[color=ed1c24]"You may claim that love is not what you are looking for, Aussir, but [i]you're[/i] the one who brought it up."[/color] The dragoness pulled her hand back. [color=ed1c24]"I meant only to warn you that I have no intention of ever making that mistake again. And if you think love was created by humans you are sadly mistaken and obviously haven't spent much time among other races. [i]Your[/i] parents aren't the only ones who forged a bond with that particular emotion."[/color]

The longer he talked the more Drache realized that Aussir was incredibly arrogant, making assumptions about her feelings that were far from accurate, and contradicting himself more than once. The tolerance that she had carefully offered him in spite of her better judgement disappeared behind a mask of dislike, and as soon as he let go of her wrist she used her hand to smoothly reclaim her satchel, letting it settle across her torso and against her hip. Trying to marshal her simmering irritation, she lifted the flap to check the glossy black orb that had become so important in such a short period of time.

[color=ed1c24]"Letting me touch your wings wouldn't mean anything more to me than that you trusted me to be close enough to do so, and that you might enjoy the company of someone else. You can enjoy closeness without giving away your heart, but only if you want to. Denying yourself is [i]your[/i] choice, but don't delude yourself into assuming you know what I want or what I'm feeling."[/color]

Her expression soured further, her pupils constricting to thin lines within the fields of fiery amber as he continued to talk about her as though he had the right, or even more laughably, the ability to have a say in the course of her life. In this moment she realized that she missed the company of someone else. Someone with a fiesty attitude and an atrocious accent.

[color=ed1c24]"[b][u]Let[/u][/b] me go? You say that as if you have some kind of hold on me in the first place. I can't even imagine the arrogance that would lead you to think that you have a choice in what I do with my life."[/color] Whatever secret prerequisites she must meet in order to simply reach out and touch her fellow dragonkin she found she was suddenly very happy that she had no fulfilled.

[color=ed1c24]"I found a life that makes me happy a long time ago and haven't looked back. Perhaps I will find someone someday who can soothe those old scars, and I hope it's another dragonkin like me, but I can tell you that it won't be someone who acts as presumptuous as you do."[/color]

With a full-body shimmy, Drachiathoryx opened her own wings. They weren't as uniquely shaped at Aussir's, but they were long, strong, and apart from a tiny hole in one side that would be healed before long, they were perfect. [color=ed1c24]"The shape of yours makes it harder fly, but the bones within aren't bent or broken. You could fly, if you practiced hard enough."[/color] She was angry, but more than that she was sad. She never expected to be friends with every half-dragon in Pyresia, but none had ever been so rude.