Sweet and a little tart, with a mix of flavours she doesn't recognize.

Ooo, neat! She thinks she likes them, actually. She has a few more, then proceeds to go and explore the garden to try the other things she doesn't recognize. Whee!

There turn out to be kind of a lot of those things! Some are weirder than others. There's a little plant that grows little round white berries that turn out to be hard brittle shells filled with caramel. There's another plant whose fat pleasant-smelling leaves are almost like little green rolls of chewy bread.

This turns out to be great fun. It's - it's like exploring in a storybook, like stepping into a daydream, except better, everything is real and solid and wonderfully strange and she's free to just wander around and explore. It's fantastic, she keeps giggling and she can't seem to stop smiling. She feels a little silly, but she doesn't care; it's too enjoyable to handicap with worrying about what is and isn't proper for a princess.

When she's out of things to try, Zekanare can have a giggly hug!

Giggly hug!!!

"You," she declares, "are amazing. Your mountain is amazing. I adore your magic food plants! They're adorable and whimsical and silly and great!"

He seems to have trouble finding words, and just beams at her instead.

She beams right back! For a few seconds she's distracted by his smile - it's such a lovely smile, so blatantly directed at her. His arms feel wonderful around her, his smile is addicting, the garden is beautiful and she just wants to - to smile at him because he's just that adorable.

Eeeeeee.

Eeee!

She giggles again, then snuggles closer because he's warm and comfortable and she wants to.

She is so cozy and huggable and good.

She is! And she's warm and snug and safe. Is it insane to feel safe in a dragon's arms? Eh, who cares, he's so nice to snuggle. She nuzzles him, then smiiiles up at him. He's such a cute dragon!

He is! He is a very cute dragon and he is beaming adoringly at her.

"You're adorable," she informs him, very seriously. "Just. Completely adorable. Where did this come from, have you just been secretly adorable up here the whole time?"

"I don't know! No one's ever accused me of being adorable before!"

"Mm..." She shifts to get a better look at his face.

"You've probably been doing it for a while, since you have had this garden for a while." Saveth reaches up to caress his face, looking a little sad. "It's... it's such a pity that you and all of your wonders are up here, unknown, that you haven't gotten to see anyone light up at your creations or get lost in wonder staring at what you've made. I mean, I suppose there were your previous victims, but I doubt they were in much of a mood for it?"

"They really weren't, no."

She nods sadly, reaching up to comb his curls with her fingers. It wouldn't help if she said, 'Well, don't do that, then,' she thinks. The loss of a thing he clearly loves probably speaks much more than a moral condemnation. He's probably heard a lot of those, over eight thousand years. If they'd worked she wouldn't be here.

Is it still a loss if you never knew you wanted it in the first place?

He hugs her.

That's probably up to him to decide.

You know what, screw propriety, she got snatched by a dragon. Clearly she is in an abnormal situation for a princess, her ingrained habits aren't helping her here, she should ignore them when she thinks it's appropriate. Like with hugs. He can have hugs for as long as he wants. And hairpets, if he seems to like them.

He likes both of these things very much.

Oh, good. Then she'll just keep doing them.

... It is slightly awkward to just keep standing here like this, though.

"Do you want to move to a place where we can sit, or... something?" she offers, after a little while. She's not really sure where people go to cuddle, it's not like she's an expert in these arts. A couch, she guesses? That's probably a possible function of a couch.

"Mhm," he says indistinctly, but he doesn't appear to be going anywhere.

Um?

"Are you okay?"

"I'm—"

He lets go of her, slowly and reluctantly.

"Yes. Sorry, I... got caught up. Do you want to sit down?" He gestures to a cozy hillside.