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Esurienth was in one of those moods. The kind where Sura could understand why those unfamiliar with dragons feared them so. Rather than her usual steal of one of the unfortunate wherries from the pen, the gold had gone out of her way to bring something larger home. The blood-dripping herdbeast had been carried across the bowl to a spot by the weyrlake, where Esurienth had settled to make a spectacle of pulling it apart.

Sura had been left to clean up the mess, but such was life when the actual embodiment of a beast was half of your very being. While blood was fortunately one of the easier things to clean up in the sand, Sura also knew that there was new blood of a different sort to keep an eye out for.

Forbid a candidate or unfamiliar dragon approach her Esurienth - they'd be in for a nasty surprise. Harmless, but nasty.

The sharp interruption of her meal had Esurienth looking away from her meal to peer, red and yellow eyed, at Serrekhar. Even as the Gold drew her wings out in warning for the boy to keep away, rumbling deep in her chest, Sura looked from her cleaning to see.

Dropping it she made quick steps to the young man's side, resting one ginger hand on his arm. "No need for that," whether she was talking to Serrekhar or Esurienth wasn't clear. Perhaps it was both. Esurienth leaned back, rumbling growing quiet under command of her rider, though her piercing gaze didn't change.

Sura offered a smile down towards Serrekhar, giving a soft squeeze of her hand. "I meant you don't need to be afraid of her, dear. She's startled, that is all," it was a grievous understatement of what Esurienth was truly feeling. She took another vicious bite of her meal, maintaining an unbroken stare.

"Put that down and come here," Sura commanded. Esurienth stirred, uneasily circling around on the side of her rider, still looking at Serrekhar. "Esurienth is truly more scared of you than you of her. Would you like to say hello?"

Reaching out a palm that seemed to draw the massive gold's head in, Sura rested a palm against her snout before guiding Serrekhar's hand to rest on it as well. "See, my love? He's perfectly fine - and he's certainly got no interest in your meal." Not that there was much left to even scavenge from. Though a certain blue firelizard would have been very tempted by it.

Esurienth didn't seem to settle comfortably despite this reassurance, the reds in her large eyes only fading to orange with the smallest tinge of greens around the edges as she made her silent judgements upon the young man. She leaned her mental presence into him, as though she was poking around inside of his head.

Sura pat Serrekhar's arm gently. "Give her a moment. She just wants to look and see."

"Have you touched an egg before? It's very similar to what the unhatched will do to see who you are," Sura explained, stroking her hand along Esurienth's nose while she waited for the gold dragon to finish her rummaging. "I think that's enough, dear. Don't you?"

Esurienth rumbled in answer to the question, but her prodding came to a stop, leaving nothing but a lingering feeling of satisfaction. Whatever she had or had not found in there, the large queen had been appeased for the time being. "That's right. Good girl," Sura soothed - mostly out loud so Serrekhar could have some idea of what was being said between woman and dragon. Not that Esurienth spoke much, offering back only brushes of feelings. Satisfied, however, she pulled away from both hands and returned to the unfinished herdbeast to finish it off.

"Now, are you holding up alright, son?" Sura asked, gently taking Serrekhar's hand with both of hers and offering him a smile. Esurienth wasn't exactly a delicate dragon to begin with, and well.....he had responded by screaming in surprise.

If Sura read what Serrekhar said as a show of weakness, she didn't show any amusement in knowing it. "She is - very few golds come close," certainly, there were several who were just as long. But both as long and as strongly built wasn't as commonly together as it was in the feeding gold, who was now making a show of her eating as she had an audience for it now. Any hint of nerves from the young man seemed to amuse her - though not in a sadistic way.

"Would you believe she hatched out of the smallest egg on the sands?" Sura mused, offering Serrekhar an amusing anecdote at the very least.

"I'm not! She wasn't a little thing in there either. It's hard to get out of a small place when you're too big to fit it. Easier to get stuck. Literally and figuratively, I'd think," but Esurienth was the perfect size for all around her now and she seemed content for it.

"Now, did we interrupt you with your little spook?"

Sura laughed as the young man shared his own size-related woe. "Well, at least you can call out here and maybe someone just as big as you will give you a hand - I'm sure Esurienth would have had better luck if she'd thought to ask her mother for help."

Esurienth looked upon her rider with an expression colored in offense, then turned back on her meal.

"I see! Do you need a tour then? I'd be happy to have a handsome young thing on my arm for a little while, hmm?"