He does not miss her moment of awkwardness, nor does he pretend to but hides his smile by lowering his muzzle to the surface of the clear water and focuses his eyes on her reflection rather than the Queen herself. The mare moves back out into the water, further and deeper and all the while his gaze is trained on the slowly shrinking mirage of her person until at last she stops and his eyes flick up to meet hers.
There is something electric for Valek in the way their gazes connect at precisely the same moment. It may be a meaningless coincidence but for the first time in his young life that he notices the poignancy of catching someone’s attention at exactly the same time you draw theirs. He wants to say so many things to her but despite his inexperience he is wise enough to know they would not be welcome, and they might destroy the time he has stolen with her.
Instead he turns and drifts to the depth she has chosen so that they are just two lake-creatures holding their heads out of the depths. Valek is comfortable in the deep water. Many times he has dreamed of swimming swiftly near the stony bottom, overturning sunken dead falls or dragging her… Dawn (sometimes others) into his embrace beneath the water a pearled bridle of bubbles clinging to her features. And she is so beautiful in those dreams that he cannot see the dark strangeness of them. He is not thinking about the dream now.
Valek steps up to the palomino woman so that they are nearly nose to nose. His smile has faded into warmth, his proud features brightened handsomely. “I’d appreciate any such generosity.” He rumbles, before reaching up to draw a line of water down the center of her face and then pressing his gilded nose to hers. It is a playful gesture but one that makes his heard race in his deep chest.
@[Dawn]