you should see me in a crown; your silence is my favorite sound
It was an ungraceful half-pouncing crash that announced him as he tried to make certain his front legs cleared the tall bush. They did. It was just he rest of him that failed to follow correctly and crushed noisily through snapping twigs, his wings arched and flapping erratically like a frantic bat. He shook himself out the moment he could stand freely, his dragon head lifting with an irritated huff.
Ridiculous things, bushes.
His sea-blue eyes leveled with intent on the gathering in the near distance where his father stood among others. After a calculating inspection across their backs he was loping forward to join him, the sun striking reflecting rays off his skin like a coat of golden armor. He pressed himself firmly into this dad's side, purring deep in his throat and sliding possessively forward. His snout reached up to graze young teeth over Dad's shoulder in affection, but his attention was quickly snapping to another dragon in front of them. She was young too, maybe his own age or a little older and dressed in greys and lavender. And hostile.
He curled his lips back with a silent threat though the focus in his stare was still heavy and curious. Didn't matter how fun she might be, or attractive, she was blood and flesh in his mouth if she meant to attack his dad. His nostrils flared and after a long, pointed look he let his attention slip to the side to register that this other man was of their own blood. Intense again, he pushed his nose into the man's shoulder with a wary growl rumbling so quietly, gusting a huff to stir his scent and capture it. He did it again just to be sure, and yes, he smelled like them. Like Dad. Good. He liked that. He rewarded the man with a sharp nip, absently licking the salt of his skin off his teeth as his focus once again shifted.
His head ducked next, peering under Dad's belly to his other side where another child was with her mother. He froze in place, apalled and confused at how he hadn't caught her scent before now. He scrambled ungraciously under Dad, surging to the other side to stand too close to her, chest pushed against her side and his head arched over her in a move for dominance. The glint in his eyes was feral, his teeth bared slightly again, but he recognized she was theirs too. She just would not be his better, he'd be sure of it. He would be the eldest between them.
Gilt
the gilded stormdragon