Fear. It was an emotion that the dragonmare was familiar with, though not necessarily to the extent that others experienced it. Fear was a baseline, a facet of survival, but it was also that which plagued her thoughts far too often to be healthy - fear of judgement, of scorn, of being hated by those she cared about, all of them existed within her countenance, all of them played a part in shaping the manners she adopted, the niceties she showed the world, the efforts she put into being a good little herdmate.

But the fear the dragonmare and her dragon sensed today was not their own, it was someone else's, and the inevitable question was posed by the little dragon, who tasted fear on the air only in certain circumstances - prey?, he questioned, his nostrils whirring, his attention twirling until it fixated upon the creature who trembled and stumbled on the water's edge of the nearby river. Pulled from her reverie, a small frown upon her brow, the dragonmare tilts her tiara in the same direction, observing the terrified doe with a discerning glance, before soundly voicing to her companion No - not that she really needed to, though the command certainly answered his next enquiry of whether he'd be permitted to swoop over there and stir things up more. Leave her be, Amaris hummed softly, turning her gaze away once more, looking at the view of the Falls before her with a soft sigh.

If it wasn't her own fear following her, it was someone else's, and the dragonmare could not help but feel guilty for it - guilty for simply existing the hybrid existence she did. Forever she would be judged by the scales upon her hide, by the leathery wings that jutted out from her shoulders, by the deadly scythed tail that swayed in the breeze behind her hocks. And if she wasn't judged as being too dragonly, then she was judged as being too equine, too soft and weak and boring. There was no winning in her situation, no victory, only management, and a constant drive to prove that she was Amaris, not simply a hybrid, a dragonmare, a golden queen, a daughter of a would-be tyrant or warmonger.

Another sigh slipped through her lips, as Dramyrth landed on the loamy grass before her hooves, peering up at her with his silent golden gaze. Her maw reached down to his, and he reached up, and they shared a quiet, intimate moment, as if pushing the reset button on their emotions. When she lifted her tiara again, a smile was upon her lips, and a laugh in her throat, as the most curious notion entered her mind and she could not help but want to test it, to see if she could dispel this fear this other mare clearly felt.

Amaris would not approach the other, too often had that action gone awry, no, instead, she would make herself smaller, as she often did when encountering new acquaintances, but never this small.

Knees buckled and bent as she held her wings close to her body, falling to her side with a most inelegant grunt. Dramyrth merely sat on the lawn before her, a bemused expression upon his scaled façade, his tail twitching some as he watched his beloved bondmate roll and romp in the grass, eventually pushing herself so that her wings splayed out beside her and her legs pointed to the skies. At least it's comfortable, she commented to her beloved, wondering if her antics had even been noticed by the frightened doe, wondering if she had stirred up enough curiosity beneath that fear to entice her closer, to greet and befriend and perhaps even explore this land together.. And if not, if the doe was destined to simply depart ways, she would accept that too, for she could only do so much.

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ooc: @Noxia
You're fine! There's no rush, I was just feeling musey ^^

Daniel Schiersner @ flickr & larfsalot @ deviantart