Looking left and right around her, Kahlua hardly noticed the small creature darting across the ground until he crashed directly into her leg. “Oh!” she said with a gasp, dancing backwards a step or two and looking down to see what it was she had been assaulted by. A smile crossed her face as she noticed the feathered kitten at her hooves. On her back, the feathered dragon chortled as he swayed left and right, trying to regain his balance, long neck snacking around Kahlua’s to look at the ground.

For a moment he considered retaining his perch upon the Sunshower’s back, but curiosity at the furred and feathered beast below him drove him to action, jumping from her shoulder to the ground, landing near the kitten and tracing the rougarou’s gaze as the stranger looked backwards. Both Khan and Kahlua’s gazes fell upon the peahen as she arrived, the Sunshower’s face drawing into a bright smile and the little blue chortling out his dragon song, as he sensed the pleasure in Kahlua’s mind.

Quickly, she set her basket upon the ground between her hooves. “You as well, Bellona,” she replied with a nod to the retreating form of the rougarou and the interested dragon who crawled across the dirt to follow him. “He did nothing,” she replied then to the second comment with a shake of her head, “Just a bit of a bump- we surprised each other.” The easy-going queen saw no reason to blame the young one for his excitement. Whatever had spurred him to race across the ground, she had interrupted his progress much more than he had interrupted hers.

“Actually, I’m glad he bumped into me, I’ve been looking for you. I wanted to thank you. You were so kind to me, offering me protection from Aurelia and from Ulrik with hardly knowing me,” she says with a smile, reaching her nose out to offer a warm breath of air from her nostrils. Absently, she started digging through the ground with her hoof, pulling at a variety of small rocks, trying to find one that suited her purposes.

As she dug, she added a final question, wondering what the peahen’s thoughts on being bonded were. “What do you think of little Mictla?” she said, assuming that it was the creature’s name. “Of your bond and the connection?” A small frown crossed her lips, but other than that she said nothing of her own feelings. About the same time, young Khan was leaping into the air, attempting to pounce upon the rougarou to initiate some sort of game of rough and tumble, unattended by the queen, who probably should have been giving more structure to his life.


@[Bellona]

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