The man in gold watches the other react with interest, particularly the other's interaction with that shadow-dragon. He also straightens as the goatherd stands, his own posture easy but one of command all the same. His ornaments glitter in the sun, a few softly tinking together as they shift with his movement.
His response to the first question is laughter. His laugh is raucous, hearty - and decidedly not nice. The worst part is that it's expressing genuine good humor, its intent nothing but friendly: the man has simply laughed at too many terrible things, at too much darkness, for his laugh to ever be 'nice'. Once he gets most of that laugh under control again, he taps at his own chest. "H-haheh - no, no; I meant us!"
His diadem suddenly moves at that, animating as it uncoils and slips off his head. It just as abruptly shifts from small golden cobra into a ...very large dark purple one, who looks at the goatherd with amusement. "Yes, we're something of a committee, you see~"
The cobra eyes the shadow-dragon with apparent disinterest, then sets about loosely encircling the man in gold. This is. not the ka this man had as a boy. And not in a 'so much has changed' way, this is a different being.
The man in gold smirks at the goatherd and shrugs, far too casually for someone who knows what they're talking about. "And if I guess 'Kul Elna' for you... I've done a lot since then."
Once settled, the cobra also turns his attention to the goatherd. He thips his long forked tongue a few times. "So who are you to Thiefy, anyway? You probably know - knew? - know him - right?" He glances at ...'Thiefy'... for confirmation.
'Thiefy' finally looks awkward about something, grimacing as he thinks. "...Mmmaybe?"
(Look, 99 is. a number. And he has no idea what number is the cutoff for 'everybody knows everybody' in a village. His village-life experience was an outlier adn not to be counted.)
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His response to the first question is laughter. His laugh is raucous, hearty - and decidedly not nice. The worst part is that it's expressing genuine good humor, its intent nothing but friendly: the man has simply laughed at too many terrible things, at too much darkness, for his laugh to ever be 'nice'. Once he gets most of that laugh under control again, he taps at his own chest. "H-haheh - no, no; I meant us!"
His diadem suddenly moves at that, animating as it uncoils and slips off his head. It just as abruptly shifts from small golden cobra into a ...very large dark purple one, who looks at the goatherd with amusement. "Yes, we're something of a committee, you see~"
The cobra eyes the shadow-dragon with apparent disinterest, then sets about loosely encircling the man in gold. This is. not the ka this man had as a boy. And not in a 'so much has changed' way, this is a different being.
The man in gold smirks at the goatherd and shrugs, far too casually for someone who knows what they're talking about. "And if I guess 'Kul Elna' for you... I've done a lot since then."
Once settled, the cobra also turns his attention to the goatherd. He thips his long forked tongue a few times. "So who are you to Thiefy, anyway? You probably know - knew? - know him - right?" He glances at ...'Thiefy'... for confirmation.
'Thiefy' finally looks awkward about something, grimacing as he thinks. "...Mmmaybe?"
(Look, 99 is. a number. And he has no idea what number is the cutoff for 'everybody knows everybody' in a village. His village-life experience was an outlier adn not to be counted.)