Nothing can come close

Plague sobbed heavily into his mother's chest and went limp in her embrace as she held him tighter. Time snuck by slowly until the boy's cries were spent. But when he could finally cry no more, he sought to cling to the memory of his dream. While they had not spoken in his dream, they had been playing, and Plague could find comfort in the happiness of his subconscious. At least he got to meet his dad, not knowing him would be far worse. With a hefty sigh, the boy peeled himself back from his mother. Peering up at her with those eyes, the prince tilted his head. "Momma...can you teach me something? I want to learn, I am bored." Waving his white tail, he looked up with his ornately painted features and flexed his spikes excitedly.

He wanted to be distracted from sadness, not to bury it, but to heal it. The boy needed to do something with himself. It wasn't long before he was licking at her maw and spinning in circles. "See? I am done being sad for now. I want to do something." He twirled a little more and pointed at a nearby bush with small yellow flowers on it. Pointing at the desert roses with his pink nose, the albino prince asked his mother the most important question. "What's this?" Looking back at his mother, he gave a small grin, waiting expectantly for an answer.