Drogon

Drogon knew no other father beyond Rougaru. He knew of Devil's Retribution, and, by proxy, of his distant relatives in the Inlet, but he felt no great pull towards them. Even when he had followed the aging grey stallion to his deathbed, Drogon had been driven out of curiosity, rather than desire. His bloodsire had never stayed around long enough to know of his existence, let alone to raise him in any meaningful way. Rougaru, on the other hand, had never shied away from him. Even when Vanya insisted on his otherness, and challenged Rougaru's grip at every turn, the Wolf King had never stopped claiming Drogon as his own.

More than once, the plain brown colt had wished it were true.

Rougaru's affirmation of Drogon's claim earns a smile from the brown boy. He had always done his best to make Rougaru proud, as if to make up for the fact that he did not have a blood tie to his Paradisian family. If he could not proudly wear the silver mane of his chosen father, he would at least glean every possible lesson he could from him. Someday, Drogon had already decided he would be like his father somehow. Drogon certainly wasn't off to the best start in the grand scheme of things, but he was determined to make up for it in other ways.

For a long moment they walk together in companionable silence, listening to the raucous jungle all around them. In all of the travelling he had done as a young colt, Drogon had never found anywhere as comfortably noisy as Paradise. The Peak was silent, except for the wind. The Crossing was so busy that the wildlife had fled into hiding. And the Inlet's creatures were so alien that he found no comfort in their calls. No where suited him quite like home, and yet the colt would be lying if he said that he didn't crave some excitement. It had crossed his mind more than once that he should be crossing over to the Harbor more often, now that the mare that owned the land was alone. Maybe he could succeed in swaying her to their side, if his father hadn't already accomplished that. Imagining how proud Rougaru would be to have a son at his side, supporting his hold on the island, had filled many boring hours on watch.

However, when his father speaks again, the topic is not one that Drogon has anticipated and his ears tick back slightly in suspicion. Drogon had learned to control his reactions, but it was rare he ever felt the need to mask himself around his father. He was the one creature that Drogon trusted implicitly, and so was the one creature he permitted himself to be unguarded with. That being said, he knew that the topic of his mother was a complicated one, as was pretty much everything she stuck her nose into.

Drogon loved her, in a distant sort of possessive way. She was his mother, but he reserved no softness for her. She was dangerous like Monster, violent even, although her violence rarely transcended into the physical; but where Monster was protective of her children for her children's sake, Vanya's motivations were all selfish. It made Drogon wary of every move that she made, and he knew that his father was not oblivious to the risks that came with keeping her.

However, instead of questions, praise dribbles out of Rougaru's hands, and Drogon laps it up quietly, a smile spreading slowly across his lips. He is not so naive as to think that such compliments come without their corresponding negatives, however, and so he waits quietly for the ball to drop. When it comes, he is not wholly prepared for it, and his ears pin briefly beneath the tangle of his dark mane.

He wanted him to be the exile.

Drogon freezes in place, his eyes going flinty as he hastily considers all of the pros and the cons. On one hand, his father had made it sound almost like an honor to go. A special mission that would allow him to help the family by undermining an enemy, while also giving him the space and the chance to prove himself. On the other hand, it was sending him away from them all. Casting him out into the unknown as if he were problematic to keep in Paradise. As if Vanya's insidious claims that the silver stallion only claimed him to get back at her, and not because Rougaru really wanted him.

For a long moment the boy only stared, his face expressionless and jaw tight. And then, with only a trace of stiffness, he nodded. "If that is what you wish, then I will go." He takes a long breath in and then forces a smile onto his charcoal lips. "She will regret the day she decided to interfere in the affairs of our Pack."

Can you feel it?