[open] From the ashes a fire shall be woken; Pteron, any

[Pteron]

finger trips across my cheek----------------
----------------kiss me until i can't speak

Laughing, Pteron lifts his leg out of the reach of the squawking bird, and he is still laughing when he realizes that Aodhan has seen something behind them on the beach. Pteron turns to see what it might be and finds Aquaria. A shell is at her feet, suggesting she’d been carrying it before spotting them. The flutter of wings has him ducking his head, but Aodhan manages to secure a place in Pteron’s mane with his parrot-feet, and the tobiano laughs softly for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and allowing him the place.

That Aquaria recognizes Aodhan as a parrot brings a brief flicker of surprise to Pteron’s face, but he supposes that she’d heard them talking, and surmises that perhaps this shape might be one that he has worn with Aquaria in the past. Still, she eyes the bird carefully, uncertainty marring her pretty face, and Pteron has taken half a step forward to attempt to brush it away when they are joined by another mare. She is as bright as a sunset, he thinks, and there is more than a passing resemblance to Aquaria in her refined features. It is more than the inexplicable nereid beauty (though they share that as well) and Pteron decides that this must be Adria.

Lowering his nose curiously to the little colt he assumes must be his frien’s nephew, Pteron blows out a breath in greeting, grinning widely at the bold but nervous stamping of his little hooves.

“You’re not intruding at all,” he says to the mare, who introduces herself and her son in a confirmation of his suspicions. So he has met some of Aquaria’s family now, just as she has met of his. He glances to the side, to where she stands against the backdrop of sea and sand. There is more than fondness in the way that he meets her eye, and he wonders if perhaps she would let him embrace her here in front of others. Best not though, he decides; she can make that move if she is comfortable enough. Pteron knows that not everyone is as free with affection as he is, and so he settles for a bright smile and glances back in time to see Aodhan shift into an unfamiliar animal at Adria’s request for an introduction.

“I’m Pteron,” he tells her, looking down at the odd blend between lion and squirrel that his companion seems to have become. A bit of a strange reaction to having been asked for an introduction, but perhaps the customs of shifters are unlike those he knows. “And that is Aodhan. He came to see me in Taiga, and I suggested we come here to get away from the cold for a bit. ”

@[Aquaria] @[Aodhan] @[Adria]

-- pteron --