*"Some just lack proper communication skills.”*

“Yeah, right,” I muttered in a not-so-whispery-whisper, leaning on one hind hoof and huffing and shrugging my shoulders as Jiji threw the ref flag and intervened before I fucked something up. I was well on the way to it, too; I didn’t like this shmuck looking at Jiji like he was, like she was a cut of beef seeking appraisal from a judge or something. No, he can keep that to himself, thank you very much. No one can look at Ji, like that, I don’t even care who you are.

Anyway, I didn’t have much of a chance to seethe and be angry, because another filly came in and interceded before shit got real. But this time I became a little bit of a hypocrite, especially where she was concerned, because holy crap! The only dragon I had ever seen in my life was Ma’s companion Tinek, that sleek little lizard thing with wings and super chill breath, and he had been the smallest little son of a bitch, too. This filly, what with those shiny things that had to be scales and those leathery wings that had to be dragon’s wings and that tail that just made the whole thing painfully obvious--well, okay, she made me gawk just a little bit. Just a little. I mouth wasn’t hanging unhinged or anything, but my eyes got pretty big, so. There’s that. Somewhere along the line I remembered a little snippet of manners and averted my awkward stare, but I’m not sure that really made everything a little more polite. I think it just got a little bit more awkward, to be honest.

*"I suppose a question remains: Do you come in peace yourself?"*

That one was easy enough for me to answer without looking directly at i—um, her. “We didn’t come here for you,” I said with another shrug of my shoulders, my words coming out rough and terse and a little bit more unfriendly than perhaps was necessary, but whatever, “We just…sorta found our way here….for each other.” So that I could give Jiji a tail ring and be super embarrassed and fumbling and idiotic about it. But I wasn’t about to describe all that to these strangers. Whatever, my point was that we didn't give a damn about them, so there was no way we were here for some antagonistic reason, and I guess...that meant...we were peaceful?

She then went on to introduce her draconic companions, and I won’t get too into detail about that, because they reminded me of Tinek in a way that reminded me of Ma and it was all very nostalgic and painful and I don’t feel like reflecting on that too much. BUT. She did tell me the name of the herd whose door I seemed to have barged in through: The World’s Edge. At this, my eyes snapped to her, but this time my gaze wasn’t full of obstinate curiosity; it was full of purpose, and yeah, there was a bit of an accusation in there, too.

“This is a herd?” I asked in that same gruff tone I had used earlier, “Where’s your boundary? I ain’t smelled shit since I got here except for maybe a turd pile here or there, but that ain’t no boundary.”





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