[private] i got addicted to a losing game

[bolder]

It's his first true shift. Bolder had only attempted it a few times in Taiga and even then, the winged boy had done it in the concealing shadows of its mighty trees. Before this moment with Mazikeen and Gale, it had always been about quickly he could change and then how fast he could change back. The young pegasi had become adept with the speed that he could facilitate those changes - trading hooves for paws, abandoning his sienna feathers for something with fur - but he lacked precision.

And more importantly, he lacked any kind of skill when it came to these borrowed skins. All Bolder knew was how to shift and then promptly shift back, let alone what do in them.

The boy is good at replicating others; he tries mirroring Gale's smile and throws a half-wild grin at Mazikeen. His auburn ears twitch atop his head as he glances between the two other wolves and listens as his Uncle explains that he had only been weeks away from losing this gift. (Had that been what his father had wanted, Bolder wonders? For him to learn his power from Mazikeen to hide it, so that he would eventually lose it?)

His grin falters and the lanky wolf sits quietly, processing the thought.

He would be invited to run with them later, Gale says. Not a command or kingly proclamation. It is his relatives giving him another choice. To be whatever he wishes here, to do as he pleases. Perhaps it's the first throes of adolescence, but it fuels the fires of Bolder's growing desire for independence. The expression on his face grows hopeful, that he would like to join them.

There is more to this craft than just sinking into skin and Bolder thinks that Gale and Maze might be able to show him how a wolf should run. The timbre they use for calling the moon.

The last beams of sunlight fade from Hyaline's forest and his Uncle heads for the sky, leaving the yearling with admiration shining through his silver eyes. Someday, he might be able to shift from wolf to eagle to... anything he might imagine. The possibilities seem as endless as the horizon looming above Bolder and his aunt, Mazikeen. "I don't know...," answers the coltish-looking wolf. He's never had so many choices before and it feels almost overwhelming. His vulpine head tilts towards Maze and his dark nose fills with a thousand scents - the Alpha before him, the damp ground, a faint whiff of Gale, the dank scent of water, and something... something else. Something different.

Something new.

"Do you," his silver eyes start to dance along the dark forest and the young wolf rises with his head lifting curiously toward the scent. "Do you smell that?" Bolder asks his Aunt.

@Mazikeen