She sighed in agreement and turned her gaze back towards the frolicking dragons, eyes glazed over with worry.

"I know" she said, "but even if I had known I would not have stayed away. Helovia is my home, and though there isn't much I can do, I want to be here to see this through. Who knows, maybe my prayers can help strengthen the Lady goddess and aid her somehow."

The slender shoulders shrugged and she tried to smile, but it was a feeble gesture that soon faded back into the unease she so drastically had attempted to drown. In the chill air, the water had begun to freeze upon her icy skin, glistening ice and frost that peeled off in glittering shards with the slightest movement. No clouds of breath rose from her nostrils however, because the air within her lungs were just as cold as the one outside.

If Volterra was a creature of earth and flame, a behemoth with searing hot lava running through his veins, then she was a daughter of wind and water, all light and cold and frigid wastelands. Erthë was oblivious to the musings of the stallion, for she had rarely contemplated physical pleasure. A thinking creature, devoted more to the awesome powers and workings of gods than the carnal delights of her fellow mortals, she was innocent in ways that went beyond naivety and bordered on obliviousness.

Still. Upon hearing the stallion speak her name - wasn't that a rare thing, come to think of it? Usually he called her 'girl' or some other neutral and slightly degrading term - she gave him a little grin and nipped at his dark skin, eyes glittering with a halfhearted attempt at mischief.

"Do you think we could find some other topic to talk about?" she asked him. "I've been trying to take my mind off these disasters, but no one ever talks about anything else... I'd do anything for some peace of mind even if it's only for a while."

As hard it was for Volterra to admit that he had been worried, as reluctant was Erthë to admit to him that she was scared. She loathed being this helpless, subject to the mercy of others; it was a state she had tried to escape all her life, the reason why she had tried to spar with her broken body and pushed herself to the limit at every turn.

But though she wanted nothing more, it was impossible to hide it. The fear trembled within her voice, haunted her eyes and agitated the vast wings so that they constantly shifted and ruffled, never remaining static by her sides. Only the tail, long and prehensile, was quiet, curled tightly around a hind leg as if to comfort herself.

What else could she do, young mortal as she was, in the face of the awesome powers that were about to be unleashed around her?

Big girls cry when their hearts are breaking