Hopes pitched high, the girl prayed he would meet them. Lace was the stallion her mother loved (one of them, anyway), the stallion her mother left the Qian with, the stallion her father held great respect for, the stallion who had always been there, a silent guardian, a comrade, a trusted friend. That a dragon was bonded to his soul probably sung to her as well - dragons would always play a role in her life, whether they made up half of the blood that ran in her veins or not. They were something that, despite her knowing them intimately, would always be a mystery - even as she discovered draconic facts about herself, she was surprised. Fajira was as much part of this as Lace was, and Amaris felt her presence through the interaction the White had with her own spiritual companions, and she loved the little dragon as much as she did Lace.

He spoke, and her hopes were realised - he spoke wisdom and truth, the same she would have expected form her own mother, or perhaps her father, had he been the talking sort. Joy filled her as Lace spoke of venturing to the Throat, and Amaris found herself more comfortable with the decision, excited almost, to venture into this new life, to met new people and experience new things, with a few familiar faces to hold her metaphorical hand. The smile upon her lips grew from hopeful to genuinely pleased, her eyes glowed with the happiness that swelled within her breast as her muzzle bumped happily against his own. Though his comment about the Sun Lord's wrath did give her pause, she remembered that she had witnessed his wrath before, first-hand - and she realised that she was surprisingly comfortable with making his blessed lands her home.

Then the metallic steed kept speaking, and the girl found herself confused with a loss of identity once more. He spoke of not changing what was at his core, but how could she knew whether she had changed when she didn't even know what her core was? She knew he was trying to be comforting, but her immature mind could not process all that he spoke of, the sure contentment that he knew who he was - "I don't know what my core is." She said quietly, shrugging her winged shoulders with a defeatus expression upon her façade. "I don't know who I am." A heat, a fire, had sparked behind her eyes, though it was swiftly doused with the shine of tears that soon followed. They didn't spill over the fold of her eyelid, but her look of despair communicated well enough the sense of loss that currently occupied her mind.

"I don't know who I am, or what I am. I am a sister, a daughter, a friend to those who say they know me. But then to those that have only just met me, I am a monster, a beast, a thing unworthy of their acceptance no matter how many times I have tried to prove otherwise.. How am I to know who or what I am when I am never given a chance?" Her words were rambled and rushed, full of the passion and desire she had to be just like everyone else, to be able to hide the scales that marked her as different, to, even just for a moment, know what it was to be wholly equine, wholly accepted without having her motives questioned by some predatory background as defined by her blood.

"My family are the only ones who can see beneath the surface of these scales." It should have been enough, surely. It should have satisfied the belle and her need for approval, for acceptance.

Then why didn't it?

The dragon-girl stood before the stallion, perhaps the most honest friend she knew who wasn't linked to her by blood, her breaths stretching her ribcage with each inhalation and exhalation, determined but altogether lost.

@[Lace]