09-04-2017, 01:48 PM
if there's a light at the end, it's just the sun in your eyes
Amidst his monologue, Amet watches as Nayl's gaze, still stoic and careful, turns away from him and back to the sea. He keeps going, never faltering or second guessing himself. He doesn't regress into the uncertain child he had been once, but instead grows more confident in his decision with each sentence he speaks. The weeks it had taken him to come to this conclusion has been full of worry and sleepless nights, but never had Amet completely scrapped the idea. Instead, it had rooted in his head, slowly blossoming only when he could feed it with the positives that could come of simply being an ally of Nerine.
When he does finally come to his conclusion, the leather-plated stallion is unsure what to expect of the painted mare. Nayl's only constant is that she is unpredictable, and Amet doesn't know whether he will see the angry, fiery Nayl that he'd met when Offspring had come to visit Hyaline, or if she would be the poised, calculated, and fierce ruler he had met when she'd first come to look at the crystalline lake that was to be her newest subkingdom. He fears neither, but finds that he is silently hoping for the latter, if only because his intention was never to contrive any bad blood between them.
She pauses a few moments before gifting him with a response, leaving the Dragon King to wait patiently with pricked ears and polite expectancy on his handsome face, and when she does break the silence, it's first with mention of Brennen. Amet had been unaware of his total disappearance, had assumed that there was a reason the winged stallion hadn't wanted to leave Nerine to visit Hyaline, but Brennen's complete exodus from Beqanna makes more sense to the gilded stallion. He gives a slight nod of acknowledgment to Nayl, though decidedly bites his tongue when the urge to ask whether or not she had ever thought to replace Brennen grows and threatens to fall from his maw. Professionalism and diplomacy, he reminds himself.
No, she says coldly.
Amet waits for the surprise to hit him, but it never comes. He had, deep down, been expecting her disapproval. His jaw tightens slightly, but the stallion keeps himself silent because he knows that the painted Queen will have more to say. And that she does.
He listens patiently and watches her closely with his amber eyes, reading the mare's clouded expression as much as he is able. Growing progressively more terse, Nayl's words finally draw a frown across Amet's dark lips but he keeps himself quiet and his gaze steady. When finally she comes to the end of her speech and poses her question - enlighten me, enlighten me, enlighten me plays in his head - Amet is ready to respond, though he doesn't rush or hurry. "I will not be leaving Hyaline at any point, nor was that ever my intention. It has grown with me and will continue to do so." He shifts his weight and takes special care to keep his ears pressed forward when all they want to do is swivel backward. "And with Iset's absence, I have been forced to restructure and add more adults to our numbers. Our ultimate goal is the same, but we will now house the Professors who will train the children, giving Hyaline more in-house protection."
Amet pauses for a few moments and allows his amber gaze to drift away from the Queen and back towards the agitated ocean as it pounds unrelenting against the cliff side. It makes him feel hopeful again, and when his gaze returns to Nayl, it's with renewed fire. "You and Djinni may have helped after the attack, Nayl, but we had no other communication. Never were any children from Nerine or Sylva sent to be added to our ranks, aside from Castile for a brief period of time, which leads me to believe that neither of you had much faith in my ability to create this sanctuary and training grounds." He shifts his narrow frame, willing his taut muscles to loosen slowly.
"I do not want Hyaline to sink beneath a main kingdom that does not believe in it," he says passionately, "And I've come to find that other territories are hesitant to work with me and Hyaline simply because it is their assumption that any children in my care will be fed directly into the ranks of Nerine."
A harsh squall suddenly berates them from the side and Amet tosses his head to remove the forelock from his bright eyes. "I did not come here today to persuade you to see my side, nor did I come to ask permission," he states with finality, "I would like for us to continue forward as an ally of Nerine."
Amet
@[Nayl] ♥ Lmao but would it really be Nayl if she wasn't snappy?