The girl of mottled reds and cream turned her teal ringed eyes up to the darkening sky as Viserys spoke of their father once more, and she was briefly taken far away. She imagined Iblis under this very twilight, laying on the snow of a foreign tundra, resting after battle, and staring up at the stars… Perhaps, as Viserys had said, he was even thinking of his family right now. Why not? After all, his family was certainly thinking of him. It would be rather poetic, wouldn’t it? Some would say too poetic, but the girl had been taught that life was what you made of it. If she wanted poetry and dreams to be true, she only needed to believe in them.

Isolde blinked away her dreamy skyward stare and turned her gaze once more upon her brother, tail giving a pleasant wave across grass where she sat. She opened her mouth to agree, but no sound came out when surprise took her.

The chastising tone of her mother bit through her instincts like the crack of a whip, and Isolde immediately flattened herself below the tall grass. Ears back and eyes wide, the little girl turned to face her mother, only to see a smile on the queen’s face. Her banner began a quick, steady wave behind her, and her posture quickly straightened. “Mom!” As Rhea lowered herself into the grass, Isolde jogged forward and dropped onto her stomach before her mother’s paws, inching at a crawl to close what little distance there was left. She lifted her little muzzle up, stretching at her seams to give the queen a flurry of licks on the chin.

The girl’s expression was alight with renewed energy as her mother questioned what they had been dreaming about. Isolde lurched forward to place her paws atop Rhea’s, her mother’s paws dwarfing her own despite their relatively large size for a puppy. “Daddy’s been in battle!” she said quite confidently, giving her head a regal toss. “He and the king of the ice lands were fighting a demon horde. Isn’t that right, Vis?”

She turned her attention to her brother with a wide, charming smile, banner swishing in the grass behind her happily. This was their story, after all – as much his to tell as it was hers. She was glad to be able to share this moment with him – with them.