[Azura Rayume]

((It should be understood that both of these characters are Paragon. Orotha's Paragon form is below, but Soposi does not have one right now. For now, though, he is a Primal.))

Her job was a hard one. Not a particularly cruel one, mind you, but difficult. The female Ambia sighed, lowering herself to her eyes in the waters of the pool, mane floating out around her neck and face. Normally she enjoyed her position as Head Healer, but at times like this it became almost too much to handle. It was an odd concept, but she managed to have a love-hate relationship with her life.

Orotha allowed herself to float just beneath the surface of the water as she thought. Maybe she was just running away from her problems at this point. Her life was, for the most part, a fine one; no one spent their time here without a bit of stress and heartache. It seemed for her, however, that it laid heavier on her than the rest of her companions, but her position had more stresses as well. Hunters hunt; Scouts scout; Warriors fight. They all seemed so easy compared to the job of a Healer, the one they all had to come to when their tasks went awry. The injures she had seen made her suffer, though she had no way to feel the pain herself. Imagining, though, was far more than she wanted.

And so she had come here under the guise of looking for some rare herb she needed for her work. No one from the Spire would disturb her here- they were all the way at the foothills of the Fe'gan mountains, far too far for them to bother hunting her down. As shy and quiet as she was, the female doubted anyone even realized anything was wrong with her.

[Azura Rayume]

Someone had, of course, noticed. Orotha had been acting off for a few days, though not to a point that anyone else had really taken notice. One dragon had, however, and he was probably the only one who could help her out at this point. When she got upset like this, she closed herself off from the rest of the clan, spoke only when she absolutely had to, and placed the duties of Healer on the two others instead of taking on everything as she usually did. He knew that slipping off was just a manner of escape.

His mate had a boom-and-bust approach to working. When she felt good and up to the challenge, she would take on every single injury, birthing, and sickness she could, and she sometimes even looked happy about in. In one of her slumps, though, she had little drive to do anything but stare and frown until someone or something got her on the upswing again. One mode could switch to the other without any indication, and the span of time for either side was pretty unknown.

Soposi had followed her all the way out here to Idalani, though he knew it was probably unwise to get too close to her right now. She would probably be angry that he had come all this way, though she should not have expected much less from one of the best Scouts in the clan. The Primal had situated himself on the forest edge, his darker scales hiding him well enough that she should not be able to see him if she wasn't looking for him in the shade of the trees. He did face one dilemma, though: how exactly should he approach a situation like this?

[Azura Rayume]

Allowing his mate to sulk would not do, since she would fall deeper into her slump if left to her own devices, but revealing himself to her would have meant chastisements regardless of his well-meaning intentions. She was in no mood to be interrupted; that much had been made clear when she decided against telling even him what the true intentions of this escape were.

Soposi heaved a sigh, grass wavering in front of his snout. Neither way would end in a favorable way. Well, not immediately anyway. She would eventually calm down and see it his way, though his way was simply to calm down and take a different spin on things, the same thing he always told her when she went on a down swing.

Resolved, he pulled his wings to his sides and slipped into the deep end of the basin, dark and quiet enough not to draw her attention. Once he was certain not to have been noticed, he poked the top of his head out, only his eyes, nose, and the top if his horned crest visible above the surface.

[Azura Rayume]

He waited a moment to be sure she had not seen him- his female still turned away and sulking- before giving himself a bit of a smirk and diving down below the surface. He would give her a bit of a surprise and, hopefully, get her mind off her troubles, if only long enough to yell at him. That, and breaking her concentration on brooding even to be scolded might be enough to get her to talk.

He swam, gaze turned upward to her pale yellow underside, until he was right beneath her. He grinned again, almost as eager to find out her reaction as he was to get her home and happy. Females could get such silly ideas in their heads sometimes; always had been able to. He might never figure out the trick to reading them, having been so exposed to their moods since his hatching days. An always absent sire, comforting dame, and only two sisters in the clutch, and he still could not understand a drakka regardless of his extensive interactions with the gender.

He shook the thoughts from his mind, pulled his wings tight to his scales, and rose up to meet his mate. His back hit her belly and pushed her from the water with a great deal of scrabbling and unnerved cries. "Hello, my light," he said, smiling in spite of her reaction. "How are you this fine afternoon, hm? Awefully far from home just to soak in some sotty pond if you ask me."

[Azura Rayume]

Orotha scrambled for a moment more, just long enough for her claws to find purchase on his scales near the joints, then composed herself enough to thump him on the nose. "Why would you do that?" she whimpered, obviously distressed by this sudden interruption.

Undaunted by the smack, though his snout smarted ever so slightly, Soposi swung his heavy head around to beam at her. "Oh, you know, the usual. Mainly trying to cheer you up." His tail snaked through the water, pushing them slowly into the start of lazy circles. "You certainly looked like you needed it, floating out here all on your own. I would have left you alone if you hadn't looked so sad, but I just couldn't, being the dutiful and loyal male that I am."

The edges of the Ambia's lips pulled up to a faint smile, though her eyes still harbored that depression that brought her out here in the first place. His heart was always in the right place, even if his methods were a little contrary to that idea. Most mates would not have gone this far, at least in her own experience, but he was a different sort of dragon to do this for her. He had a big heart, that much was for sure.