[open] then sang to the sea for feelings deep blue // any

[Rhaegor]

"You don't look much like a dragon." The mare's words comment sounded rhetorical but gave rise to a rebuttal in Rhaegor's chest. His associations with dragons left little room for affection or even tolerance and hearing himself likened to one caused a spurt of anger to form in his otherwise emotionless chest. Despite this, he debated not answering the woman -- but her mouth against his skin and so near his wound forced his hand.

Don't touch me, he snarled into her mind, ears pinned as he struck the angular bridge of her nose with the dullness of his teeth; his wings buffeted against her side as he pushed himself away from her, snorting. The mare seemed unphased by this, continuing her analysis of Rhae with  her piercing gaze. Rhae shivered beneath it. Felt that same anger from before resurge before transforming into a kind of fear. He ignored both feelings for now.

She asked him if he understood her in the same breath that she thought of fucking him and then killing him, in that order, though both situations appeared hypothetical. Rhae pushed his ears back further. In truth, he understood her words more by how he heard them in her thoughts than how he heard them aloud.

He felt conflicted. A part of him wanted to run, another wanted to fight, and a last part wanted to stay, make amends, and get to know the strange, long-jawed woman before him who looked as though she could swallow him whole and still be hungry. Nothing like Chryseis, he thought, and felt at once sick for even comparing the two.

Yes, he snapped at last. Then, he mimicked her tone and rhythm to ask her his own question. Do you treat everyone you meet like they're imbecilic prey?

.