Adastros froze as Doeshe nuzzled his head into his chest. The beast was so much larger than him that he was afraid it may unintentionally push him over, but thankfully that didn't turn out to be the case. "Good... good dragon..." he said warily, lifting his hand to pat Doeshe's head and then quickly lowering his hand back down to his side. At least he wasn't vicious or ferocious... he was at least lucky for that.
His attention shifted to Rosamira as she began to elaborate on her water-horse friend. Adastros recognized what the creature was by name and general understanding, but he knew nothing of what it was capable of or its nature. "Ahh," he said, nodding in understanding. "Well at least you have someone to ta..." He stopped though, his eyes growing wide in absolute horrified astonishment at what Sharlee had to add. "What?!" he exclaimed, disbelief filling each contour of his countenance. "That's so gruesome!" All right, so maybe he was a little naive for thinking it impossible for any such creature to play off of another's trust like that, but still! How could one creature do that to another? It just boggled his mind.
Sharlee's accusation caught him off guard. He hadn't thought that Rosa was being selfish at all. It was a human need to want to fit in somewhere, to belong and be loved; she was only acting out on a desire which she had been denied. "Aw, now darling," he began in a sweet tone, "don't you apologize. Sharlee welcomed you to travel with her, did she not? Don't be silly now, smile. It's much prettier to look at than a frown." It always pulled at his heartstrings when others were sad, especially those of the female gender or those who should have been too young to understand sorrow. Rosamira fell into both of those categories, making his sympathy that much worse.
Adastros appeared somewhat ruffled at being called spoiled, no less a spoiled brat, but any annoyance it had caused melted away at the smile both of the ladies had on their faces. She was only teasing, it seemed, so it was harmless and there was certainly no need to take offense. "Well, you see," he started, "that's an interesting story. You see, my younger sister suddenly took up an interest in magic and there was apparently something she needed from this region, or so she said at least. Since she's far too young to make these perilous journeys by her lonesome and our parents and my brothers are simply too busy or too unwilling to escort her, I took the responsibility. A valiant effort on my part if I do say so myself... aside from the fact that I seem to have completely missed the village she was talking about." Heaving a sigh, Adastros gave a somewhat weak grin to the two of them. "It'll be the last time I listen to her, hmph."
