R
The fires had raged through all the night, guarded and tended to by the imposing Dragon which circled the Gate's like a deathly spectre. It had stayed like that until the morning finally broke upon the horizon and the fires disappated until they were nothing but a sigh on the breeze. Ash blanketed the area instead, grey snow which tangled in the air of the guards who shuffled and marched across the gates.
Aether had remained, roosting upon one of the jagged ledges that tapered toward the infamous gates, white eyes half-lidded. Alert, even at rest, for any who might try and escape or enter the Night Kingdom unbidden.
He hadn't expected to see the little pink Kirin, who dotted Isorath's memories like blush-colored rose in a sea of white and gold. He fell, and the Dragon instinctively rose, bidden by the protectiveness within him to see all who Isorath held dear safe. Searchingly, Aether tested the tendrils of their bond, like gentle pin pricks of talons against the skin.
No doubt Isorath would be resting, if the serenity eminating through the bond was anything to go by. The stretch of silence that followed the mental pull, usually there would be a groused response. Caught somewhere between annoyance and amusement, as the Dragon uttered his own cutting retort. Isorath would want the Kirin safe, he reasoned internally, and so the Dragon landed with a reverberating thud against the ashen ground. He wasn't about to wait here either and listen to the kirin sob.
A scaled head all but shoved at the Kirin's flank, as gently as a dragon his size could manage. An attempt to urge the Kirin to his feet, or send him sprawling, the Guards could only guess. A wing extended forward in the next breath, a fleshy ladder for the Kirin to climb. The nest of jagged spines dissipated at the center of where his wings met his spine, space enough for a kirin to be coccooned between them and hold on with their teke.
Get on. His eyes seemed to say, waiting until the boy did so and with one calculated sweep of his wings, mindful of the cargo he carried, he headed toward the Night Court with their latest addition tucked within his spines.
@Jude
