She thanks his dragons rather than him, and his brow knits into a frown. That's...odd. The red and gold play their part well, preening and strutting beneath her praise, studiously ignoring the crestfallen stallion beneath them. He hadn't been expecting her to fall into his arms - and other places - but he'd hoped for something a bit more than...that.

They're sweet. She snatches the figure of herself, and the brute tenses. "Careful - it's fragile." He doesn't know how deep and how true that sentence actually is, and not just about the statuette.

But little is he to know that everything that's happened so far, everything they've shared, is just the calm before the storm. And when the storm comes, it's going to be a fucking tornado.

Her next words make the beast's muscles stiffen and his ears shift awkwardly. "My....children?" Children? Plural? That is not the main focus of his consternation, however, as he assumes it is just a slip of the tongue. No, the worrying part is that she knows about Zhu, and immediately he's on his guard. Although she doesn't seem angry, the tension in the air is so palpable he thinks it could be severed with a hoof.

His dragons tense, as well. Their uh-oh is almost audible, and for once they even consent to share the same branch whilst they focus their twin gazes down on their bonded, like gawking onlookers. "You've met Zhu, then." His voice is flat, a statement. Perhaps he should have known this was coming, that she'd one day bump into his happy little accident. Perhaps he should have told her sooner, but their last meeting had been too emotionally charged for him to casually throw in an oh by the way, I have a son.

But, stupidly - or, perhaps, hopefully - he assumes she will just be irked that he didn't tell her sooner. He doesn't think for a moment that it's a whole damn lot more than that.

Perhaps tornado was an understatement.

"I...have not yet made him anything, although I intend to teach him to fight as soon as he is old enough. That's the finest gift I can think of for him." He doesn't want Isopia to think him an irresponsible father - he might be prone to sleeping around, but when he has a herd and a harem, it will be imperative that his children know how to fight. He will not raise weaklings, although this train of thought is perhaps a tad too harsh to share with Isopia so soon. Maybe she is concerned that, should they ever have a child, he might simply abandon it, but that would never be the case. He will never be a loving or doting father, but he will be a present one, unlike his own. He will be a familiar figure in his children's lives, not to offer comfort or cuddles, but to teach the important things that they will need to survive.

Of course, these are all plans for the future. He had never intended to sire a child until he had a throne and a herd, so Zhu's slightly ahead-of-schedule appearance has somewhat thrown his plots into chaos. Nonetheless, he will be there for the boy, raising him and training him into a fine young stallion - an heir, as he is his firstborn. Volterra is not the sort of man to shy away from taking responsibility for his actions, and it is not Zhu's fault that he was an accident.

The brute inhales, exhales, fixes his gaze on the demi-goddess. "I was going to tell you about him, kis hollo, but I only found out about that he existed shortly before our last meeting. There didn't seem to be a good time." We were otherwise occupied.