The response elicited from the colt does everything to amuse the devious child. The dragon does not usually take pleasure in mockery nor bullying - and indeed, she had not intended her words to be taken so - but in the event that they were interpreted that way, she could not help but find his indignation and sheer denial of the fact utterly hilarious. She did not laugh though, not wanting to shame him further, but instead a low purring sound seemed to start somewhere between the region at the back of her throat and the area where her neck connected to her barrel. It was a sound unique to dragons, a croon of pleasure that could also be soothing to hears who appreciated it.

The boy's demeanour changes as he begins introducing himself, becoming flushed with confidence and a strange longing? The girl did not know what to make of the expression - did he long to be like her? To have companions as she did? It was a new reaction, a new situation for her to deal with. Greed was never something she had come across - no, she had come across it before. Before her sickness, before she had joined the Throat with her cousin, she had gone to the Endless Blue, and had seen a creature step through a portal to live upon these lands. But a mob awaited the creature, and the girl was ashamed to say that she had helped its destruction by doing nothing at all to stop the others from killing it. An egg had rolled from the monster's womb; Amaris was reminded of the greed that had driven the mob that day, for what else could have driven all of those souls to be so violent, if not for some kind of gain?

Companions shouldn't be treated as a commodity, she sighed internally, reflecting on the memory with a sadness washing over her. She received nothing but ominous silence from her glowing friends, who preened themselves before the boy, pleased (as dragons were prone to be) by the admiration.

At Volterra's query upon her appearance, the girl reapplies the smile upon her features. It was such a unique question that she could not help but find pleasure in providing a response. Her voice took on a mystical tone, her eye filled with the thrill of being told this tale for the first time, and the joy she felt that she was able to tell it again.

"I was told a tale once, of a beautiful mare, her coat as pale as the Moon, that shined as bright as the Sun. She met a steed as dark as the night, and together they found love. But by the time the stallion rose the next day, the mare had disappeared.

"She had returned to her true home, where she shed her equine form and became a silver dragon." Here, the golden child paused, considering the colt with her honey-coated gaze. "I am not speaking of a dragon who bonds with equine souls, like my friends here, or your father's dragon. I am speaking of a dragon queen whose teeth were longer than your face, whose wings could fell forests with a single beat." She spoke seriously, in the tone of a being who had met this mystical creature. And indeed, Amaris had - the queen she spoke of was her grandmother, her father's mother, and she ruled over the lands they had visited during the times of darkness plaguing Helovia.

"She laid a clutch of eggs," the girl lowered her tiara to the level of the colt before adding, "all of them much larger than you," she winked to soften the taunt. "And from one of the eggs, hatched a bronze dragon like no other. The tail of a dragon swung heavily behind him, and yet he walked on hooves instead of claws, and ate grass instead of meat." The last part was not a complete truth - just like her father, Amaris was an occasional omnivore.

"His name was Vikram, and he is my father."

Having finished her tale, the girl shuffled quietly, awaiting a response from the boy, wondering how he would take the tale of her heritage.


@[Volterra]

Daniel Schiersner @ flickr & larfsalot @ deviantart