Usually quite perceptive, the mare is oblivious to the effect she has on the stallion. Her 'feminine wiles' as it were, were a complete accident, a happy happenstance to her being what she was and growing into herself more these recent months. Amaris had just left the awkward, lanky phase of her growth; she was a mare, and her dragonsblood made her a queen too - she was the epitome of femininity, but really she just felt like herself, and nothing more.

She could only imagine what Volterra felt when she spoke so brashly about his dragons, about their natures and about the fight that would undoubtedly occur between them - and the most likely outcome of that fight. Amaris did not know a queen who ever bowed to another, except perhaps when rising to mate and testing all those around her, and allowing the male who proved himself to dominate her for that moment. Even then, was it domination if she was allowing it? Queens were known to choose who they allowed - would Vadir choose Vérzés when the time came?

For the first time, Amaris became aware of just how much Volterra had grown, just how masculine he had become. If she were human, her skin would had flushed red, a blush; as it was, she felt heat rise and rush through her, felt his presence become suddenly more obvious, more pressing, more…

Amaris was a queen dragon. Queen dragons rise to mate, they choose…

Stop, she told herself abruptly, turning her attention to the dragons once more, to the grimace that flickered across Volterra's face, the pain he must've felt in response to her pointing out what must happen between his dragon. The dragonmare watched as the gold came away from her frivolity with her spirit friend, watched as Vérzés' actions seemed tense - she could only wonder at what they were pushing upon Volterra through the bond they shared. When he winced, she touched her maw to his cheek, again wondering at its warmth, its nearness - stop, she said again to herself - praying only for him not feel pain or suffering through something she might have said or guessed at.

He spoke of greed, and she had to wonder - he had always been curious as a youth, she recalled when she first met him, his greed for knowledge, his yearning for it, it had impassioned him, filled him with purpose and direction. Then when she had met him again, he had his dragon, the vicious red who had bowed and crooned to Amaris when she had said hello - and he had grown then, stronger, taller, but still seeking something, seeking what? And now, she sees him again, and he had a gold to share his mind with, a golden dragon, a queen…

What else could he be filled with greed for?

"Dragons existed before the Gods," Amaris said quietly, for when travelling to her father's realm she had met dragons more ancient than Helovia itself, and so she spoke what she knew to be the truth. "Dragons will be dragons; they both saw you as their bondmate and that is why they are bonded to you. These things do not happen as punishment… if anything, it is a lesson, a test of your mettle, one that you cannot fail, because if you do…"

If you do, you would not be worthy of their bonds. She did not speak the last words openly, but her gaze was grave, her lips quivering with pent up feelings that she could not process fast enough to recognise.

As Volterra's crown dipped in disappointment, Amaris wanted to hold him, to comfort him and press herself against him. As it was, she opened her wing nearest to him and let it hand over his body, she moved her tail in a great scooping motion to that it would encircle him, and she proffered a gentle caress of her muzzle against his nape. In her mind, he was two beings: still the colt she had met, young and inquisitive with potential to boot, and a stallion grown and met many of his dreams, who was still growing but had fulfilled so many things he had set out to do. He was still young, but his height and voice and even the fact that he was bonded, not to one but two dragons kept echoing in her mind as important, as significant and, and…

"Thank you, for coming when.. She was my mother." Amaris did what she could to fill in the silence, she allowed his change of subject to continue, though the subject they had turned to was a bit more painful for her, more real and something she had been busily avoiding. She suffered through it though, for his sake, though she wouldn't have been able to explain why she was willing to dredge up those raw feelings for him had someone thought to question her.

@Volterra

Amaris