Earth magic… verbally ruminated the one winged mare, a hark raised to her words and a brow lifting on his features as the magical power of his and his father’s God was mentioned on the heated, crackling air. Again, wonder crossed his mind if he would ever forfeit this infatuation with a God that was not present, if he could ever hear anything in mild relation to the Horse God and his great son and not feel the race of his heart trip against the nearby walls of his ribcage. It brought his shame bubbling back up to the surface of his persona, brought back to life the tenseness in his muscles that had faded during their conversation thus far.

He cannot help but see a black mare where the grey stands, no pretty bird or dappling; she is dark light night, and she is bleeding and broken, dragging herself through the mud and the small, green flecks of fallen willow leaves…

The Roc cannot read his thoughts, Dragomir knows this, but the reaction and timing of the beast as the painted boy’s mind swallows him in such black memories is suited only for those who could know what images raced past the equine’s mental screens. It is enough to save him from himself, at least, he thinks as he watches the bird fret at the mare.

He wasn’t sure how he felt about the way this woman let her bonded treat her. Requiem and Adalwulf both would never have suffered so from their dragons; he couldn’t even recall a single time in which their arguments between one another (however few they were) had erupted into physical nonsense like what occurred here. Either this mare was the most submissive creature to ever wander the mundus, or Silas was just an utter asshole. Either way, a slender check was slipped under the list of traits that left the mutated, flightless pegasus without much affect on his understanding of the species, and the natural hierarchy between them all.

Dragon keepers did not let their bonded treat them so. Surely, this meant that equines were stronger than the pegasi, at least in this case.

When the bird’s cruel game is finally ended, he finds himself looking into a rather apologetic set of eyes as she gives into what the creature on her shoulders clearly wanted. Still, he manages a soft smile and a nod, not wanting to leave the end of this meeting as bitter and resentful as he had his last with a winged mare. Even if Africa is timid and weak, inferior even to her own companion animal, she has still been kind to him.

He cannot refute that this is a worthy achievement for any.

"No offense taken, miss," he says, feeling the odd syllable on his tongue as he calls her something that is not her name and is not cruel or belittling as the names his father had taught him for her kind. Not that he had known they were rude, anyway, at least not until he’d come here and learned that not all followed the ways of the old Gods anymore.

He is slowly learning, as all children do, that his parents are not omnipotent, all powerful beings who always know the correct path to follow.

"I wish you luck on your way home. Perhaps we’ll meet again someday," his head nods a formal farewell, a casual and easy dip of the muzzle towards his chest as his powerful haunches move him back towards home.

Dragomir