They had all gathered to move again, and Dragomir had followed behind the masses, in the tail end of the myriad faces of his herd. He was not naturally made to fit into groups, really, and while he didn’t feel any particular kinship with many of the individuals he called his neighbors, he did feel a deep respect for the land the Moon Goddess provided her people, and the women who had come to rule it.

He was still unaware that the Dragon Heart was gone, a fact that will sadden him once he arrives to the meeting, but her replacement is so suitable that he will be unable to dwell on it for too long. For now, he simply follows in tow, waiting to hear the words of consolation slip from the lips of his black matron, the woman who had guided him with only words on a path more lined with gold than steel lipped razors.

The forest is sad, he notes as they arrive to it, the once proud and gleaming wall broken and deteriorated as if they had been gone for many years rather than a single season. He gazes on it sadly as they trek past it, no thoughts given to the fact that the man who stands in the clearing is unknown to him, and that it is Kahlua alongside him rather than his queen he has come to know.

He comes to the observation in time, and looks quietly on the scene with a mental inquiry as to the meaning and implications of this change as he listens to the words travel from mouth to mouth. From what he understood of Mirage, her absence meant only one thing: she was gone. He hoped it was under fair means, that she had simply slipped into the darkness and escaped a fate terrible as that of the unicorn creatures he had met – even if it meant she had abandoned them. He could bare no thoughts on terrible things happening to the ebony queen who had been, as far as he was concerned, a fine and hard to replace ruler and consulate for heavy thoughts.

One of the new rulers, it would seem, has wings; it draws a sense of ire into the heart of the young man that is unbidden, the pegasus’ rise to status breaking a rule he had set for himself long ago.

He does not wish to follow one who is not of equine heritage, and he doesn’t know Kaj beyond his appearance to judge his worthiness. At least, he thinks to himself, he stands alongside the finest equine woman to walk to the kingdom aside from the Dragon Heart herself. She is as beautiful as he remembers her being on their first meeting, a gleaming figurine of ivory on pitch that holds his eyes despite his secondary thoughts to see who all has made it home alive.

It only makes her more desirable, and he feels his heart ache as his looks upon her, the rise of fluttering in his guts that he has almost grown accustomed to, perhaps even enjoys in some way.