It started out as most journeys do – carefree, optimistic, filled with excitement and an eagerness to get where we needed to go, to reach the destination, to realise the full sum of all the steps they would take together. It was with love on her lips that she farewelled her sun-striped cousin with an affectionate kiss upon her crimson cheek, as the golden dragonmare and dragonking sought to venture to the lands of dragons and horses and magic of old; a land only accessible to those with wings and a resistance to extreme temperatures, a land so foreign that it allowed the blending of this blood to happen for the first time (at least, the first time anyone could remember). It was her father’s homeland, where he and the golden dragonmare’s sister were currently residing. Amaris had been there before, during the time when she thought Helovia was lost to darkness and destruction. The dragonmare had much to tell them, not least of all the passing of her mother, the DragonHeart, the one who brought her into this world, who raised her and protected her and left a deep, gaping hole in her heart; but the news of Dramyrth’s hatching needs must be shared as well. His soul, so young, naïve, and full of life, helped to take the abysmal edge off the vacancy within Amaris – helped more than the dragonmare could truly know or define. Laughter came to her lips with greater ease, a song danced from her gullet more often than not, as Amaris saw the world through Dramyrth’s unique, youthful, innocent perspective. It was like being born again, learning everything there was to know about life again, only with a bondmate – he was simultaneously her brother, her son, her father, but also something more – it was difficult, impossible to define, and for that Amaris treasured it all the more.

So they travelled – the newborn dragon gaining fitness and flying technique swiftly, as they spent ninety percent of their time aloft on this journey, he was spared the choice most of the time. He grew obnoxiously fast, owing to his Royal legacy ( - at least that is not a surprise Amaris chuffed to herself - ). The dragonmare had promised her beloved cousin that this would be a short trip only – Helovia was her home, Tandavi was her home, she would not leave her again for any extended period of time – so the golden dragonmare pushed on, flying for both of them whenever necessary to keep the momentum of the travel underway.

They arrived to the realm of dragons and fire and ancient magic.

And they revelled in the fact that Dramyrth was the first golden male any of them had ever seen or remembered as far back as any of those currently living there could recall. A full day passed – Amaris had promised herself three days here before turning back towards Helovia – but as she spoke to her grandmother, a great, comparatively giant silver dragonell, everything changed. it started out normal: “Just as your father was the first to have both draconic and equine blood coursing through his veins of this time, perhaps he is not the first in all the times,” her ancient, soothing voice almost purred as it reverberated through Amaris’ very bones. “There were times when silver was not a known hue to adorn our scales – time changes things, if it did not, there would be no life, no growth, no purpose.” Amaris heard these words with a great deal of love and gratitude, and wanted nothing more than to respond and continue this discussion. Just as she turned to respond however - Dramyrth, who had been preening himself on a nearby tree branch, lurched precariously forward. Amaris’ golden eyes snapped to him, as alarm grew within her as the bond suddenly dimmed and weakened, and if she hadn’t of rushed forward with wings spread to catch him, he would have surely crumpled to the ground. The bond was in turmoil, it was something she couldn’t describe – he felt out of synchrony somehow, scrambled, frazzled. “You must go,” urged her grandmother, and Amaris nodded absently, barely uttering a farewell before departing, hurriedly.

There was no doubt as to where she needed to go – only one place on this crazed earth could help her, she knew - Helovia.

So she ran and flew and travelled as fast as she dared. Dramyrth stirred from his deep hibernation sometimes, but he was barely awake, barely present both in physical and mental arenas. He ate whatever Amaris hunted for him, if she persisted enough with stirring him from his strange slumber, but mostly he was entwined in her mane, and what was left of the bond seemed to help him balance as she flew and ran and raced across ocean and land below. Amaris moved with unending haste, with such an urgency that she barely recognised the Threshold of Helovia when she flew over it. Distracted as she was, she did not recognise the temperate climate she flew into – she had left Helovia in the throes of winter, and expected to return perhaps when the snow-melt had begun. But the lands were hot, and bare of all remnants of the frozen season, and as Amaris’ thick, wintry coat warmed beneath the Sun’s mighty rays, Amaris finally realised something was wrong.

Somewhere over the Thistle Meadow however, she was distracted from the change in the lands by her bonded – rather, the bond that had been so suppressed all this time seemed to re-emerge with a startling vengeance, so much so that she landed and took a moment to catch her breath – only to have it stolen again as --

Riss, his voice, deeply melodic, hummed within her, vibrated through every fibre of her being. He spoke, and it was her soul who received the message, her true self. Riss, he hummed again, amusement blossoming as he read her reactions. Amaris stopped in the middle of the field, sunlight upon them both, as she felt him untangle himself from her mane and take flight. Joy, if a little startled and slow to show itself, swelled within her, as Amaris finally saw her bondmate rise to his full potential. She truly had not realised how fast he had grown, how much he had matured, even in his hibernation, he seemed to have doubled again in size. He was surely as large as Akaith had been (with a slight difference owing to his male gender - male dragons did not need the bulk and grander size about their torsos to incubate eggs, they needed sinew and muscle and agility), as grand as a gold ever could be.

And then, suddenly he dived, and from his open maw spouted flames. The grass was dry in the heat, and like kindling it took to the flames swiftly. With a frown, Amaris moved to put it out with a sweep of her tail as Dramyrth smoothly pulled up from the dive – but with a halting thought from him, she paused, waiting curiously for his next move. And then a cold, frosty sensation rippled through her, as she felt his magic turn the other way. Ice, like nothing she had ever seen before, then doused the flames. Amaris was motionless for a time as she stared at the patch of now-wet-singed grass, mulling over the implications of this – of everything.

Much time passed, she heard him say, though it originated in her own cranium at the same time. How much? Amaris spoke back, before voicing aloud; “We must go south, we must find Tandavi.”

Fatigued and overly hot though her body was, the urgency to see her cousin again filled her, and she roused her wings to lift her golden-and-caramel bodice from the loamy ground and flew towards the great red-golden lands of sand. She almost considered flying straight over the strip of ocean that separated the Throat from the rest of Helovia – but without knowing just how much time had passed, and who might now own the lands her cousin had once ruled, she thought better of it, and landed instead upon the border where a multi-coloured bridge would ordinarily appear for those without wings.

And so that is how the dragonmare came to be standing upon the border of the Dragon’s Throat, a soft, musically equine and draconic note upon the wind, having only left barely a month prior, but evidently time on the rest of Helovia – and her beloved Dramyrth – had passed far quicker.

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OOC: Open for anyone! But I would love for @Volterra and @Ampere to come if they have time :D
Please don’t feel the need to match my post length x.x Been a long time, lots happened in this post, the rest will not be as long or rambly!!
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With Admin permission, I have submitted a Time God Magic from my prize list to effectively have it that Amaris left Helovia 1 month ago in her time, intending to only be away for that amount of time, but upon her return she has found Helovia almost 2 years into the future. Dramyrth could not be effected by the Time God Magic, so he has aged as if he never left Helovia (thus making him sick while he was so far away). So, there we have it!

Amaris