew I should be grateful.
04:44I knew a bond at all was more than I deserved by this world's standards.
04:48But hearing about Sienna's ceremony?
04:50The flowers?
04:52The guests?
04:53The spectacle?
04:54Something pathetic inside me started imagining my own.
04:57I thought, fine, I'll plan it myself.
05:00I spent everything I had.
05:02Literally everything.
05:03I bought a young firebird nest tree.
05:05The rarest thing Finn could want as a bond token.
05:09And gathered armfuls of his favorite blooms.
05:11I showed up on the appointed day.
05:13I stood at the bond altar from sunrise.
05:16He never came.
05:17The crowd that gathered grew larger the longer I waited.
05:20Not to support me, but to watch.
05:23The flowers in my arms had died.
05:25I kept my chin down and my eyes on the ground.
05:29How could the phoenix ever want someone that ugly?
05:32He was obviously playing her.
05:34She's the only one who didn't know.
05:35Any other day, I would have put my fist through the face of whoever said that.
05:40Today, I just pushed through the crowd.
05:42Silent.
05:43Trying not to drown.
05:44Someone shoved me from behind.
05:46I hit the ground hard.
05:47But I caught the pants.
05:48Shattered.
05:49I walked home.
05:50And heard Sienna's voice floating out of Finn's room.
05:54Bright.
05:54Delighted.
05:55Finn.
05:56This dress is beautiful.
05:58You actually made this with your own hands?
06:00Sienna.
06:01As long as you like it.
06:03Finn's voice was as flat as always.
06:05But the upward curl at the end?
06:07That's small.
06:08The feathers.
06:09The feathers a phoenix only plucks for someone they love.
06:13Phoenix's body.
06:14Just to get the color right for her.
06:16He didn't come to my ceremony because of Sienna.
06:20All those years.
06:21Every glance Finn ever threw across a room always landed on her.
06:26Even agreeing to bond with me.
06:28I finally understood that too.
06:30It was just a reflex.
06:32A moment of wounded pride after she chose the dragon instead of him.
06:37Samara.
06:37They were right.
06:39Every bit of this was you lying to yourself.
06:41I made up my mind.
06:42I would dissolve the bond before it was complete.
06:45I wasn't going to wait around to be discarded with an audience.
06:49I started looking for an available beast man.
06:51Anyone willing to bond with me before my birthday.
06:54I finally tracked down Riven.
06:56A low rank lizard in the outer territory.
06:59And he agreed.
07:00I ran home.
07:01Told Finn.
07:02He didn't look relieved.
07:03He looked furious.
07:06Samara.
07:08You're serious?
07:10You'd bond with that low rank lizard instead of me?
07:15I didn't show up that day but I had a reason.
07:17You saw her.
07:18I stopped listening.
07:19I already knew the reason.
07:21Sienna's ceremony was approaching.
07:23He was busy.
07:24Too busy for me.
07:25Never too busy for her.
07:27Because of my face.
07:28Because I was the ugly one.
07:30Because apparently being born with a birthmark means I deserve to be stood up, mocked in public,
07:36and made to feel grateful for scraps.
07:39I closed my eyes.
07:41Yes, Finn.
07:43I'm bonding with Riven.
07:46Fine, Samara.
07:47Don't come crawling back.
07:48He said it like I was the one abandoning him.
07:51I genuinely could not locate his logic.
07:54I had no time to figure it out.
07:57My birthday was three days away.
07:59The next morning, I went to find Riven.
08:01Somehow, he'd changed his mind overnight.
08:04Apparently, someone had introduced him to a girl last night, and they'd already scheduled
08:08their ceremony for that afternoon.
08:10You think I would take someone else's reject?
08:14Then closed his door in my face.
08:17I stood there, lifted my hand to knock again, let it fall.
08:20People like me aren't meant to survive in a world like this.
08:23If I had maybe three days left alive, fine.
08:26I was going to spend them eating well.
08:28I walked to Mayfair Garden Cafe, the expensive coffee house I'd never dared enter before,
08:34and ordered everything that looked good.
08:36I was halfway through a plate of honey cake when I caught the conversation behind me.
08:40I heard the phoenix is giving Sienna the thousand-year heartwood, the one with healing properties.
08:45Healing?
08:46If it can heal, why didn't Finn use it years ago on Samara's face?
08:50Oh, wait.
08:51Obviously, because Sienna matters.
08:54Samara never did.
08:55He had a cure.
08:56He had a cure for my birthmark.
08:58He watched me get beaten, ridiculed, spat on my entire life, and he had the antidote in
09:05his pocket.
09:06He chose to give it to Sienna as a backup plan.
09:09Instead of giving it to me, tears ran down my face, and I bit my lip until it bled, to
09:15keep from making a sound.
09:16Tomorrow was my birthday.
09:18I was going to die.
09:19They would laugh at the way my body destroyed itself, so I would not cry.
09:23Not tonight.
09:24Not where anyone could see.
09:26I went home.
09:27Nowhere else to go in this world.
09:29The house was blazing with light.
09:31A crowd had packed the main hall, shouting over each other.
09:34Alaric, Sienna's dragon.
09:36They are.
09:38The feral curse had taken hold.
09:40Without a completed bond to tether him, Alaric wouldn't just hurt Sienna.
09:44He'd tear through the entire city.
09:46Dragons in rogue states always do.
09:49Everyone was screaming at Sienna to go through with the bond immediately.
09:52Only Finn was standing in her way, blocking her, keeping her back.
09:56But Finn couldn't hold the crowd forever.
09:59I looked at him one last time, but Sienna sheltered behind his back like she was made
10:03with glass, and walked to my room.
10:05His footsteps came fast.
10:07He threw open my door.
10:08Why was he here?
10:09His priority was right down the hall.
10:11Samara, you're the only one who can save her.
10:14Me?
10:15The dragon bonded with Sienna, not me.
10:17You and Sienna are identical, except for the mark.
10:20No one will know the difference.
10:21I opened my mouth to ask how I was supposed to remove a birthmark on three seconds notice.
10:26And then I remembered the conversation at Mayfair Garden.
10:30He already knew.
10:31Finn raised his hand.
10:32His expression showed something I might have called regret, but his arm was completely
10:37steady as it swung toward my throat.
10:40Samara, I'm sorry.
10:43But Sienna once saved my life.
10:45I can't let her...
10:47Those were the last words I heard, before the darkness took me.
10:51Finn.
10:51Even now, not one word about me.
10:54I came back to consciousness, in a moving carriage, dressed in red.
10:58Finn's dress.
10:59The one he made for Sienna.
11:03They weren't celebrating the bonds of Sienna.
11:06They were celebrating trading my life for their safety.
11:09The altar was already in sight.
11:11I didn't struggle.
11:12I walked up the steps, heard the crowd's murmur shift.
11:16A single, sharp inhale of surprise.
11:19The kind of sound people make when they see something unexpected.
11:22How funny.
11:23I had heard people gasp at my face my whole life.
11:26Always in revulsion.
11:28The one time they gasped in something else, I was walking toward my own death.
11:33My gaze found Finn at the base of the steps.
11:35He stood very still, staring up at me with an expression I couldn't read.
11:40This is what you wanted, Finn, isn't it?
11:42I looked away.
11:43Alaric stood at the center of the altar, radiating red light, barely controlled.
11:48His muscles looked like they were about to rip his clothes off.
11:51His eyes were burning.
11:52All animal.
11:53No human.
11:54But as soon as our eyes locked, a flicker of blue light flashed in his eyes.
11:59He got closer to me and cupped my face.
12:02You are different.
12:04The ceremony will now begin!
12:08We exchanged the bond tokens.
12:11Blood on both sides.
12:12The bond snapped into place.
12:14The nightmare dimension opened instantly and swallowed us.
12:17Not darkness.
12:19Not pain.
12:20Trees.
12:21Dense.
12:21Ancient.
12:22Green.
12:23A stream so clear I could count the stones at the bottom.
12:27A spotted deer drinking at the bank.
12:30This wasn't what the nightmare dimension was supposed to look like.
12:33And Alaric was gone.
12:35I turned in a slow circle.
12:37No dragon.
12:39No hulking rogue state predator.
12:41Something cool brushed my ankle.
12:44I looked down.
12:45A tiny white snake.
12:48Transparent scales.
12:50Two small delicate horns catching the light.
12:53Everyone who'd ever studied beastman biology could recognize those horns.
12:58Alaric.
12:59Reduced to his infant form.
13:01Small enough to fit in my palm.
13:03As long as there was breath, there was a way out.
13:06I carried baby Alaric through the valley.
13:11Trying every technique I knew.
13:14Healing herbs.
13:15Binding chance.
13:17Energy redirection.
13:18Nothing worked.
13:19He stayed small.
13:20His red light pulsed faintly but never faded.
13:23I gave up for the night and went foraging instead.
13:27In the morning, I woke up with something heavy on my chest.
13:32Baby Alaric had coiled himself on top of me at some point in the night and was fast asleep, rising
13:37and falling with my breathing.
13:40I picked him up by the scruff.
13:44I don't know what you heard about mate binding, but sleeping on top of people is generally considered a personal
13:50boundary violation.
13:51He stared at me, completely unapologetic.
13:55His tail, however, slowly turned red.
14:04His tiny horns flushed darker as I kept holding them.
14:08I raised an eyebrow.
14:09I spent the next ten minutes poking his horns until he'd turned fully pink.
14:13Only then did I put him down.
14:15Satisfied.
14:17I went back to trying to fix him.
14:19Nothing worked.
14:20I pulled some leaves off a low branch and shredded them while I thought.
14:23One leaf caught my skin.
14:25Blood welled from a clean slice across my fingertip.
14:28Before I could move, Alaric flicked his tongue and licked the wound.
14:32The bleeding stopped.
14:33The cut started closing.
14:35Then he convulsed.
14:36I scrambled for medicine.
14:39Useless.
14:41Because he was already growing.
14:45The feral curse, gone.
14:47He was healed.
14:49We could go home.
14:51But he was also the most famous, coldest, most untouchable alpha in the territory.
14:57And I had spent the last two days poking him and calling him a personal boundary violator.
15:04I didn't get to figure out.
15:06He'd already shifted back to human form and landed in front of me.
15:10He was exactly as described.
15:12Sharp jaw.
15:13Cold eyes.
15:14The kind of face that made people get out of his way before they knew why.
15:19Samara.
15:21Are you familiar with a prophecy passed down through dragon bloodlines?
15:25Can't say I am.
15:26Only the goddess can break the curse.
15:30That he knew my real name or what he was calling me.
15:33I've examined the surrounding space.
15:35This isn't the nightmare dimension.
15:37It's a separate realm.
15:39One that appears to belong to you.
16:09I had a private dimension.
16:10In front of the assembled guests.
16:12Sienna.
16:13The name on that banner is wrong.
16:16The one who bonded with the dragon was me.
16:18Samara.
16:19Not you.
16:20Prove it.
16:20How do we know you're even Samara?
16:22I smiled.
16:24I raised my hand.
16:26Sienna's birthmark.
16:27The one she'd painted on her face to impersonate me.
16:32Dissolved.
16:33I already knew she wouldn't have actually damaged herself.
16:36She sent her own sister to die in her place.
16:39How is Samara's face?
16:43The heartwood.
16:45Finn had it the whole time.
16:51The feral curse.
16:52It's lifted?
16:53You can't possibly be walking around if it's not.
16:56You tear this city apart.
16:59The curse is gone, Finn.
17:02Samara cured it.
17:04The entire room pivoted to look at me like a single organism.
17:08Finn looked like he'd been hit.
17:11Alaric, you don't have to protect her.
17:13I know my sister.
17:17I'm not protecting her.
17:19Samara is the goddess our bloodline's prophecy describes.
17:22Her blood neutralizes the feral curse.
17:26Finn's hand tightened on Sienna's arm.
17:29Did you forget, Finn?
17:31Your feral curse broke the same way.
17:33Sienna who saved you that winter.
17:37It was me.
17:44I left that sentence in the middle of the room, like a lit match, and walked out with Alaric.
17:50The best revelations are the ones you don't finish.
17:53Life in Alaric's estate was the best 17 days of my entire existence.
17:57Food brought to me, warm rooms, no one spitting on the ground where I walked.
18:02Then the requests started coming.
18:04Word had spread.
18:05A rogue beast man, a fire fox, had been brought to the gates.
18:09People wanted proof.
18:11Alaric and I looked at each other.
18:12Perfect timing.
18:13The crowd outside was enormous.
18:15I walked to the list.
18:17The crowd turned on me instantly.
18:19She's a monster.
18:20That birthmark was a sign all along.
18:23And she's poisoning him.
18:24I don't answer.
18:25I don't negotiate with panic.
18:27Alaric stepped in front of me.
18:29One look.
18:29That was all he did.
18:30One look at the crowd.
18:32And every voice stopped.
18:33I watched his back.
18:35The width of his shoulders.
18:36The steadiness of his stance.
18:38And something warm cracked open in my chest.
18:4117 years.
18:42First time someone stepped in front of me.
18:44The fire fox stopped convulsing.
18:46The red light faded.
18:47He blinked.
18:48Calm.
18:49Recognizably himself.
18:50The person who'd been loudest about poisoning him now looked like they might faint.
18:54Started moving through the crowd like a wave.
18:57Within a week, my name was on every street in the city.
19:00Sienna, I heard, hadn't left Finn's estate in days.
19:04The neighborhood children had discovered she made an excellent moving target.
19:08I was not sorry.
19:09A servant announced a visitor one evening.
19:11I already knew who it was before I reached the hall.
19:14Sienna, on her knees.
19:16Samara, tell them you went willingly.
19:18Please, just issue a statement.
19:20She was pale, shaking, still managing to make it sound like a command.
19:24My voice came out very quiet.
19:26Give me one reason.
19:28You watched them torment me for 18 years and said nothing.
19:32You knew I was the one who healed Finn.
19:34And you let him fawn over you anyway.
19:36And then you sent me to die in your place.
19:39Her mouth moved.
19:40No sound came out.
19:42She grabbed the hem of my sleeve and pulled like a child.
19:45Alaric had her escorted out.
19:47The moment he appeared in the doorway, something in me simply gave.
19:50The tears came without warning.
19:52I couldn't stop them.
19:53Didn't try.
19:54Alaric pulled me in without a word.
19:56I cried so hard I couldn't breathe.
19:5818 years of it.
20:00Finally out.
20:01I woke up in bed.
20:02Alaric was beside me, asleep.
20:04I remembered, distantly, grabbing his sleeve and refusing to let go as I passed out.
20:09My face was on fire.
20:11I had approximately 5 seconds to be mortified before a servant announced another visitor.
20:17Finn!
20:17He stood in the receiving room, looking wrecked.
20:19Like he hadn't slept.
20:21His eyes found my face and stayed there, unblinking, full of something painful.
20:25Samara, I'm so glad you're alive.
20:27You have interesting timing, Finn.
20:30I'm only alive because you swapped me for Sienna.
20:32So technically, I have you to thank?
20:34Samara, every word you say right now is a blade.
20:38Good.
20:38I turned to leave.
20:39He caught my wrist.
20:40Mara.
20:41My old name.
20:42The short version.
20:43The one he'd used before he stopped seeing me.
20:45I hadn't heard it in years.
20:46Finn, you didn't lose me.
20:48You put me down.
20:49Finn and Sienna stayed away after that.
20:51What they didn't stay away from was a scheme.
20:55Rumors spread.
20:56A second goddess had appeared.
20:58One more genu...
20:59And genuinely could not find it in me to care.
21:02But I noticed something.
21:05Dead animals kept appearing outside the city walls.
21:08Strange variety.
21:10Wrong season.
21:11Sienna, if you actually had this ability, you would have used it before tonight.
21:17Alaric's people quietly investigated.
21:19The count of dead animals matched the count of beastmen Sienna claimed to have healed.
21:24Exactly.
21:26She'd been extracting beastman essence.
21:29Killing animals to fake a cure.
21:32She was arrested within the week.
21:35I went to see her before sentencing.
21:37She was barely recognizable.
21:40Dirty.
21:41Small.
21:42The careful performance of yourself completely gone.
21:47This is your fault, Samara.
21:49You sent Alaric after me.
21:52I didn't.
21:53But go on.
21:54You...
21:55You and your goddess title.
21:57You ruined everything.
21:58And Finn is throwing me out.
22:00Screaming when I left.
22:02She died three days later.
22:04I had her remains collected.
22:06Whatever she was to me at the end, she was still the person I grew up beside.
22:12Then Finn appeared at the gate, and every inch of him was glowing.
22:16The feral curse.
22:17Taking hold.
22:19He didn't ask for my blood.
22:28Before I lose myself completely.
22:30Let this feather find the person it belongs to.
22:33I recognized it immediately.
22:35Finn.
22:36Do you know what the last thing Sienna ever said to me to me was?
22:39The lizard who rejected me?
22:42You arranged that.
22:43You sent someone to him the night before.
22:45You made sure I had no options left so I'd have to stay within reach.
22:50That night, Alaric came to my room and set a dragon scale on my desk without a word.
22:55I pushed it back three times.
22:58His face went darker with each refusal.
23:01I took the scale.
23:05Alaric's estate was enormous.
23:07I spent two weeks learning the layout and still opened the wrong door half the time.
23:11One wrong door led me to a room full of dried flowers.
23:14Thousands of them.
23:15Picking them in the market.
23:16Until one morning, a house steward appeared and said his employer was very pleased with my work and wanted ten
23:22full baskets delivered daily.
23:24I had never seen the employer's face.
23:26It was Alaric.
23:28I summoned him to the main hall that evening.
23:30He stood in the center of them, unsure what to do with his hands.
23:34I didn't realize dragons had so many quirks.
23:37Sleeping on people's chest.
23:39Agonizing moment.
23:42Big sis.
23:43We'd met before Finn.
23:45Before any of this.
23:45Him for being born without dragon horns.
23:47Me for the mark on my face.
23:49Left in the mountains to survive or die.
23:50He arrived after me, so obviously I adopted him immediately.
23:54We lived like that for years.
23:56Looking out for each other.
23:58Then his horns grew in.
24:00His family came to collect him.
24:02He didn't want to go.
24:03They tied him up.
24:04They told him if he fought it, they'd come back and kill me.
24:07He left to protect me.
24:09He found me again years later in the market.
24:13He was too afraid to approach.
24:16Afraid his presence would put me in danger.
24:19So he bought all my flowers instead.
24:22Every single day.
24:23At triple the market rate.
24:26He agreed to bond with Sienna.
24:28Because he knew what Finn was planning.
24:30He'd seen Finn watching Sienna.
24:31He knew the swap was coming.
24:33He let himself be exposed to the feral curse of my family.
24:37To give me a way out.
24:38His own family found out and took it further.
24:40An investment in keeping the dragon estate's power centralized in the younger side.
24:43He nearly died.
24:45So did I.
24:46And we both came out the other side.
24:49I turned the dragon scale over in my hands.
24:52A reverse scale I'd found out.
24:54The most sensitive point on a dragon's body.
24:56The thing they guard most carefully.
24:58He'd given it to me in a panic.
25:00Terrified, I'd changed my mind.
25:02I pressed up on my toes and kissed his horn.
25:06You absolute idiot, I said smiling.
25:10Why didn't you just tell me?
25:12He picked me up without any further discussion and carried me inside.
25:17I learned that night, thoroughly and at length, that dragon horns are not, in fact, for casual affectionate kissing.
25:27Followed, said nothing, just watched.
25:32Finn had disappeared.
25:33Some said dead.
25:34Some said he'd left the territory entirely.
25:37Today was my bond ceremony with Alaric.
25:40Some stories end with a bang.
25:42Mine ended with a bird being firmly escorted off the property.
25:47Works for me.
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