The playful banter continued, the to and fro, the tossing of the spotlight from one to the other. He described himself, his habit of swimming, his joy for fun, his friendship, loyalty, comradery. The dragonmare was more appreciative of his words than he could have imagined - she felt that he meant them, that they were given with honourable intentions, with truth and conviction fuelling them. And yet, some small part of her hesitated, fearful, nervous, expecting inevitable backlash, or the revelation that it was all in jest, a joke, a mockery of her and her foolish dragonesque self.

Hmph, came the mental vocalisation of her thoughts from her bonded, though it was a loaded thought, because begrudgingly the dragon who sat in the tree above did not think too poorly about the stallion (but he was determinedly far too stubborn to show this outwardly). I'll help, was all the dragon said, though somehow he kept his actual intentions hidden, and remained silent and immobile otherwise.

An absent flick of an ear was all the notice she gave the dragonking, though she longed to delve more into his 'plan', she also wanted to give the painted steed before her due attention and time while he was here. Amaris bowed her shimmering, golden head, a bit more seriously, acknowledging, accepting of his words, and the weight of the meaning behind them. "You're very ki-" she began, only to be interrupted by the revelation of her dragon's master plan, merely moments before it came into fruition.

"DRAMYRTH!" she bellowed angrily, spreading her wings to encompass the stallion from a sudden appearance of fire raining down above. I'm helping~ the dragon said (most unhelpfully), as he spat the flames from his maw towards the stallion. It wasn't until Amaris noticed that the flames were actually relatively weak, and not even reaching her outstretched wings, that she caught on to his full intentions. But she maintained her fury, shouting quite sharply at the dragonking above them. "I don't need your help Dramyrth!"

And the flames stopped as suddenly as they had begun, and Amaris stood with her wings spread for a few more heartbeats, inhaling deeply, processing and gathering her thoughts, hoping the stallion hadn't turned tail and run away.

"Well," she said softly, as she slowly turned back to him, a hopeful smile upon her façade as she sought his gaze. "Suppose we're friends now."

---

@Gulliver C:

Amaris