First, he thought his child was dead. The swift revenge he wrought upon Airlia has left a sour taste in his mouth and yet a traitorous burning of pride in his gut - he is the father bear, and justice will be swift when one of his progeny is harmed. Then came the utter relief when he realised his daughter was not the corpse at the madwoman's hooves, and the ensuing guilt that somebody else's child was. To follow that particular emotional cocktail, he made amends with Isopia. They vowed to begin again, and he seized the chance for a fresh start with both hands.

Then the Sun God promoted him to Sultan, completing all his childhood dreams and desires. Finally, the knockout blow; Aithniel was to go on a quest for her esteemed father, leaving Volterra singlehandedly in charge of a herd that, only a year ago, he'd wanted to rain fire and death upon due to its old Sultan's stealing of his mother. How times can change! From unwanted, untrusted outsider, he has risen to king. From not caring about any of the herd save Sikeax, he has grown loyal towards his fellow Throatians and willing to fight and die in their name. From lowly outcast, unsure of herd life and its machinations, he has become a fully paid-up leader, politician, warrior.

Volterra has always possessed an unerring confidence in his own abilities. He can do anything by virtue of his formidable physical strength and unflinching determination. A part of him - the same part that controlls his temper, his wrath, his desire to rule and dominate everything that is placed before him - revels in the idea of ruling the Throat alone. He could build it into his empire, his kingdom, head of his own harem with loyal soldiers at his side and his children growing to manhood at his feet. A dynasty. A lone legacy - when they say the Dragon's Throat, they will say Volterra. They will say Indomitable, and they will quake.

The rest of him is petrified at the very notion, and Volterra is not the sort of man who takes fear lightly. But he knows the Throat can be unforgiving - the Indomitable's youth will not be any excuse for making errors of judgement. Sikeax is proof of that and she, unlike him, had already given the Throat many years of service before her fall from grace. Ruling alone is a daunting task, and whilst he thinks he could succeed if he had to, he sees no reason to compromise the safety of his herd because of his own arrogance. There is somebody who can help him, somebody who loves the herd even more than he does. She is not his lover - even though he has a pick of those to promote - and thus he is sure that he is making this decision with the head upon his shoulders and not the one between his thighs.

He stands by the oasis, his hind hooves paddling in the gently lapping waters whilst the rest of him stares away from it into the distance. He is tall, proud, strong, a black sentinel of power and regality beneath the early morning sun. Vérzés stalks fish in the shallows whilst Vadir basks upon her goliath bonded's back, the sun's rays reflecting off her golden scales and creating an explosion of refracted colour. Volterra lifts his massive skull and unleashes a loud bugle, calling for one member of the herd and one alone - Ampere.