She had no idea what Korofi was like or what a man described as Korofi entailed – and perhaps this was for the better, as she was a delicate, well-bred (read: wildly naïve) thing and would’ve been scandalized by the information – and so when such a man approached her, she paid the detail little mind. Aside from surprise, that is; she’d been so intent on the egg, which was rattling now, and stuttering back and forth amongst the detritus. Hairline cracks had begun to spring to its pale surface, like ripples too slow to vanish, when a voice sounded off very, very close by – “And a large egg it is, lovely lady.” Ultima’s head snapped up sharply, her big gold eyes searching out the stallion’s face.

“Isn’t it, though?” she said, quick to recover. Her expression was best described as perplexed. An egg in a nest was one thing, but one on the forest floor, covered in a few dry leaves and cradled a buttress root? It didn’t look like it’d been laid by any bird she knew, and she’d met all the birds who’d come through the wood, predatory and passerine alike – regardless, if it hadn’t been abandoned or misplaced by its mother, she rightly didn’t know what to expect. “I suppose it ought to go back into whatever nest it’s popped out of, but— Pardon, sir, did you say dragon? Oh, no. No, no,” she said immediately, as if she’d been asked about the weather – no, it really doesn’t look like rain, sorry; smell that air, it’s dry as kindling. “The oddest thing it could be is a bat, that’s what Tilney—” and then rather uncharacteristically, the girl stopped.

Kindling. With it being so preposterously hot this summer, the entire Edge was practically just that. And if the woods went up, then the garden— Pursing her lips, she regarded Graasvoel for a long, serious moment, her fine brows knit. “Dragons? You’re positive?” She’d only ever seen one before, sunning itself on one of the big rocks by the river that passed through the Wood. Foals took a moment to gather themselves after being born, as did chicks – but dragons? What did she know about dragons? “Can little ones even breathe fire yet? Is it like swimming, do they j—”

Her teeth clacked shut. That was an awfully big crack. That was, too, and that was assuredly a piece of shell. Ultima inhaled slowly, sidestepping towards the other Pegasus, her gaze never wavering from the egg. “If it is a dragon, and if it’s small enough,” she said quietly, “Would you mind stepping on it? Your hooves are wider than mine,” she added practically. “I’d rather not have to explain to the King how it is we lost half our acreage, and – oh, God (and may He Dream forever)—”

Another flake of shell pinwheeled in the air, the early evening light revealing little aside from a somewhat active, fidgety shadow. Deep inside the egg, crammed wall to wall and feeling not too keen on its housing conditions, that shadowy something gave another irritated punch and flopped into the waiting world. 

And it mewled.

“Oh, it is so tiny—”

Ultima was rather quick to forget scares and other such slights and wrongdoings, so long as she was properly appeased. “Have you ever seen anything so wee—” For anyone who might’ve been taking notes: a kitten, apparently, was an appropriate offering.

“—a precious bitsy Snapdragon—”

♦ ♦ ♦