He notices the way her wings fall even before he commences to telling the weird unicorn off, something he’s sure is in relation to her family that was not mentioned in her breathless tale, one that he had attempted to remain polite about while in front of one who knew none of these people which she rambled on about. Her enthusiasm is endearing, so different from the brooding and quiet thing he had been at her age, coming to life only when learning where Semira endlessly blazed with its furious light; it saddens him to see her loose any of her glowing aura as she has when presented with the truth that he had not seen her sister or father, the way she cautiously skirts about the two men as Dragomir challenges the strangers honor.

Over-zealous, he thinks, though he should get used to it. He generally is. It is probably for the best that the other stallion stays calm and brushes of his words; he’s not truly tested just how short or quick to burn his fuse is, and the only prior experiments had proven that he was less like dynamite and more of a land mine.

One wrong step…kabloom.

Still, as she explains why she can’t go home with the foul mouthed stallion, he can’t help but notice the light weight of her tail embracing him after she moves to his side, and that his ears have fallen back atop his poll while yelling at the dual horned beast. They rise slowly, right after his mood, one dark rimmed lobe leaning towards his young friend and the other partially listening for a reaction from the other man present.

He almost winces with emotional hurt as she mentions those she knows; how many were truly missing, not accounted for in her regaling of the adventure she had been on? Off the top of his head, he could not recall seeing Lace, Mirage, Kaj, or Amaris since returning to the Edge, among many others who he had faces for and no names. It was not that he was particularly fond of any of them but Mirage, truly, but the words of Quilyan have lingered with him since the herd meeting.

He’d said he would die, for any one of them, and Dragomir had balked at the idea at first hearing, doubtful that someone would die for a stranger simply because they followed the same herd. But, the more he thought about it, the more he desperately wanted that truth to be so; it fit so well with what Mirage had asked of him, to love without boundaries, to see beyond the eyes first glance.

With these thoughts, he sees the unicorn deflate and trod sullenly away after his brief words of departure, a curious wonder finding a hold in his features as he wonders if this is not the first time he has failed in asking this question, why it was so sudden to interrupt the stories of dragons. Keep your head up, he should say, and he knows it, but instead he’s silent, turning back towards Semira with a soft smile on his face that seems to want to apologize for the other male’s rudeness in light of her diplomatic explanation.

It truly hides that he does not want to tell her what he knows of her home.

So, your aunt… is she as pretty as you and Amaris?" he smiles wryly as he lowers his eyes and cranes his neck to peer at her from one blue orb, "I got to meet her, once, before the darkness came. Your sister, that is. I… I haven’t seen her in a long while. I’d hoped she was with you…you and…"

Mirage, he wants to say, but it dies in his throat along with his hopes, slowly replaying the list she had rattled out again and again and not finding the Queen of Dragons in it anywhere.