"But the dream, the echo, slips from him as quickly as he had found it and as consciousness comes to him (a slap and not the gentle waves of oceanic tides), it dissolves entirely. His muscles relax as the cold claims him again, as the numbness sets in, and when his grey eyes open, there’s nothing but the faint after burn of a dream often trod and never remembered." --Brigade, written by Laura
For all his experience with wolves, Tamlin has picked up little of their habits. He doesn’t even really have the habits he should have as a horse. There is no instinct to be wary of his surroundings, to keep an eye out for anything that might be hunting him. Or stalking him, in this case. He has no idea that he is being followed, so wrapped up is he in his humming and his pleasant daytime thoughts.
So he does not know she is there until she is darting across his path. A wordless exclamation escapes him immediately, when she is just a blurred blue shape in that instant when he thinks she won’t stop. But she does, sitting down in his path in a manner that instantly brings back when they had first met - and instantly inspires a smile to light up his warm brown eyes even before she greets him.
It is a good feeling, to be remembered. This stallion doesn’t often consider whether he expects it or not, but the relief that spreads through him is maybe a sign that he hadn’t expected it. Or maybe he’s just grateful to see her on the other side of the eclipse, looking healthy and whole and undamaged by the things that had crawled around in the darkness.
Regardless for the reason, he is both overjoyed to see her and pleased that she remembered his name. “Winslow!” Comes his own, very elegant greeting as he dances to a stop with an overflow of youthful energy. The happiness that he feels to see this particular wolf again is potent enough that his new-found shifting is accidentally triggered, feeding off of his excitement, and he is no longer a winged stallion but a tawny coloured wolf-pup standing before his friend.
Although a little embarrassed that this is when this shifting decides to show up and prove that it is real, Tamlin laughs through it and spins in a small circle before looking up at the blue wolf with amused eyes. “You were a lot shorter the last time we met.”
