He quips at her for threatening with Mother. It was childish, of course, but then again she was a child, and unashamed. Fearless too, because if she hadn't been so firm in her belief that the shadow mare would do everything easily and flawlessly, she would have been quite willing to try giving the big idiot a thrashing herself. It might be true that she could only nibble at his knees at best, but had he ever felt how painful kitten teeth could be?

The only thing preventing her from hissing something rude and inappropriate back was the turn of subject to the dragon. Being the child who had seen much magic already and whose father was bonded, the topic of companions was no great mystery to her. Barely teethed the first time she asked about the shape-shifting comrade that followed on Vadim's heels, she was disillusioned and jaded.

But, well. It was hard to get tired of dragons. Especially when she had never gotten a chance to see one up close. So when the big, glittering red burst through the canopy and sped across the clearing she squealed in delight, entranced by its feral grace like neither the brilliance of the sunset nor the dancing fireflies had accomplished before.

"He. Of course" she mumbled, bewitched and ticklish with nervous excitement. The dragon landed before her and she noted with a thrill of fright how big he was. She was slight in stature, and he was an impressive specimen. Not among the biggest, but still almost reaching her elbow. For a filly that was a lot of dragon.

It - he - breathed out. The wafting air that reached her was crisp and cool; the hybrid looked down and found that the grass had frosted over, like she hadn't seen in forever. Surprised but delighted she smiled happily at the dragon, bounding in playful bucks as the excitement became too much to contain.

"That felt nice!" the ice-child warbled sweetly. "Hi, Verzés. Thank you for helping me before, you were so brave!"

It was impossible to be angry when such an exquisite creature stood before her. Erthë felt her heart melt in the face of his beauty, forgiveness extended easily, generously to the bonded stallion as well.

"He's so pretty!" she sighed at the nameless stallion, the previous shock nearly forgotten. "Have you known each other long? What's it like to be bonded? Dad is too but I never understood how it actually works, and Vlasi isn't nearly as interesting as a dragon. I don't even know what she is, exactly..."

She frowned slightly at this. Vlasi was Vlasi, of course, but what the shapeshifter actually was remained a mystery.