A new excitement rushes through me as my gaze settles upon Cirrus, causing my head to bob with enthusiasm and my eyes to dance like disturbed liquid. Her gaze remains rather downcast, though, and for a moment I pause, frightened that she has forgotten me. I had thought her a friend then, but it has been so long, perhaps I am foolish to think the ties endure that time and distance.

Then again, isn't that what this meeting is all about?

A creature leaps from her shoulders and my head jerks back towards my chest suddenly, surprised by the companion she has since bonded to. He is peculiar, though I have seen some others similar. I tend to keep my distance from companions, they are strange and unknown to me but not nearly as fascinating as my own kind. He only proves to me how little I know of my friends Cirrus, and how much can change so fast.

I frown.

Her coat dazzles me as always, but rather than the gay splendor of a Tallsun day, she is dark with a private gloom that surrounds her. I glance up to the skies, half expecting rain to come tumbling down, but all I truly see is fog.
She is glum.
I think perhaps she has not forgotten me, but is troubled. All the same, she has changed, and I feel naive for expecting her to be as she was that ...my it was a whole year ago wasn't it? She has grown now, and taken a rank I am sure.

My gaze drifts back towards Kri who has begun to speak. Cirrus travels with the lead, so she must have some title of importance. I glance back to Mirage, my Dragonheart, and smile gently. How alike she and I are in this instant, Cirrus and I, each two gangly youths astride the wisened and mighty leads of our time.

My attention is soon enough consumed by the words Kri and Mirage exchange. They have much to say, but nothing is wasted breath between them. I am not truly surprised by the promise of war, mentioned nearly three different times in different ways, though it does make me sigh to myself. I have much work to do, I think, if I am to help this cause.

At her initial mention of Tio, the threat to her own land, my tail stirs and I draw a black horse. I glance towards her with heavy eyes and a question in the lines of my face. I want her to tell me of him, to show him for me. A name is nothing in this world.

The Grey is a word I am barely familiar with, and I make a note to become more acquainted with them. It puts us in a difficult spot however, what Kri shares with us, and I cannot help but steal a look to Mirage to see her reaction. As always she is composed and prepared, selecting the best of the worst options she has available. The act to sacrifice one ally for another is no easy decision I'm sure, but she stands strong.

News of the Basin is shocking, and yet I am not wholly surprised. Their demeanor was never welcoming to my knowledge and their tactics often sour. Mirage and Kri speak of defending ourselves against them, but I cannot help but wonder why we can't rally to drive them out. They already weaken themselves by preferring only an army of horned ones, while we surround ourselves with the best from all species. We are surely stronger than they in might, though I think they have driven and icy spike of fear into our hearts that keeps us at bay. They have the numbers, this I know, but more than that they have no morality. We would defeat them, but they would destroy us if given the chance.

All the better reason to act before they can, I think. I am not keen on the ways of warfare however, so I do not speak out of turn.