"EVERYTHING YOU WANT IS A DREAM AWAY."

A’mal sat perched on Najya’s withers, holding her prize from the creature proudly in her claws.  It was all Najya could do to keep from rolling her eyes. Figures that the little dragon couldn’t be parted from her, erm, prize.  Hair.  Hair that was roughly the same color as Najya’s own mane and tail, but this certainly wasn’t her own hair. This was a stranger’s hair. A stranger’s dirty hair. The thought made Najya a bit nauseous, but the little dragon was not put off at all by her bonded’s disgust. As Najya made her way from the gathering, A’mal was formulating a plan.  

Najya flicked a curled ear in the direction of the little dragon, curious as to why she was so intently excited over something so unexciting, but preceeded forward regardless, carefully picking her way through the crowd as the others began to disperse. A’mal, clinging tightly to the leather straps across her bonded’s withers with her hind legs, had other ideas and, careful to mask her intent from her bondmate, got to work in the safety of Najya’s blind spot.  

As she made her way from the gathering, the little mare caught sight of two who stood apart from the other - two who seemed to be having very different reactions to the shadow creature’s gifts. Curious, Najya made her way over to the two, and found it curious that A’mal took no notice at all that she’d deviated away from their southerly route.  Najya dipped her head in greeting to them both, but her curled ears pricked in interest when the winged stallion mentioned his trick. She craned her neck to see what it was he’d picked up from the ground and her hazel eyes widened realization dawned on her.

“Seems you got quite lucky,” Najya offered, with a small laugh, once she recognized that it was indeed candy that was raining from the stallion’s mane.  A’mal came to mutual recognition at the same time, and immediately the excited chirps began.  It was only when the dragon excitedly leapt from Najya’s shoulders that the little mare realized just what she’d been up to.  The hair - the dirty braid she’d been gifted - now hung from the little dragon’s twin horns, as if the dragon had been blessed with a glorious (dirty) braided mane of her own.  Najya, for perhaps the first time in her entire life, was speechless. 

Undeterred, the dragon happily snatched up as many candies as she could with her front claws before finally setting eyes upon Sacre and the sorry state the stallion was in.  The dragon tilted her head at the stallion, concern filling her bond with Najya, and promptly marched her way over to the red and black stallion, depositing her hoard of candies before him.  She then sat, offering him a series of happy chirps, before popping one of the candies into her mouth. 

It was only then that Najya found words, finally willing to acknowledge how ridiculous this situation must seem. “No, A’mal, I don’t think he wants anymore,” she said, looking from the little dragon to the red and black stallion with a little shake of her head, “Peppermint, however, will help,” she offered, with a sad smile at the clearly suffering stallion, wishing she could be more helpful.  She did remember her mother used to brew a peppermint tea for those suffering like Sacre now clearly was, unfortunately she didn’t have any on hand and couldn’t be much help to him now. 

“I’m Najya, from the Throat.”  Najya then looked back to the pegasus, and upon better look noticed the candy dangling precariously in front of his eye. ”Oh,” genuine concern colored her voice as she took an automatic step closer to the stallion, ”Do you need help with that one, just there?” she asked, with a little nod, and feeling quite foolish for not having noticed sooner.  

Amazing how distracting a dragon wearing dirty hair galavanting in a pile of candy produced from hair could be.

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