The dragon's confident grin remained plastered on Nyx's face, but Tiyala replied the smirk acquired a stark and frozen quality to it, more and more forced to stay there on her lips to hide the glowering anger burning in her amber eyes. Nyx's ear frills twitched as Tiyala's confidence matched Nyx's own, and the hand on the enchanted collar invited a dangerous low growl to roll from the dragon's lips. The brash confidence was still there, but it had changed from a sense of superiority to a dangerous focus.<span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">"Putting a lot of trust in a piece of old metal, little mortal."</span></span>She hissed between her fangs.<span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">"You wouldn't be the first to think you could outrun wings and hide from a torrent of flame..."</span></span><br/><br/>Despite the growled threat, Nyx backed away from Tiyala a little. She shrugged a little.<span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">"Even for one of your kin, you're quite high-strung aren't you?"</span></span>the she-dragon commented in a casual tone of voice, pretending the altercation between the two hadn't happened. It didn't appear like Nyx had noticed Tiyala preparing herself to fight the beast, and it seemed the dragon herself wasn't in any mood for conflict if her concession was any clue.<br/><br/><span style="color: blue">“What you want? You are a dragon. They are adventurers by the looks of them. They would hunt you if you weren't bound.”</span>Nyx frowned, and not just because she caught Elsara staring at them. There was a soft noise like the rumbling of rock as the she-dragon listened attentively to Tiyala speak, at least having the good graces to wait for her to finish before hissing lowly with a tone of disgust.<span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">"Adventurers? I thought..."</span></span>She cuts herself off rather than admitting to making a mistake, before continueing with more care.<span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">"And I'd dine on them if they did try to hunt me, but since everyone present in this tavern seems to have the wits to realize how uncomfortable a dragon's gullet is it seems I won't have to deal with such annoyances."</span></span><br/><br/><span style="color: red"><span style="font-family: 'Courier New'">"Now..."</span></span>Nyx's ear frills twitched again, while her stance grew casual and confident once more.<span style="font-family: 'Courier New'"><span style="color: red">"Seeing as you appear without doubt to be the quick-wittest person (aside from myself) in this room, how about the two of us walk over to them and see about these... group quests. After all, accidents are so annoying and even you would manage to benefit from a dragon's aid."</span></span>Those amber eyes watched Tiyala's response carefully, betraying how quickly the honey in her words could turn to venom if the mage decided to be difficult.<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>