I love you more in my head
but I’ll love you better when I’m dead
⬡ ⬡ ⬡
Naydra can feel the buzzing of the smaller mare's anxiety, but it only sharpens the blade of her attention. The sable mare's eyes flutter for a moment at Naydra's question, as if processing her words, and then she shakes her head uncertainly.
There is a moment of silence. Naydra does not immediately make the assumption that other is mute, and awkwardness tends to slide off her like water off a duck, so the pause is not uncomfortable. She takes the time to let her gaze slip over the splashed mare, noting the lack of defects, other than her apparently severe shyness. Anxiety is manageable for Naydra, who has a knack for untangling the knots of those who keep themselves so tightly wound. The coal-black mare is patient.
It isn't until the little doe offers her muzzle to Naydra that the coal-black mare realizes she might be incapable of speech. Within her breast, the obsidian dragon recoils in disgust at the thought, and her brother's face flashes antagonistically in her memory. Another mute, she thinks, but she deliberately tucks the thought away for another time; there is no way to tell, yet. In any case, every mute is not necessarily comparable to her mistake of a sibling, and she has already found several redeeming qualities about the little sable mare. If indeed she is defective, she at least has the good sense to be ashamed of it. Additionally, there is always the chance she is not actually mute; perhaps her anxiety makes it difficult to speak, or perhaps she is afraid of saying the wrong thing.
All of this burns through Naydra's mind in the span of hardly a second, and through practiced effort her mask does not waver. She accepts the smaller mare's offer of breath, nostrils fluttering gently as she sends a soft puff of air at the little doe's muzzle. “Forgive my assumption, but you look frightened of this place; a wise instinct,” she remarks, her tone friendly, nearly humorous. “I find it best not to linger. If you have nowhere to go, you may come with me. The Thicket is peaceful, and safe,” she says, and though it sounds like an offer to be accepted or politely declined, Naydra does not take no for an answer.
Naydra
mare. 16hh. silver black. rougaru x visurix.
