If he was honest, Valys barely heard Rho's approach. Which was a little bit alarming, considering Valys' entire job centered around keeping alert and ready for trouble. He'd been fully prepared to bare fangs at a couple of nurses, after all, and yet there he was, oblivious to someone who held far more potential to be dangerous than someone whose occupation involved helping to rear children.
As wonderful as Lucille was, he sincerely doubted she had any assassination plots or weapons expertise. A thought that, for all its silliness, made Valys wildly uncomfortable. Something about foxes and geese, and not being able to plan for every single possibility. If someone got through, if someone got past the guards littered all through the castle, past the nurses, what then?
It was probably a marker of things that he wasn't concerned in the same manner as this for his own people. But, in all fairness, his own people had survived a trek countries long, down from blistering cold and into skin-ripping winds, across mountains and rivers and marshes and grass— and they were all so much older. So much more experienced. So much wiser to the terrors of the world.
Terrors like this. Like the possibility that something completely routine and innocent could result in utter disaster at any time. Could leave a man tense and lost and scared, no matter how much Pallaton was trying to hide it. Valys could hear it, in the way his breath hitched so slightly, in the way his heart thudded and took the heavy tang of fear along with it. Valys could see it, in the tightness around the Regent's eyes, in how his shoulders were set beneath his cape. In the way the corners of his mouth struggled to keep from dipping low and harsh and agonized.
Valys pushed his stride longer than perhaps he might have, normally, putting himself just behind Pallaton and to the right, only barely just. For a wild moment, Valys wanted to reach out, to touch the man's elbow, to squeeze tight to him where the other could feel the pressure and maybe, just maybe, take some solace from it. But it was a wild moment, a wild thought, and though his fingers twitched in response to his desire, they didn't move.
Not that it went completely unnoticed, though. Rho and Ana exchanged soft looks, knowing and nervous all at once. If Valys had eyes in the back of his head, he might have scowled, but he was altogether too busy scowling at what he was seeing ahead of him, brows knit tight and lips pursed into a thin line.
At the very least, all three elves were thoroughly distracted by the time they reached the stables, though as foreign as horses were to all of them, they were all of them very sure horses did not lay eggs. Or have nests. Or were that big.
Valys, for his part, had forgotten his scowl in favor of raising his brows, looking about before jerking back to look at Pallaton at the sudden noise the human made. It was apparently startling for the other two elves as well, though not for any of the Adelans nearby. It wasn't anything they'd ever heard before in their lives, though the sound of large, beating wings was unmistakable.
Rho jerked, stepping just so to place himself in front of Ana, while Valys moved forward, towards Pallaton just as the... the fucking dragon came to a landing before them. His hand still outstretched as if to grab onto Pallaton's arm, Valys stared bug-eyed at the huge creature, and then turned that same bug-eyed 'what the shit is even happening' look to Pallaton himself.
Because a giant lizard with wings was one thing. But talking to the creature as if holding an entire, genuine conversation was quite another.
Fate was a tricky bitch, and it seemed like Fate had decided Valys would be entwined with an absolute lunatic.
A quick glance to Rho and Ana showed that the other elves felt much the same, which wasn't helpful. Still, it kept them shocked long enough for the great beast to get close, and Ana made a soft, squeaking sort of sound as he was nudged. Rho stiffened, for his part, and for a moment Valys felt the wild panic of a much smaller and much lower-on-the-food-chain creature.
But this beast, this dragon, this Arcturus... Valys took a breath, and the hand that had been partially held out towards Pallaton curled back in, Valys' palm pressing to the great muzzle before him, thumbing the line of scales in an idle sort of way as he beheld it.
"No shit no one fucks with Adela," he said, finally, arching an eyebrow at Pallaton as if seeing the man in an entirely new light. Which was true. Because Pallaton was still talking as if Arcturus was speaking, which Valys' very acute hearing decided was not the case.
Ana seemed to be collecting himself rather quickly, and was already opening his mouth to speak before Valys cut him off:
"We said our allegiances. Your friends are ours. Even if you talk to yourself. Er, to your partner." Valys licked his lips a bit, before deciding he may as well double down on the lunacy. Feeling a bit like an idiot, he raised his hand up to give the dragon a little wave. "Hi."
