He could've laughed. He wanted to laugh, a deep, menacing sound, but he remained quiet, watching with madness-edged eyes that seemed to have grown darker, but no less brilliant. Surprise, so visibly written across Torasin's golden face, stared at him, and one corner of Mauja's mouth quirked upward in a lopsided grin. Surprised, Sunboy? While the Ice King remained unaware of the Qian and its movements, he knew of Mirage and had certainly been intrigued enough by her to store her scent in his mind. That she would spend time around faithless stallions like this one... it was baffling. She'd seemed so resolute in her belief, in her worship of the beautiful Moon. From the corner of his eye he saw Cineviam reposition himself, and while he was curious about what the stallion would do he had no desire to give the game away to their prey. So instead, he allowed his head to tilt, eyes thoughtful yet still cast behind that dark veil. "Surprised?" he purred, much like a cat having cornered its mouse.

And then, Cineviam dived in, and the laugh that had been waiting to get out finally found release. Deep and edged with something not quite sane it rolled through the trees, laced with sadistic amusement. The sharp, metallic scent of blood entered the air as Torasin's golden hide was laid open by Cineviam's curved horn, even as golden hind legs tried to lash out at the assaulter. But of course, such a hit was not without retribution. He might've been inclined to let them go, hadn't the brown beast tried to launch itself at Cineviam. Spurts of flame flashed across Mauja's vision, and for a single moment it felt like the ground disappeared from underneath his hooves and his gut heaved in a sickening fashion. Fire. But in the next moment came a deep rage, and with a growl he propelled himself forward. Chill exploded through his body, a pleasant sensation if icy fury, and it split up, aiming itself two ways; ice crystals formed in the dragon's bloodstream, at first only small enough to chill him, but should he not get out of range from Mauja's wrath they would build large enough to make tiny, tiny cuts in the walls of his blood vessels. The more he moved, the more it'd hurt. The other part of his mind split towards Torasin, and with a grinding, metallic noise a thick spice of ice slammed out of the ground, rising maybe sixteen hands into the air. Hopefully, the fleeing stallion would run into it and trip himself, or if he'd been running faster than Mauja anticipated, maybe even impale himself. "Why the hurry?" he called out in a sweet voice, holding on to the thin, cold threads of his wintry magic. They couldn't let him leave just yet - the fun had only just started...