Aela locks eyes with the Tephran-born and a maelstrom of fire burns between them. She can see the way it blazes to life in his eyes; she can see the flames flickering there and the golden girl doesn't move a muscle. In the intensity of their heated stare, Aela does not even give Skandar an inch to move forward or yield back.
The star-marked boy seems to understand this; he stills under her assertive blue eyes. The glowing red of his irises dims and Aela's expression remains impassive, allowing him to come to his own conclusions as to how this pairing will work (and she considers that rather thoughtful of her, when she could just remind him). It isn't as if Aela doesn't understand that she isn't playing with a snake. It isn't as if she doesn't know that she's tempting fires by pinning him with that unyielding look she gives him.
She knows that this could end badly.
One beam of light from those violent eyes and this interaction leads both of them nowhere.
A horse attempting to trample a venomous snake under hoof risks getting bitten. A horse attempting to outrun a wildfire is easily reduced to ash by taking the trail.
But Aela, she looks at Skandar, and she sees a myriad of wonderful possibilities for them. Something that could be as broad and interminable as the cosmos that have written themselves on the shapemaker's skin. Something that emerges as a quirk on her lips, a slight tug of favor in Skandar's direction. Be deft of hoof and there is the possibility of guiding the snake and his fangs; find the right tinder and there is the chance of starting the inferno. Aela has always considered herself graceful and she knows that she carries the spark.
@[Skandar] could be her bite.
Skandar could the blaze.
The boy comes closer and melts near her touch. His jaw drops to the ground and the golden filly tilts her head towards him. Skandar's words are jumbled as his tongue melts and reforms, as his jaw disintegrates and remakes itself. Aela is more perceptive to emotions than most and the tension that radiates from his skin doesn't just linger against hers; Aela can feel the heat igniting in her veins, can feel it sizzling at her core.
She will never be the kindling for somebody else but that doesn't mean she isn't a curious creature. It doesn't mean that she isn't willing to raise the stakes in this game if it might mean exploring the limits of Skandar's abilities (what he is capable of will only aid her). Aela lingers near him, allowing the charge between them to continue to crackle. She feels like a magnet and her vanity is nearly humming with it, a compass that she is more than willing to point straight towards her.
Peering at him from beneath her dark lashes, she projects a single memory towards him: Nerinian granite.
If only she could touch him, the pout forming seems to say. If only he was cool as stone. If only -