Oh how the mighty have fallen. Falling in love with a Cookie? That was beneath a dragon. Yet it happened nonetheless.

And Pitaya Dragon would outlive you. That was a fact, one they loathed. They dreaded the day when they would no longer be able to rest their head upon your lap, never hold you again, nor catch your gaze from afar. The day you would inevitably die, just like every Cookie. Pitaya protected you until then, but even the all-powerful greenish-red dragon could not stop the inevitable.

They clung to one thing: You promised to return. That in every lifetime you would choose to be with them. Every bit of the stubborn dragon they were, Pitaya would wait for the day their mortal Cookie returned to the valley to find them. And waited. And... waited.

Mountains would shift but their territory remained the same. They hadn't been in their Cookie form for ages, having no need to. Yet they did not terrorise travellers too dense to realise they were walking into the territory of a dragon. Perhaps falling for a Cookie had softened them.

"Tsssk," They hissed, blinking slowly. Pitaya lay atop the highest peak, resting their large jaw on talons as they watched over the valley. "I'm waiting," Just as you told them to. "Ssso come back to me."