The boy and his dragon were polar opposites in their outward natures, but perhaps that was why the hatchling dragon had chosen this particular human to bond with in the first place. He had been a lonely soul when he'd found her, but she forced him out of his shell - and in return seemed to take endless amusement in the social situations she dragged him into. Being able to receive well-deserved attention from Hotaru, whose clever fingers could find some of the best places to scratch, was just icing on the cake today!
Ru's laugh brought a wrinkle-nosed smile and nod of understanding from the courier as her words belied the cheer in her voice. Delia was his friend, but he'd heard a lot of grumbling after the War about her conduct, and not just from Hotaru. Delia's actions that day had done nothing to endear her to a lot of people in Halo...
"I'm hopin' t'do some more trainin' with him," Tal admitted a little shyly. "While he's still got the time." Because once Cordelia popped out the babies he doubted he'd see much of either parent for a long, long time after.
He really didn't want to get asked into any babysitting duties.
But admitting his own mission for the day opened a whole new can of snow wyrms and Tal sighed heavily, scowl returning in full force as the topic turned to Evie. At Hotaru's question he tensed, however, ducking his head as he kicked at a clump of snow. "Well... Deimos asked me that, once. An' then he got mad an' stopped bein' my friend. So...I haven't really talked about it with anyone since." But this was Hotaru asking. And though she might chide him it was hard to imagine her flying into a self-righteous judgmental flurry the way Delia had the one time he'd tried to talk about it with her.
Yeah, that hadn't gotten very far.
His scowl somehow managed to deepen, though he still refused to look up, shoulders tensing defensively anyways. "Look. I guess I... made some assumptions, okay? She had stuff in common with those Launceleyn assholes. An' I figured she was another power-grubbin' Zariah. My sister remembered her hangin' around the ol' Tyrant, an' the first Academy. An' when she hadn't even lived here that long an' suddenly she wanted t'take over Halo an' be Warden with Deimos? I mean... it sure as hail looked like she was just makin' a power grab." Boreal let out an eloquent snort and he shot the dragon a subdued glower. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Turns out maybe... maybe she isn't as bad as all that after all. But when she showed up it was like... Deimos only had eyes for her. An' it sucked. An' I just wanted things to go back to how they were before. Without her around." The words managed to both be dragged out of him and come out all in a rush as he seemed to be seriously contemplating dropping the cake box that was starting to crumple in his hands.
Ru's laugh brought a wrinkle-nosed smile and nod of understanding from the courier as her words belied the cheer in her voice. Delia was his friend, but he'd heard a lot of grumbling after the War about her conduct, and not just from Hotaru. Delia's actions that day had done nothing to endear her to a lot of people in Halo...
"I'm hopin' t'do some more trainin' with him," Tal admitted a little shyly. "While he's still got the time." Because once Cordelia popped out the babies he doubted he'd see much of either parent for a long, long time after.
He really didn't want to get asked into any babysitting duties.
But admitting his own mission for the day opened a whole new can of snow wyrms and Tal sighed heavily, scowl returning in full force as the topic turned to Evie. At Hotaru's question he tensed, however, ducking his head as he kicked at a clump of snow. "Well... Deimos asked me that, once. An' then he got mad an' stopped bein' my friend. So...I haven't really talked about it with anyone since." But this was Hotaru asking. And though she might chide him it was hard to imagine her flying into a self-righteous judgmental flurry the way Delia had the one time he'd tried to talk about it with her.
Yeah, that hadn't gotten very far.
His scowl somehow managed to deepen, though he still refused to look up, shoulders tensing defensively anyways. "Look. I guess I... made some assumptions, okay? She had stuff in common with those Launceleyn assholes. An' I figured she was another power-grubbin' Zariah. My sister remembered her hangin' around the ol' Tyrant, an' the first Academy. An' when she hadn't even lived here that long an' suddenly she wanted t'take over Halo an' be Warden with Deimos? I mean... it sure as hail looked like she was just makin' a power grab." Boreal let out an eloquent snort and he shot the dragon a subdued glower. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Turns out maybe... maybe she isn't as bad as all that after all. But when she showed up it was like... Deimos only had eyes for her. An' it sucked. An' I just wanted things to go back to how they were before. Without her around." The words managed to both be dragged out of him and come out all in a rush as he seemed to be seriously contemplating dropping the cake box that was starting to crumple in his hands.
